Oguchi Onyewu has retired from professional soccer. https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2018/0...ces-retirement/amp/?__twitter_impression=true His career can be divided into two phases. The first phase from 2004 to 2009 is characterized by physically dominant defending, steady dominance at Standard Liege, and status as a lock in the US starting XI under Arena and Bradley. His successful displays and the near-triumph at the 2009 Confederations Cup helped earn him a free transfer to AC Milan in the summer of 2009. The second half of his career was wrecked by the unfortunate knee injury in a US match in October 2009. Having AC Milan on his CV helped Onyewu find opportunities to an impressive degree IMO in the 2010s, but his career was never the same. He started the 2010 World Cup for Bob Bradley, but Bradley phased Onyewu out after the second match. IMO, Onyewu's CV and aversion to MLS endeared him to Klinsmann, but the damage from the injury prevented him from regaining the form necessary to lock down a spot with the US again. The timing of his injury before the 2010 World Cup has unfortunately caused Onyewu to fall into relative obscurity in recent years, but congrats on a great career!
Well put. Even before his injury, the move to AC Milan was questionable, but it would have been great to see him try and make it there, even if he was unlikely to play a large role. Sadly his injury robbed any real chance at playing there.
It was devastating to see his knee injury which derailed his career. But he was a warrior and championed through it. Moreover, he was an absolute beast on the back line and always felt safe when it came to aerial challenges in the box.
Crazy that we thought that generation was just the start and turns out that was our golden generation.
Did we ever figure out if he was limping at any point post knee injury? Anyways, he is right up there with Boca and Pope when I think about guys we could always rely on in the back.
And by all accounts a fine human being as well. Congrats on a great career, Gooch! Some people you know will be just fine in retirement. He's one of 'em.
It is not only crazy, but sad. While we celebrate those players we have to ask ourselves what happen. I would like to think that during and after these players, we were rebuilding our core. However...not to bring all of our woes down on MB and BB...this was the start of playing the same players over and over and being somewhat satisfied; therefore, not really giving other players a chance. No, no...I can't name anyone specifically...but I do know that by using MB, a mediocre player, we settled.
Congratulations to Gooch on a great career. I hope he gets into announcing. A cool thing about Gooch is that at Liege, they would occasionally move him to forward late in matches, if they were behind. He scored 6 goals for them in all competitions in 08-09. Also, hi-lites from his Wikipedia page: The move to Liège was made permanent for the 2004–05 season. After the season, he was named to the Belgian league's Best XI as well as Foreign Player of the Year for 2005. He made his 100th Belgian First Division appearance for Standard Liège on March 14, 2008, against Germinal Beerschot, and was an integral part of the club as they went on a 29-match unbeaten streak to win the 2007–08 Belgian First Division. After the season, he was named to the Belgian league Best XI for the second time
Pretty sure that's Kyle Beckerman in the back behind Blondonovan. Here's an article that has the full U17 roster along with this photo. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2012/02/17/what-ever-happened-1999-us-under-17s
I miss him and DeMerit as CB with Boca as LB and Cherundolo in the RB role The 08-10 defensive line was pretty solid.
He achieved some relative success in the Belgian league. I believe 3 titles and named in the Best XI a few times. I think his injuries came at the worst inopportune times. As well as picking the wrong league for him. I imagine he'd have excelled in Serie A (if he'd picked any other club) or Ligue 1. Sucks that he never got a fair shot with Malaga. Always on the bench for their league games.
Honestly thought this was a thread bump when I saw the title. I’d assumed he retired years ago. Good player before the injuries.
That unfortunate knee injury during qualifying in 2009 sure changed a lot of trajectories, both his own and the team's. Ouch. He was one of my favorite players of his era.
Yeah, both he and Charlie Davies going down before the 2010 WC REALLY hurt us badly. That cannot be overstated. But Onyewu seems to have landed on his feet. He was in the studio for the UCL games yesterday, alongside Bocanegra. So it looks like he is going to be given a fair opportunity in television. He is telegenic, so hopefully he can catch on and develop his speaking skills to the point where he makes a go of this.