Fate, it would seem, isn’t quite done with Charlie Davies in Washington. What a stunning twist of fate that the U.S. striker would get a chance to play his way onto the roster of D.C. United, the team that plays in the same RFK Stadium where Davies himself was supposed to be with the U.S. national team on October 14, 2009, before he was involved as a passenger in a fatal one-car accident on the George Washington Memorial Parkway the day before.
The process was set in motion this afternoon with this statement from D.C. United, which set expectations in an unusually stern manner: “Charlie Davies is expected to join D.C. United in Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday for a week-long evaluation period, which will include training and game time with the first team and a full medical evaluation by team doctors in DC. Details of a 12-month loan have already been negotiated, but nothing will be official until D.C. United is satisfied he is physically capable of playing at the level required to be successful in MLS. United currently holds the top spot in the League’s allocation ranking and would therefore have first option to acquire Davies.”
So that’s what it has come to for Davies, who was the U.S. star on the rise, but now has to prove that he’s healthy, fit and recovered enough from the injuries he sustained 16 months ago before D.C. United will agree to sign him.
A former standout at Boston College – I remember him vividly from the ACC men’s soccer tournament at Maryland SoccerPlex in 2006 – Davies spurned Major League Soccer after three years with the Eagles and leapt instead to Hammarby in Sweden, where success didn’t come easily. But the goals came eventually, and so did his chances with the U.S., and so did a transfer to Sochaux in French Ligue 1, and he was on the path to superstardom after becoming just the fourth American to score against Mexico in the Azteca Stadium in a 2-1 loss in August 2009.
But everything changed with the accident on Oct. 13, 2009, which injured Davies – he suffered a broken right femur and tibia, a broken left elbow, a torn knee ligament, facial fractures and a lacerated bladder – and killed the other passenger in the car, Ashley J. Roberta. The driver pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving.
Davies’s decision to skip curfew ultimately threw a wrench into the works, not just for his career but even for U.S. Soccer, which was left questioning its own player development and lack of attacking players after the 2010 World Cup. Despite his determination and the overwhelming strides he made so quickly after the accident, Davies wasn’t ready to rejoin the U.S. team in time for South Africa, and he hasn’t been ready enough to rejoin the Sochaux first team in the months since. Limited to reserve matches, the French club was looking for a place to loan Davies, and D.C. United, sitting at the top of the MLS allocation order, was looking for strikers.
“I’m very excited to meet up with DC United in Florida tomorrow!! Looking forward to it & can’t wait!! Thank you all for the support!!!” Davies tweeted this afternoon just after the announcement was made.
I spoke to new D.C. midfielder Dax McCarty shortly before the announcement of Davies’s trial was made.
“I’m good friends with Charlie. I know him well through various national team experiences with him,” said McCarty. “He’s a guy, when he’s in form and playing his best soccer, that is one of the best forwards in the U.S., extremely dangerous, very fast. It’s tragic, what happened with the accident. I’ve seen him and spoken to him since then. He’s got a great support group around him. He’s a confident guy. He knows he’s a good player. He’s recovered well from his injuries. To get him, if that was the case, I think would only make this team better and make the competition for spots even fiercer because he’s a good player. He plays at the top level in France, and he’s a guy that has the potential to be a staple in the national team for many years if he can regain that form that he was in before the World Cup.”
But now comes the hard part, for Davies, 24, to show that he’s ready to play at that high level again. If he does, he’ll get a chance to finally complete the trip to RFK Stadium that he never made two Octobers ago.
