There was no guarantee when Chris Pontius decided to cut short his 2010 season in order to have surgery on a chronically plagued right hamstring — a procedure that kept him bedridden for two weeks and meant an offseason of endless rehabilitation. But after first kicking the ball again on the opening day of preseason, the third-year midfielder’s career-high seven goals and two assists have landed him back with the U.S. national team, one of two injury replacements named (defender Jonathan Spector was the other) for friendlies against Costa Rica and Belgium in the coming week.
With a 20-day break between matches after last weekend’s contest against Portland was postponed until Oct. 19 because of Hurricane Irene, D.C. United can be thankful that with Pontius’ call-up, four of its players will see international duty: Pontius and Bill Hamid (United States), Andy Najar (Honduras) and Dwayne De Rosario (Canada).
The number would have been five, but Canadian defender Dejan Jakovic suffered a hamstring strain last week.
– Craig Stouffer
