ONYEWU SAYS HES BETTER THAN EVER

Oguchi Onyewu participated in full training with the United States soccer team Thursday, but he had a hitch in his stride as he ran sprints and seemed to be favoring one leg slightly. If reporters noticed this, though, Onyewu said he had not. “I don’t feel it,” he said. “I feel fine; I’ve been doing a lot more extensive running than that. I was just doing more fitness at the end.” The World Cup opener for the United States is June 12 against England. The 6-foot-4 Onyewu, an imposing presence on the back line, has not played in a match since Oct. 14, when he ruptured the patellar tendon in his left knee during a World Cup qualifying match against Costa Rica. Onyewu did not make it onto the field before his club season with A.C. Milan ended, but he said he had trained with the Italian team for two months, working on fitness, positioning and his touch on the ball. His sprinting and cutting were secure and confident, Onyewu said, adding that he did not think he would be too rusty after the seven-month match layoff. “Thankfully, I’m at the point right now that I can compete,” Onyewu said. “I’ve been training regularly. I’m game fit right now.” His first action since the injury will most likely come in a friendly Tuesday against the Czech Republic in East Hartford, Conn., or May 29 against Turkey in Philadelphia. “I don’t think right now if you watch training you can say I’m behind anyone else in terms of my speed of play or anything like that,” Onyewu said. He did, however, seem sensitive to doubts expressed on Internet message boards and in newspaper articles that he could return as the same player. “I’m going to go out there and agree with them,” Onyewu said. “I won’t come back how I was. I’m going to come back stronger. I’m going to use this year to prove that.” But until Onyewu plays a match, it will be impossible to tell whether he is fully recovered. Charlie Davies also insisted he felt fit enough to play in the World Cup, but Coach Bob Bradley thought otherwise. Of course, Davies did not have a familiar sports injury, but rather sustained fractures to his leg, elbow and face during a car accident in October that left one person dead. There was no clear timetable for his return. When Onyewu had surgery, doctors said he would be back in cleats in six months. So far, he has been right on schedule. After Onyewu practiced for the first time with the national team on Wednesday, Bradley cautioned that because the drills have a fast tempo and are in a compressed space, “sometimes as a player coming back from time off, it’s almost more difficult than a regular game.” Bradley said of Onyewu: “You can see moments where maybe to release a pass takes a split second too long, but we’re always confident those are the kind of training sessions that get players back where they need to be quickly.” The unsettled back line received more encouraging news Thursday, when Carlos Bocanegra (abdominal strain) and Chad Marshall (hamstring strain) participated in full drills. Jay DeMerit (abdominal strain) did partial training but said he felt better each day. Last June, Onyewu and DeMerit played obstructively in central defense as the United States defeated Spain, then the world’s No. 1 team, at the Confederations Cup in South Africa. DeMerit said he thought it would take two matches for Onyewu to regain his full sharpness. “It’s little things like marking men and having mental sharpness that comes along with games,” DeMerit said. “We have to find that relationship again and make sure we’re on the same page.” Goalkeeper Tim Howard said that Onyewu seemed fine and that “all his movements are good.” Onyewu’s injury occurred in the 83rd minute of the United States’ final World Cup qualifying match. He backpedaled, attempting to head a corner kick, when he thought he had been kicked in the hamstring by a Costa Rican opponent. “I could have sworn until I saw the video that somebody kicked me,” Onyewu said. “I was looking for the referee. I thought I got fouled.” When he looked down, though, Onyewu saw that his left kneecap had migrated upward to his thigh. He started waving to the bench for the trainer. “I immediately knew it was going to be a long time before I’d get back on the field,” he said. The rehabilitation was painful at times and stressful, Onyewu said, forcing much self-evaluation. “It’s not easy watching your team play and knowing you’re not capable of doing that just yet,” he said. Yet Onyewu said he was fortunate that he had not had any setbacks in training, that he did not push his body too hard too quickly. The last mental hurdle to overcome was to feel confident that he could jump and land safely. Something that once seemed so natural had led to his injury. In the back of his mind, Onyewu said he asked himself, “Do I want to do it?” His doctors said that the tendon had been reinforced by surgery and fully healed. Finally, jumping became second nature again. “Once you don’t think about it anymore, it’s in the past,” Onyewu said. Although he did not play again for A.C. Milan after the injury, Onyewu did make news when the club announced this week that he had signed a contract extension, agreeing to play for free in the 2012-13 season. “This season has been lost with me, in terms of the playing,” Onyewu said. “It was just a sign of good faith that the club was able to stick by me.” In return, he said, “I wanted to show my dedication back to them.” (NY Times)