USA forward Jozy Altidore returns to roots to prepare for road ahead
BOCA RATON, Fla.
The drive into the grounds at Florida Atlantic University offered Jozy Altidore a chance to reflect. He spotted the fields where he learned how to play the game as he entered the sprawling, palm-tree lined complex. He thought about the importance of playing in front of his family and his friends for the first time in his hometown against Honduras on Tuesday night.
It is, truth be told, the perfect time for this interlude. Altidore spent the past few months recovering from the hamstring injury that ruined his World Cup and toiling away with few tangible rewards at Sunderland. This return to his roots allows him the rare license to contemplate how he reached this point and figure out how to resume his ascent.
“A lot of memories come back to where it all started, but it also reminds me where I need to go,” Altidore said during a press conference at FAU Stadium on Monday. “So it’s exciting.”
It is exactly the sort of change Altidore needs as he continues to fight and scrap for time in the Premier League without the corresponding success. His lack of production at that level (63 appearances, two goals during parts of three seasons) and the merits of Steven Fletcher and Connor Wickham limit the opportunities afforded to him now. He tries to correct the situation with his performances in training, but a higher place in the pecking order -- he is now the late substitute sent into the fray to battle earnestly up front -- apparently hinges on yet another Fletcher injury or a sudden change in fortune.
“It’s very difficult and we talk about that,” U.S. coach Jürgen Klinsmann said. “Our most important expectation is that he gets playing time, that they put him on the field and he has the possibility to score goals. If he’s not on the field, we suffer with him. We just hope. We watch the games week in, week out. When he comes in – no matter how many minutes he gets – that he gets a chance. We keep our fingers crossed that he has a chance to score.”
Those openings arrive more frequently for Altidore at the international level. His strengths -- the robust frame, the deceptive turn of pace for a player of his stature, the willingness to apply himself to procure chances -- present a more consistent threat on this stage. He finds a way to influence matches for his country, a point underscored by the gaping void created when he pulled up against Ghana in Brazil.
Altidore yearns to exert the same sort of influence for Sunderland and replicate his prolific Eredivisie displays with AZ during his second Premier League spell. These international sojourns provide him with the opportunity to bolster his confidence and work toward that objective.
“It’s never going to be all good times,” Altidore said. “When these times come, you are tested. You have to be patient and wait for your chance, but also stay true to what you’re all about. That’s one thing I’m always saying to myself: not change my mentality even if the situation isn’t going the way I want it to. You just have to be patient and try to make it happen there. If not, well, we’ll look for solutions.”
The answer might appear elsewhere when the January transfer window opens if the predicament does not change substantially, but Altidore must focus on more pressing matters before that juncture arrives. His experience and his stature within the squad makes him an integral component in his evolving national side at the age of 24. He takes the field every day with a desire to improve himself, maintain his place in the hierarchy and show the players pushing for a more permanent place how to secure it.
Klinsmann compared the entire process -- the whole idea of forcing the core players to prove themselves again at the start of a new cycle and infusing the squad with new talent -- to hitting the reset button. The past is the past and those achievements deserve their praise, but there is a new dawn ahead with fresh challenges to tackles and novel points to prove.
This is the perfect time for Altidore to come home and hit that button as hard as he can. There is a long road for him to travel over the next four years. This little detour provides him with the perfect opportunity to find the right track for both club and country and pursue it ardently toward the desired outcome.
