Keith Hickey argues Edson Buddle should go to South Africa this June, and not as a tourist. Buddle's torrid start to the MLS season has his National Team prospects, a possibility right termed "laughable" as recently as, well, before First Kick, is being bandied about seriously among the US faithful.
Buddle's talent is undeniable, and though it might not be on par younger Americans like Altidore and Davies, it's hard to ignore a player putting the ball in the net so often only forty-odd days from the naming of the US 23-man roster.
If it weren't for injuries, we wouldn't be talking about Buddle; but Charlie Davies isn't fully healthy yet, Brian Ching has just returned to training after a hamstring tear, and Bob Bradley can hardly afford to be picky. Let's consider it a positive then that Buddle (and Herculez Gomez for that matter) has hit such a rich vein of form.
Edson Buddle has one cap with the US National Team on the senior level. One. That cap came in a March 2003 friendly with Venezuela, the first-ever soccer game played in the brand new (at the time) Qwest Field in Seattle.
Buddle entered as a late sub, coming on for Brian McBride in the 80th minute. Without searching for footage that may or may not exist (I'm without the capability at the moment), there's no way to know how Buddle played; in fact, it really doesn't matter considering it was more than seven years ago. What Buddle did then, and the player he was at the time of his one National Team cap, has nothing to do with now.
To say things have changed a bit since Buddle was seriously in the National Team picture would be an understatement. The 18-man roster from that 2003 friendly (ignore "Japan" at the top; Venezuela was a late fill-in opponent when the Japanese cancelled due to some US military shenanigans causing security concerns):
Sure, it was just a friendly, but it's rather odd to see names like Garcia, Klein, and Martino on a National Team roster through the prism of the intervening years. Aside from those rather nondescript names, there are few that jump out due to unfulfilled promise, including Bobby Convey and Jovan Kirovski. Kirovski scored one of the two goals that beat Venezuela (it ended 2-0, with Donovan getting the other), prompting Bruce Arena to comment on the forward:
“Jovan is only 27 years old, and I think he still has a future with the national team. He just needs to get into a club environment where he is playing more consistently."
--U.S. MNT head coach Bruce Arena, after Kirovski scored his first U.S. goal since Feb. 15, 2000, a string of 15 appearances
Meanwhile, Buddle's appearance looked like the first of many to come, if his apparent talent was any indication; but the next few years saw him injured on a regular basis, battling off-field issues when he was pulled over for drunk driving, and slipping ever further off the National Team radar.
To say it's been awhile for Buddle as a serious USMNT possibility isn't doing justice to just how long it's been. Seven years is a long time, especially in the relatively short career of a professional footballer. Buddle could hardly be doing more to make his case for a World Cup spot, or at the very least a look in the May buildup. Will he get it, closing in on 2,600 days since his one and only in a USA jersey?
