Bayern Munich takes the low road
Phonsie's injury sucks. What's worse is the way it's being reacted to.
Injuries happen. That’s an unfortunate reality in football. They can happen in a nothing game on a Tuesday night against FC Augsburg.
They can happen in training. And, they can happen during an international break.
This is obvious to anyone who follows the sport, save, apparently, the management at Germany’s biggest club. There, apparently, they only see injuries happening when other teams are involved. It can’t just be bad luck that Phonsie injured his ACL, nor can it be possible that an immediate evaluation of the injury might not have been as easy to diagnose as they seem to think it should have been.
Their view from several days later and 5,000 miles away clearly is better than Canada’s medical staff and Davies himself at the time it happened.
We don’t know the details of what went down here, but I have a hard time believing that Davies was refused medical care by the Canadian staff because, well, why in hell would they refuse medical care to their most important player? That just doesn’t make any sense and the only way to come to that conclusion is to assume that Canada Soccer isn’t just incompetent but potentially are, collectively, suffering from a head injury.
They aren’t. So, what happened here is that no one thought the injury was serious, including Phonsie himself.
Again, that sucks. But, threatening to sue Canada Soccer for malpractice here is…misguided and, potentially, defamatory.
That’s Bayern, though. Self-righteous moaning is part of the club’s culture. I’m sure there’s a word in German that means “Only Bayern properly plays the sport, and you all should be grateful that they allow you the privilege of watching them.”
One of the biggest tells in all of this is the way Bayern chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen referred to the game Phonsie was injured in.
"The participation of Davies, who already had muscular problems before the game, in a match of no sporting significance is incomprehensible from our point our view (emphasis mine).”
Halt die Schnauze, Jan. I doubt you’d say that for a Uefa team playing in a Nations League Finals game, especially one that is going to be hosting the World Cup in a year and a bit. It has sporting significance. Your Uefa snobbery is showing.
Look, by all means, an investigation should happen here and Soccer Canada should look hard at what happened to make sure they did all that they could to keep the player healthy. As much as Bayern is jumping to conclusions and arrogantly throwing accusations out without evidence, that doesn’t mean there doesn’t need to be reflection on Canada’s end.
Neither party wants Davies hurt, right? Both teams are suffering from this. In fact, Canada probably more so than Bayern who can just go out and raid another Bundesliga team to replace him (or at least replace him partly). Canada is now looking at its best player being out for 6-months and, likely, getting pushback from Bayern to play for Canada again before the World Cup. This is not a good thing. It’s absurd to think they would have put him on that flight if they thought this was going to be the result.
Regardless there is nothing positive here (other than Phonsie won’t be taking the free kicks at the Gold Cup now…too soon?).
Phonsie is hurt. And that sucks.
It sucks. But what is depressing me is the added drama of so much micro-analysis. The finger pointing and doom predictions. I love soccer. I look forward to watching Canada play and the anticipation of the games. This wailing and gnashing of teeth makes me want to turn away and find a new distraction from the state of the world.