Charlie Davies, Twitter, Belief, and a Dream Deferred
We should have seen this coming. All the signs pointed to Charlie being left off yesterday’s preliminary World Cup roster. The doctors and coaches at his club, FC Sochaux, were expressing doubt and hesitation. The Club president said he wasn’t yet ready to play. The French media also wrote that Charlie wasn’t ready. But we believed. They didn’t know what they were talking about. Charlie’s “tweets” said he was back.
United States National Team doctor Ivan Pierra met with Davies in France last week, and the results of their meeting were kept relatively quiet, rather than publicized. Head Coach Bob Bradley recently tried to temper expectations and issued caution regarding Davies recovery. All the signs were pointing towards the sad news. And yet, like Charlie, we still believed. The only source steadfastly proclaiming that Charlie would be ready was Davies himself, on twitter and in numerous interviews.
We had to believe. As fans, it’s what we do. With his numerous encouraging and inspiring tweets, and rumors of amazing progress, we started to convince ourselves that it was going to happen. He was going to do the impossible. He was unbreakable. He was going to make it back to the World Cup. Only 7 months ago we weren’t even sure he was alive. A few months before that, most of us weren’t even sure who he was.
