U.S. Soccer will announce its roster for the next round of World Cup qualifiers at noon PT today, and one player who is expected to be on it is Sounders FC forward Eddie Johnson. While the team cannot comment on the situation, Johnson let the cat out of the bag Friday night on Twitter with a series of posts, the first of which said, “Thank you to the Seattle Sounders and my teammates family and friends for believing in me when everyone else didn’t. #igotthecallupguys”
Johnson, 28, was a regular on the US Team early in his career, but has not gotten a call-up to the National Team since 2010. After starting off his career with so much promise at the international level and in Major League Soccer, Johnson struggled in multiple stops in Europe, and many figured his best days were behind him. After joining Seattle this season, however, Johnson made it clear he still had goals of representing his country again, and has enjoyed a career revival this season, scoring a team-high and club-record 14 goals with three games remaining on the schedule.
The U.S. plays qualifiers at Antigua &Barbuda on Friday and in Kansas City against Guatemala on Oct. 16. The Sounders declined to comment on Johnson’s Twitter comments, saying they will defer to U.S. Soccer’s announcement, and Johnson said after Sunday’s game that he can’t comment on the situation in a rather humorous exchange.
Asked if he got good news on Friday night, Johnson acted confused by the question, replying, “Friday night?”
When the U.S. Team call-up was mentioned, he said, “Oh, I can’t comment on that.”
Johnson was then asked if anything he tweeted Friday was inaccurate, he smiled and said, “Yeah, it was very inaccurate.”
Told that the thing to do in these situations is claim his Twitter account was hacked, he again laughed and said, “Yeah, it got hacked. Yeah.”
Finally, Johnson ended the questions with, “Man, no comment.”
In an hour, Johnson can stop being coy.
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