The story was almost too good to be true. John Brooks, a 21-year-old centre-back who had never played in an official game for the USA, coming off the bench to score an 86th-minute winner in their World Cup opener against Ghana on Monday night. So improbable was it all that ESPN’s commentator, Ian Darke, promptly exclaimed: “He couldn’t even have dreamt it”.
Except, Brooks had done exactly that. Two days earlier, to be precise.
“Yeah, it’s unbelievable,” said Brooks after the game. “I said I had a dream, I told some team-mates that I dreamed that I had scored in the 80th minute and we won the game. Now it [turned out to be] the 86th minute and we won the game, so that was good.”
The goal in the dream was also a header scored from a corner, perhaps unsurprisingly given Brooks is a centre-back. At 6ft 4in, he has always had the potential to be a weapon for the USA at set-pieces, although Jürgen Klinsmann may prefer Brooks not to play again any time soon.
Brooks was rushed into action after starting centre-back Matt Besler experienced some tightness in his hamstring at the end of the first-half. As well as his replacement did, the USA would prefer not to be without such an important contributor going into their crucial group game against Portugal in Manaus on 22 June.
The severity of Besler’s injury is not yet clear. Asked if his half-time withdrawal had been a precautionary measure, the defender replied: “Um, yeah. If you want to use that word, then we’ll use that.
“We made the decision at half-time, and … I felt it in about the 40th minute, there was a play in the corner where I slid, and felt it. I was able to finish out the first-half, at half-time we did some things to try and loosen it up. Ultimately, for me, it was a very hard decision. But I wasn’t able to go, and that’s why we have a team.”
He was not the only American player forced out of the game by a hamstring complaint. Jozy Altidore had pulled up while chasing a ball midway through the first-half and had to leave the pitch on a stretcher. Both he and Besler will undergo testing once they return to the USA’s base in Sao Paulo on Tuesday.
Asked if he believed he would play again in this World Cup, Altidore admitted that at this stage he could not be sure. “I don’t know, I hope so,” he said. “I would love to, but in the end what matters is the team, and we got three points tonight in a tough game, so it’s looking good.”
