By BRIAN LEWIS
If Red Bulls winger Dave van den Bergh didnât have surgery to repair his sports hernia this week, he wouldâve had to risk missing the playoffs by waiting until the middle of next month for the procedure, or risk further damage by playing the rest of the season with the injury.
So heâll fly to Munich tonight and Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck will perform the surgery Friday before going on vacation.
âIt was either now or wait until October 10,ââ van den Bergh said. âShe was going on holiday. I donât know where, probably Holland. But it was really right now or after the season. I think it was just a matter of how willing are you to play with it. Youâre going to tear it a little further, probably.ââ
Van den Bergh expected to miss 2-3 weeks, hoping to be back against either Toronto FC on Oct. 4 or Real Salt Lake five days later.
âItâs either going to be the Toronto game or the Salt Lake game; but Iâm not going to force the issue,ââ van den Bergh said. âIâm going to be cautious with this and make sure Iâm healthy instead of rushing into it and lose three more weeks because I rushed into it one game early.ââ
Probably wise, since van den Bergh is second on the team with six goals, and has arguably been the Red Bullsâ MVP.
“That is (trainer Rick Guterâs) sense that thatâs the best thing to do,ââ Juan Carlos Osorio said. âObviously, it was a tough decision to be football-wise, because we all know what David brings to the team.
âIf we hadn’t done it this weekend we wouldâve had to wait until October, and then it might be too late; so we decided it was in the best interests of the team and club to do it sooner than later. Hopefully, heâll be back in 10 days time and contributing the way heâs been doing.”
Their regular-season finale is at Chicago Oct. 23, and MLS Cup starts the next weekend, so van den Bergh should be back in full-swing by then.
In the meantime, since Osorio prefers to play with four in the back on the road, Iâd expect to see a 4-5-1 tomorrow against Columbus. He could shift Jorge Rojas wide left into van den Berghâs spot, and drop Magee back into central midfield, tucked behind Juan Pablo Angel and in front of twin destroyers Seth Stammler and Juan Pietravallo.
Osorio said heâd prefer to keep a left-footed player on the left _ and El Zurdo Rojas fits the bill _ rather than play right-footed Matthew Mbuta there. But he did say he might look at the Cameroonian playing wide left in a reserve game to see how he fared crossing the ball from there.
