WYNNE SIDELINED. A recurrence of a sports hernia injury that forced him to have surgery a year ago has sidelined No. 1 SuperDraft pick Marvell Wynne. He had his first surgery several weeks after helping the U.S. under-20s win the CONCACAF qualifying tournament and earn a spot in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.
He is headed to Germany for a special surgery to reduce his recovery time -- normally between two and three months -- but regardless of when he returns, his difficulties playing in a system other than the 4-4-2 in which he performed for the U.S. under-20s and at UCLA will probably continue.
New coach Mo Johnston prefers a 3-5-2 and Wynne is competing with Scotsman Peter Canero to start as the right-sided defender. Wynne's amazing athletic talents don't yet include sufficient skill or experience to play in midfield and in a 3-5-2 his positional shortcomings and tendency to give balls away leave him more exposed than he would be as the right back in a 4-4-2.
Any rookie missing a month or more of his first pro preseason is going to fall behind and in Wynne's case the absence is more critical, since at this point in his development he's mostly athlete.
The soccer nuances are still being ingrained. As long as Johnston and his staff realize
this and let Wynne progress at his own speed, a fine player will emerge, sooner or later.
Expecting Wynne to jump right in and excel, as Michael Parkhurst (Revs) and Ugo Ihemelu (Galaxy) did last year was never realistic.
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