CARSON, Calif. – Mike Magee was so excited Friday that he would probably be getting his first US national team cap the following day in a friendly against South Korea. Before the night was done, that dream was dead.
Magee, who was returning to the national team's January camp nine years after his previous call-up, missed the Yanks' 2-0 victory Saturday at StubHub Center after coming down with food poisoning on the eve of the game.
The Chicago Fire forward, last season's MLS MVP after scoring 21 goals, was back at the team hotel in Santa Monica and missed seeing Chris Wondolowski score two goals of his own to bolster his candidacy for one of the jobs up front at the World Cup.
“He had issues [Friday] night and then again before we actually left [for the stadium], and so we left him back at the hotel,” head coach Jurgen Klinsmann said after the game. “He threw up last night a couple of times and this morning, and it's so unfortunate.
“But we had a good talk, and he knows we watch him now. He's part of that group now, and his best argument is, like Wondo's is, scoring goals [with his club side]. It was great to work with Mikey finally in my time here as coach, and he knows that the door is open to him.”
Whether he can step through it will determine largely on his form with the Fire. The Americans have only one more scheduled match before the World Cup camp begins in mid-May, on March 5 at Ukraine, and Klinsmann's roster will have Europe-based talent that was missing Saturday.
Landon Donovan, the US captain against the Koreans, said everybody with the team was disappointed that his former LA Galaxy teammate was unable to go.
“He's had a really good camp. I think he's played really well,” Donovan said. “I think he's been confident, he's fit in very well, but we saw him this morning, and he couldn't even get out of bed. So we're bummed for him, but such is life, and, hopefully, it's happened for a reason.”
