US Striker Davies Bound for France?

The trickle down effect of the U.S. national team's run to last month's Confederations Cup final is coming into fruition this week. First we saw defender Oguchi Onyewu ink a deal with AC Milan and now it appears that young forward Charlie Davies is on to bigger and better things with a possible move to Sochaux of France's Ligue 1, as reported by the French sports daily L'Equipe.

Probably more than any other player on the American roster, Davies broke out during the two weeks in South Africa thanks to his blinding speed. The New Hampshire native has carried that form into July's CONCACAF Gold Cup, scoring a goal and pacing the attack in Saturday's 4-0 stomping of Grenada as well as playing off a perfect lay off to Santino Quaranta for the U.S.'s first goal in a 2-0 win over Honduras Wednesday night.

Like Onyewu signing on with Milan, Davies possible transfer to France is a good sign for the U.S. -- especially ahead of a World Cup year -- since parts its probable 2010 roster are making moves to some greener European pastures. (In that vein, Freddy Adu has left the Gold Cup to return back to Portugal and train with Benfica.)

Since leaving Boston College after his junior year and signing on with Swedish outfit Hammerby IF in 2007, Davies has been a solid U.S. prospect getting the occasional national team call. It wasn't until the Confederations Cup in June where he thrust himself into the conversation for a starting role, or at least a valuable sub with speed to burn in the later stages of a match.

The funny thing is, before this marathon summer of action for the U.S. team began, most pundits like myself, probably would have tabbed Adu or Jozy Altidore as the potential brekaout U.S. attacking players. Davies, who is three years older than those two, goes to show the value of playing -- or specifically playing well -- with your club team and how it can carry over to national team duty.

Bob Bradley's decision to start Davies in the do-or-die Confederation Cup group stage match against Egypt proved to be a turning point, as he scored a nifty goal after a goal mouth scrum, which triggered the historic 3-0 win. Sticking with Davies in the ensuing matches vs. world powers Spain and Brazil proved to be important, too, as neither side seemed prepared to cope with his blazing speed.

Perhaps the most encouraging sign about Davies is that so far in two matches in the Gold Cup, against inferior competition he's dominated in a complete forward role. Coming on in a scoreless game against Honduras he didn't wait long to inject his imprint on the match and the U.S. quickly scored two goals after he came on with Benny Feilhaber. (Let's just hope this busy summer doesn't burn him out.)

Even if this supposed more for Davies to Sochaux ends up as only a rumor, he seems bound for bigger and better things, which as you might expect is another boon for the U.S.