.jpg)
Sort of a weird situation that developed Saturday with U.S. teenage striker Jozy Altidore at his Premier League club team Hull City. Altidore wasn't in the lineup, nor was he even on the bench for the Tigers 0-0 draw with last-place Portsmouth. Apparently Altidore was late to the KC Stadium and posted an apology on his Twitter page. What's weird, is on his actual page, the apology is no longer posted and the most recent tweet is encouraging Hull fans to make a lot of noise at the game.
All things considered, it's hard to read all that much into the situation. Altidore wouldn't be the first player in the history of professional soccer to be late for a match. It was a little distressing that the 19-year-old, who is fighting for a place in the starting XI, would risk being late and nullify any chance of seeing the field.
However this situation is resolved, Hull manager Phil Brown likely has less faith in Altidore than he previously had. You could say Brown was already a little worried about Altidore considering he brought in former Celtic striker Jan Venegoor of Hesselink near the end of the August transfer window to play up top.
Even with Saturday's draw, Hull City is still in the relegation zone, which probably hurts Altidore's chances to play even more. It's unlikely a club is going to pin its survival hopes on an unproven 19-year-old American. It also makes Altidore's fine debut a couple months ago, when he set up a goal on his first-ever Premier League touch seem like happened a long, long time ago.
Hopefully Altidore learns his lesson from today, whatever actually happened, and it only galvanizes his fight for a spot in the team.
Either way, it's another piece of crummy news for U.S. fans this week to go along with the longer-than-expected time on the shelf for defender Oguchi Onyewu after knee surgery and the ongoing worry over Charlie Davies, who remains hospitalized following his horrific car accident earlier this month.
