11714_johannssonaron_isi_usmntjt051614292 John Todd/isiphotos.com
Guess Who's Back

Johannsson Eager to Make Splash for Club and Country

Aron Johannsson missed four months with a variety of ailments but he's back to full health and ready to go. Brian Sciaretta talks to the United States national team forward about his long road back.
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
November 07, 2014
1:13 PM
FOR ARON JOHANNSSON, the past four months have seemed like an eternity.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. After a breakout season last year with AZ Alkmaar, he earned a spot on the United States World Cup roster but only made one substitute appearance in Brazil. Immediately following the tournament, he had an ankle surgery followed by a groin surgery a few weeks later. The pair of surgeries kept him on the sidelines and halted his surging career.

But last week marked his return for AZ Alkmaar and the Icelandic-American is ready to finally pick up where he left off.

“It’s very depressing to be injured for so long but you have to stay positive,” Johnnsson told ASN. “You have to have a good stable environment to help you through it—for example, my girlfriend and the doctors at my club. For me personally, it was staying positive and I tried to use the time injured to [improve] on the things I wasn’t good at before.”

“I had a few months where I could work on my physical strength and I’m stronger now,” he added. “I’m more physical. I need a couple of games to come back to 100 percent match fitness and I hope I will be a better player.”

The U.S. national team is set to assemble in London next week for a game against Colombia followed by heading to Dublin for a matchup against Ireland. Johannsson is hoping to take part in the games and admits it was a tough feeling not take part in the three games since the World Cup.

“Every time the guys were meeting up and posting pictures on the internet, I got a little sad and I wanted to be there.”

Johannsson has been in touch with the U.S. coaching staff and they have monitored his recovery. Johannsson's return should be welcome news to Jurgen Klinsmann who has seen many of his core strikers either in injured or mired in difficult club situations.

“Obviously, I want to be called up to these games," he said. "It’s our last games until March. So it’s a long time. I want to be called up just to meet the guys and staff because I haven’t seen them in four months. I want to come in and maybe get some minutes to show the coaching staff I belong on the team.”

Should he get back into the squad, as expected, it will give him a chance to reestablish himself on the team for the new cycle. The recent World Cup was one of the best moments of his career but it was also difficult with the injuries he faced.

The ankle injury was one that he initially suffered while playing with AZ Alkmaar around March but was one he was able to play through. The groin injury, however, was one that occurred during the World Cup and did not recover with rest.

“I had the injury in my ankle since I’m guessing about March,” Johannsson said. “It bothered me a little bit but I was still able to play with AZ for about three or four months with the injury. The doctors at AZ said to me that I would still be able to play at the World Cup but immediately after would do surgery and would repair it.

I had a little bit of a problem during the World Cup in my groin. It kind of got worse during the World Cup. After the World Cup, I had three weeks of vacation and I guess it wasn’t enough time to recover. When I got back to AZ and started training again, the problem started to get worse and worse. They wanted me to check with a famous doctor here in Holland and he said to fix it I needed another surgery.”

It has been 15 months since Johannsson filed his one-time switch with FIFA to change his international affiliation from Iceland to the United States. While he still follows the Icelandic team and is very happy with their recent success which includes a 2-0 win over Holland in qualifying for the European Championships, his heart now lies with the U.S. team and has enjoyed becoming part of the American team. Reaching the World Cup remains a career highlight for him despite the injuries.

“Obviously, the ideal scenario would be that I was 100 percent fit to help my team,” Johannsson said. “It’s the World Cup and you can’t afford to be 90 percent. I would have wanted to be 100 percent but still, it’s the World Cup and I gave everything I had and every ounce of energy I had into the team. I tried to do my best every day and I got to play in one game. It’s the highlight of my career so far. Overall, it was a great experience. I think it’s given me more confidence. As of now, I played at the highest possible level and I know I have the ability to play there again.”

While Johannsson looks forward to his U.S. return, his club team desperately needs the forward to produce. AZ sits in 12th place in the 18 team Eredivise but it has played slightly better as of late. The most important development during the season was that Marco van Basten, who was hired as head coach in the off season, had to be reassigned to assistant coach due to health reasons and was replaced by former Anderlecht boss John van den Brom.

Johannsson says that the developments have been “hectic” but beneficial overall. With van Basten as assistant, he even gets more individual time with the legendary Dutch forward who is working extensively with AZ’s strikers.

“We’ve changed coaches and we’ve had some ups and downs so far this season,” Johannsson said. “But we want to do better than we did last season. We want to try to build on the performances we’ve had the past few weeks and get back to winning games. Hopefully, finish in the top five. That would be good for us.”

Johannsson finally made his Eredivisie season debut last weekend where he went a full 90 in a 3-3 draw with Excelsior. Days before that, he took part in a comfortable 5-0 win over GVVV Veenendaal in the Dutch Cup.

"He's eager," AZ head coach John van den Brom said. "In the game with GVVV, he asked me if he could play 90 minutes but we did not take that physical risk. Aron wanted to but that he might be doing a little too much. He missed three good opportunities and was perhaps overzealous. If he keeps quiet and just play his game, the goals come naturally."

"Jóhannsson has had no problems with his injury," added Van den Brom. "After the game he also had no physical reaction.”

With an important game this weekend against NAC Breda plus the upcoming U.S. friendlies, Johannsson is excited to finally have games to look forward, goals to accomplish, and ambitions to remind everyone why he is one of the best strikers in Holland.

“I don’t have any injuries,” Johannsson said. “Obviously these were my first games for a few months, so I am not 100 percent match fit. But my body feels fine and I am just happy with the situation and I can’t wait for more and more games to come.”

Post a comment

AmericanSoccerNow.