UPPER MERION, Pa. – After enduring a brutal 2014 season that he could only describe by using the term “Murphy’s Law,” Philadelphia Union center back Austin Berry is eager for a fresh start in 2015.
He’s just isn’t entirely sure where that fresh start will be yet.
“I’m trying to figure that out right now,” Berry told MLSsoccer.com. “I’ve had few talks with [head coach Jim] Curtin and [technical director Chris] Albright in the last few weeks. There have been some things we talked about, so I’m just waiting to hear back right now.”
If Berry does get dealt away, it would mark the end of a Philadelphia tenure that began with much promise but was almost immediately derailed.
After getting traded to the Union very late in the 2014 offseason, the center back was penciled into Philly’s starting lineup right away, despite the fact that he had little time to mesh with his teammates and was coming off shoulder surgery.
The 2012 MLS Rookie of the Year – who had been a rock in his first two MLS seasons, playing 62 total games – then partially tore his hamstring and had to exit the second game of the season, which was there everything started to go wrong.
“Looking back on it, there are some things I probably would have liked to change,” Berry said. “I had shoulder surgery in the offseason and the first day of preseason [with the Fire] I was going through physicals and the doctors cleared me. … I should have been a little more vocal and said I needed a couple of more weeks to get my body ready to go.”
Berry eventually made his way back into the starting lineup but he couldn’t escape the injury bug. In one game, he rolled his ankle. In another, he cracked his ribs. He even got the flu at one point when it looked like he was in line to start.
After starting three straight games from May 10 to May 17, Berry didn’t log a single minute the rest of the season.
“It got to the point where you’re just kind of looking to the next year,” he said.
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Berry, who called the early part of the 2014 season “a huge struggle and a pretty stressful time,” said he entered preseason camp this week “100 percent and not worrying about anything” injury-wise. And considering center back Carlos Valdes has one foot out the door, you’d think the fourth-year pro would have a chance to get his starting spot back.
But Maurice Edu figures to have one of the center back spots locked down, and Ethan White started 12 of the last 16 games last season to surpass Berry on the depth chart. And that doesn’t even take into count second-year center back Richie Marquez, who the Union coaches are high on.
All of that leaves Berry’s situation in doubt heading into the 2015 season, even if he is finally healthy again and fully prepared to move on from the worst year of his career.
“If I’m in the picture, I’d like to stay,” he said. “If I’m not, I’d rather have a fresh start [somewhere else].”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.
