September 08, 2016
Daniel Gajdamowicz/Philly Soccer Page
Union midfielder Alejandro Bedoya apologized to Eric Wynalda for personal comments he made on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
The bad blood between Union midfielder Alejandro Bedoya and player-turned-analyst Eric Wynalda looks to be a thing of the past.
Bedoya called in to Siriux XM's "Wynalda Talks Football" program on Wednesday night, a few hours after a brief, but heated Twitter exchange regarding criticism of Bedoya's recent performances for the United States national team.
The Union's record signing referred to Wynalda as a "has been" in his response to the judgment, and made reference to an alleged affair that took place between Wynalda's wife and former U.S. defender John Harkes, prior to the 1998 World Cup. That tweet was later deleted.
Bedoya started the discussion with an apology.
Alejandro Bedoya: Before we get into the shenanigans, first of all, I'd just like to, you know, apologize for the personal thing that, the part I got into that was uncalled for right there. It wasn't necessary. So I'd like to start off with that, then we can go on to everything else.
Eric Wynalda: I get it. The fact that you're even owning up to it and saying, 'look that wasn't a good idea', I appreciate that as well. But let's talk about it, because, look, all I said is that you had a bad game. And look, I've had my fair share of bad games as well, but --
Bedoya: My thing, though, I don't have a problem, everybody has their down days as well, you know, it happens. I had an 'off' one last night. I'm the first one to admit that; we know as players. We're our own biggest critics, right?
Wynalda: Sure.
Bedoya: That's why we got to this level. But...
Wynalda: You think this [criticism] is an ongoing thing.
Bedoya: I woke up this morning to a bunch of messages, or screenshots, you know like they do nowadays and send it out, and it's, 'oh, here he goes again, Wynalda's attacking you bro', that type of thing. And I'm just like, it wasn't just about last night, it was one of those things where I was like, 'ah, geez, again'. Just because, I think there's something personal that you have against me or something where I don't feel like it's ever been an objective analysis towards me as a player. I get that you can dislike me as a player, you know, I'm not your hispanic-American type of player you would want on your team or whatever. But I feel like somebody who has done a lot for the game, and who is still trying to do a lot for the game here, I feel like I don't get the fair share...
Wynalda: I'm not giving you enough, okay, I get it. So, part of my job, unfortunately, is to be critical. And I've gone through this with Michael [Bradley], too. I've pointed out that Michael had a bad game. And he didn't, he didn't take to Twitter, he emailed me, and so did his dad, and so did his dad's brother, and everybody in the whole family emailed me I think. But I think one of the things about it, which I take no joy in whatsoever, and I can tell you without hesitation, this is not personal. It isn't. I mean, somebody brought up to me, 'is it because he's wearing number 11, and you were number 11?', and I'm like, no! [laughs] ...
The conversation ends with a brief discussion on Bedoya's U.S. Teammate, Hershey native Christian Pulisic.
Listen to the full exchange here:
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