Arguez in Hertha Coach's Doghouse

Accroding to several Berlin news sources, young American defender Bryan Arguez is in Hertha Berlin coach Lucien Favre's doghouse these days after missing two practices in the past few weeks. His most recent was last week when he skipped an afternoon practice to join 200,000 other Berliners (including many other expat Americans) to see Senator Barack Obama speak in front of the Siegesaule. He probably would have been excused missing that day had he not already started a trend of missing and being late for practice.

After looking like he would see several early season starts as a stand-in for Swiss international Steve Von Bergen, Arguez may be blowing a golden opportunity. Last week he was on the subs bench but did not play in a 0-0 draw with Liverpool before 51,000 home fans. A shaky performance in a previous match and skipping practices have drawn public questions on his level of committment (ouch). Favre has several options on Hertha's starting back line when the Bundesliga season kicks off in three weeks. Whether Arguez will be one of them looks less likely than it did two weeks ago.