Eddie Johnson Loaned to Greek Club

Since taking over U.S. National Team coaching duties in January 2007, one of the unofficial edicts issued by Bob Bradley is if you're not playing for your club team, you're not playing in internationals.

So with his butt parked firmly on the bench at Craven Cottage, U.S. forward Eddie Johnson was loaned from Fulham of the Premier League to Aris Thessaloniki of the Greek Super League Thursday.

The move, it would seem, is clearly so the now 25-year-old Johnson can get sufficient playing time to warrant a spot on Bradley's 23-man roster for June's World Cup in South Africa.

Johnson's career at Fulham has never taken flight since joining the club from MLS in 2008.

All told he's only played in eight matches for Fulham, in between a lengthy loan spell at Cardiff City during the 2008-09 season. He's yet to score a goal in a Fulham uniform, too.

This season Johnson's stay in England seemed to hit an all-time low. He'd only played 24 minutes of Premier League action with just one shot on goal. Johnson has battled a couple injuries, but never found a way to integrate himself into Roy Hodgson's lineup, even with one of Fulham's top strikers -- Andrew Johnson -- sidelined for most of the season.

Suffice to say, it probably wasn't going to happen for Johnson at Fulham any time soon.

So what will Johnson's Greek experience yield?

His new club -- Aris -- is tied for fifth in the table and in position for the Greek league playoffs to determine its second Champions League spot and two Europa League berths.

Aris, which is named for the Greek god of war, is managed by former Valencia and Inter Milan boss Hector Cuper, who must clearly be looking for a goal-scorer with a pulse -- a criteria Johnson, despite all this troubles, does meet. Aris has only scored 15 goals in 15 league matches, which is only better than five clubs and its leading scorer Javier Campora only has four tallies to his name. (Aris has maintained its position by allowing just 13 goals.)

Looking at it from that perspective, Johnson should get a chance to at least see the field and contribute.

Will it be enough for him to work his way into the mix for the U.S. team between now and the next six months?

That probably depends on factors beyond his control, namely the health of Charlie Davies and the form of the rest of the pool of U.S. forwards. Johnson more than any other player, though, will probably need to be playing and more importantly scoring otherwise he likely isn't worth the risk of using a roster spot on him. Johnson isn't a player like Brian Ching, or to a lesser extent Conor Casey, who can contribute in ways that Bradley values when he isn't finding the back of the net.

For today, at least, Johnson is given another lifeline to fulfill the potential many in the U.S. camp saw when he was dubbed the future of the National Team way back in 2004-05 when he was posting hat tricks against Panama.

Those days, however, seem like a long time ago.