It has been 17 months since Charlie Davies played a competitive soccer match and although the road to Saturday night's game against the Columbus Crew was a long one with a lot of speed bumps, Davies has perservered and is beginning his comeback to professional soccer with D.C. United.

The hype surrounding Davies began when he came on to the big stage at the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa. Not many people expected the speedy Davies to be a main part of the American side that surprised everyone by advancing to the final before losing to Brazil.

Davies only scored 26 total goals in three years playing for Hammarby in Sweden and then transferred to Sochaux in France and then the accident happened.

Just days before the United States' match with Costa Rica in October, Davies was involved in a fatal car accident that he was lucky to survive.

After many months of rehab, missing out on the 2010 World Cup and failing to impress back at Sochaux, the 24-year-old joined D.C. United on loan and began to impress coach Ben Olsen and his teammates.

Saturday night was the beginning of the comeback for Davies, who is looked like the Charlie Davies of old with his second goal, speeding past Crew defender Chad Marshall and getting past keeper Will Hesmer before knocking the goal in to the back of the net.

The first goal he scored was a penalty, Davies was chosen to take the penalty by captain Dax McCarty, who told Davies that he trusted him one hundred percent to find the back of the net, and Davies did exactly that to power United to their first win of the season over one of the better clubs in the East in Columbus.

Every soccer fan in America and even around the world should be rooting for Davies to get back in to his form of 2009 because he is a special talent and even more he is a class act.

After all, he's been through so much and to get this far and fail is not an option for Davies.

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