It is shocking that Landon Donovan is left off the U.S. soccer team. Donovan is the greatest player in U.S. history and at age 32 may have passed his prime. But he is not way over the hill either. There is no way that he is not one of the top 23 players in the country right now. Klinsmann has not given any reasonable explanation for leaving Donovan off the team. To say he is a step behind others is not an explanation. That is like saying someone is just better than him. But in what way? Is Donovan out of shape? I don't think so. He is playing full time with the Galaxy right now. Is he slower than others? I don't think so. I would bet he beats at least 3/4 of the team in a foot race. Certainly not because of experience since he has the most caps and goals on the team by far.
So is it because Klinsmann is still upset that Donovan took time off last year and he thinks that Donovan is not as committed to soccer as he needs to be? If that is the case, he is wrong. I think if Donovan did not take his leave of absence last year, he may be burned out this year and be of no use to the Galaxy or the national team. Is Klinsmann going for the youth movement since he does not think the U.S. can get out of the group of death and so might as well let the young guys get experience for 2018? Again that would be wrong because even though it is unlikely that the U.S, can get out of the group, it is not an impossible task. They can certainly beat Ghana and Portugal is maddeningly inconsistent despite having Christian Ronaldo. And players like Julian Green will not play much if at all in Brazil anyway. They have 4 years and many friendlies and tournaments to get ready for 2018. So the youth movement can start after the World Cup.
Even if Klinsmann does not think that Donovan can be effective for 90 minutes, it is important to have a player like him on the team. Lets face it: the U.S. will not beat anyone by a big margin. The best they can hope for is play great defense and get a goal from counterattack or a set piece. These are the situations where Donovan is by far the best American. I want him to take that free kick at crunch time. If he can't run 90 minutes, put him in during the second half of a close game. He is our best chance to get a goal or assist on one. If the game goes into a shootout, I want Donovan to be one of the shooters. So I think it is a big mistake to leave Donovan off the team and the chance of the U.S. to have a successful World Cup just went down 50%.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
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I was shocked that Donovan wasn't included on the team. It sure seems there is some personal stuff going on between him and Klinsmann. I think there was a tweet a couple of days ago when Klinsmann's son rubbed the snub in Donovan's face.
ReplyDeleteSince then, the son has deleted his account and the tweet was erased.
Klinsmann is supposedly one of the great coaches, so it's hard to second guess him. But you would think that Donovan's presence would help even if he wasn't at 100%.
But all indications are that he is near full strength, so I've gotta think there is something going on between the two.
So I would assume that U.S. Soccer did not try to persuade Klinsmann to include Donovan, which is kind of sad.
It'll be interesting to see how this group responds on the pitch. I haven't heard from the other players, so maybe they were sick of Donovan. Maybe he was acting like a Primadonna.
Is there any chance that one of the lesser known players will come up "injured" and his spot will be taken by Donovan?
If he doesn't make it to Brazil on the team, you can almost bet that he'll be on ESPN's team as a commentator, right?
I had some hopes that the US team would win a game or two. Now I am not so sure. I'll cheer for them still. It'll just be bitter to not see number 10 out there.
-LBOAYM
The U.S. won 2-0 against Azerbaijan tonight. I was not too impressed as the opponent was not very good and it took 75 minutes to finally score against them. Two new guys did do the scoring although both were easy shots to make. Nigeria and Turkey will be tougher tests before going to Brazil.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you brought up about Donovan being a commentator. It probably depends on the Galaxy schedule but I think there may be a twist to this. The Mexican networks would do well to hire him. He is fluent in Spanish and here in California he is often interviewed after U.S. games in Spanish. He is also well respected among the Mexican fans. He would be a coup for the Spanish networks to beat out ESPN for his services. Another twist to that twist would be for ESPN Deportes to hire him since ESPN seems to like European guys to comment in English! (I know they have Alexi Lalas but they probably think he is from Greece or Mars when he had that crazy hair).