Jurgen is a myth that won't die. If he was a real coach, he'd be coaching right now. That's what coaches do, they coach.
You are probably right, and it's very disheartening. Chandler probably would have been a starter for us in important games this tournament, and maybe even one of our better players. While the Gold Cup may not be important to Nurnburg, it's incredibly important for us, both as our regional championship and our ticket to the Confed cup. Not being able to secure the release of important players for important games makes the US federation look pretty small time. Robbie Rogers seems like a weird pick to me. Has he been playing well for the Crew? If he's just there to fill out the numbers, I would have rather Bradley chosen one of our top u20s for the experience. Oh well, as Donald Rumsfeld said: "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have."
This is indeed disturbing. Assuming you're right on Chandler's motives, this sets a very bad precedent. Obviously the club has no right to block a call-up on a FIFA date or an official tournament. But there's nothing to stop them from subtly cajoling their own player into turning it down. Particularly if it involves hints that his first team place might be in jeopardy. "Tim, we'd hate for you to come back to preseason training so exhausted that your lose your place."
I'm not nearly as satisfied with missing the guy who was probably our best player in the last two friendlies in his first two caps.
My very vague memory on this is that this happened a few times during Bruce Arena's tenure in charge of the USMNT. Arena refused to back down and some players were punished at the club level as a result.
I doubt Chandler would've been chosen over Cherundolo or Donovan/Dempsey as a starter. Unless it was a line-up where Bob chose to put Dempsey up top as a forward. But there's little doubt that he would've played in any case. You could definitely say he had the best game of any of our defenders in his first camp against Argentina and Paraguay as a 21 year-old. Which impresses the hell out of me.
million reps to... bshredder working over time today to quell fears of Chandler not accepting call up.
I'd love to read more sources to confirm, but I've read some stuff that comes right out and says that a significant portion of Donovan's bad blood with Leverkusen before his loan to the Quakes was finding himself demoted from training with the first team down to the reserves and even the U19 amateurs every time he came back from a USMNT youth tournament. (And Donovan accepted every call-up he got, apparently, eager to get out of Leverkusen and play a starring role with the youth nats.) So it would seem German clubs in general don't have a problem doing this...
At some point BB has to start..starting the youngen's. The goal is the 2014 WC and guys like Chandler, Lichaj and Agudelo are the future. If Chandler were fit to go I would seriously consider starting Chandler and Agudelo as a minimum.
Yes of course it's great to play talented youth, but over Cherundolo, who just had one of his best seasons? Or Donovan and Dempsey?
Even if Chandler does still represent the U.S. I lost a lot of respect for him today. You skip out on a friendly versus Guatemala, an away qualifier with Barbados, the Olympics. You do not turn down a callup for the confederation championship.
I haven't read this whole thread, but I heard that part of Japan pulling out of Copa America was because German clubs wouldn't let their players go. I'm hoping this was something similar with Chandler.
Again, BS over reaction. This is not the first time a club dicked with a US Nats player on a FIFA sanctioned date. Anyone remember Eddie Lewis and Jean Tigana? Contrary to popular belief around here Bob is not stupid and has been Nats coach long enough to know how to deal with these situations. Perhaps a Bradley was punked, perhaps not. But I do believe Bob's strengths have always been with building a rapport with European clubs. Has worked well with Dolo, Dempsey, Howard and others. It will work with the Nuremberg.
Except that this tournament is a priority. Coming to an impasse over a FIFA date friendly is one thing, you let that slide. Your continental championship (the one that counts, not the 2nd one which is a B-team tournament or the Olympics, etc.) is a whole different matter entirely. I could even be somewhat reasonable about them messing with a Confed Cup call-up. But you cannot allow clubs to dictate when you're talking about the "main" GC, a crucial qualifier (not one against Cuba after we've already secured advancement), or the WC. That's where the line has to be drawn. Everything else is negotiable.
This is not some random friendly in January. This is our continental championship. I don't hesitate when I speculate there's something bad going on. Chandler hedging his bets to play for Germany is the best explanation. Looks like "Arsynic" was right about Chandler.
It appears to be a unique situation. Brian and Ives had a good Twitter exchange that flushed everything out, and that should give everyone a good understanding.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, honestly. Obviously it's foolish to "omg!" panic at this point, but at the same time I don't think it's too absurd to think that a young guy on the cusp of a competitive debut for his national team would be itching to embrace the opportunity. Bradley should've got Boca and Howard to give Tim a little call about what it would mean to the team to win a potential final against Mexico. That's no small thing.
I read it and I'm not enlightened. How is it unique? Nuremberg discouraged him from playing through the summer, and he turned down the call citing fatigue. I think people are justified in worrying about his not being cap-tied yet.
Look, Nurnberg has every reason to want to stop this 1) They overachived last year and will lose a good number of players next year 2) Chandler is a starter and a becoming a key player. A lot has also happened to him the past six months 3) Their preseason starts on June 26. If he played in the GC he would get ZERO rest or would rest and arrive late to preseason 4) They are typically a small club and tend to be in hard fought battles at the bottom of the table. 5) They don't give a rat's ass about the USMNT or the Gold Cup. In fact, they probably like it better he plays for the USMNT than Germany because they can push Bob and the USSF around more than Low and Germany. 6) Timmy's a young player that's not used to the hype and they can suggest that it would be in his best interests not to play in the Gold Cup because it would help undo all that he worked so hard to achive the past year. He came from nowhere to a rising star. He's going to listen to the people that brought him there. In the end of the day, it sucks that Bob was unable to get the player that he wanted. Should he have? maybe. I don't see this as being a Germany-USMNT conflict. I've never seen a German news article lamenting about Chandler playing for the USMNT. You would have seen those reports if Germany was interested. Once he played for the US in March, everyone assumed that's how it was going to be. This whole thing only happened once Bob called up Chandler for this tournament because it affects his rest. If Germany was interested, they would have been approaching him awhile ago. It's just Nurnberg protecting their young player for all the reasons I listed above