As a Yankees fan, I've seen Andy Pettitte do this, I've seen Roger Clemens do it, I've seen a ton of athletes in playoff sports do it. Donovan's situation was odd in that he went to Cambodia, but it's not like it's entirely without precedent.
He wasn't dumped, he's in the 30. Goodson, EJ, Evans and lots of others were not selected to the 23 that helped during qualification. He was judged on current form, fitness and tactical need. I think he should be going to Brazil. I can understand the decision to chose someone else.
Ignoring the LD thing, his man management just feels appallingly bad. Never thought Bruce Arena would one up in that department, but he does. And we all know Bruce is an absolute a-hole when it comes to public stuff. JK had won me over, but with the way he's treated camp (all the players cut), his condescending interviews and his decisions this past month - he's lost me. If we go ahead in the WC he'll get my grudging respect for his game tactics (and a whole lotta crow), but I'll never be in favor for how he treats soccer fans or his players. Ever.
Way to switch the goal posts and completely ignore where your analogy broke down. Clearly you are biased beyond it being worthy of further discussion. *ignored*
Blah, blah, blah. I am not calling for JK to be fired (and I wanted JK hired before BB was hired), though this certainly hasn't raised my confidence in him. But, as it has been for three years now, now is JK's time to demonstrate what he has. We shall see. As for the dumb-a$$ed comment about LD's milestones not being a high bar, have you looked at the accomplishments of our roster? It's Mount Everest to most of them. Anyway, to focus, my point was simply the argument that LD lacks "will" or whatever is belied by his record of accomplishment. He might actually be a worse player than Brad Davis NOW like JK says, but that has nothing to do with this BS reason that LD lacks will that is being floated by JK and his appologists.
The trouble with that statement is it's pretty far between the causal event and the final result, that so many mitigating factors would have to occur for that to be a direct reason. In other words... if he out-kicked the entire team, then the entire team should've been defensively behind the ball to prevent the goal. You say our back line was out of position, but there are clearly two center backs in the vicinity of Koller and another pursuing the ball in the corner. This is the same kind of nonsense that has Ginola blamed for costing France a trip to WC 94, because his cross on the free kick went too long, allowing the 90' counter attack goal that kept them out. The trouble is the entire team still was behind the ball to stop the counter, and they put them in position over the course of qualifying to be that 1 narrow goal away from the WC. You can't blame 1 player for an entire defensive breakdown. Keller has had posession issues he has dealt with over his career, this was not one of them. We had our butts handed to us this game, we were outclassed by a much stronger side. There are some tactical issues which may have mitigated some of their strengths, and some personnel choices I heavily disagree with, but that would've only made it more competitive, and likely not affected the final result. You can however fault Reyna heavily in 2006, for not closing down on Rosicky and giving him that much space on the second goal (or in your opinion is that Onyewu's fault for heading it out clear of his midfielders), for just standing there and raising his hand as Pirlo's cross comes in on Italy's goal (or is in this type of reasoning that must be Gillardino's fault for trying to score on a set piece, rather than standing patiently behind Reyna), and for giving the ball away horribly slow with it at his feet against Ghana (or was it Lewis' fault for passing it to Reyna?). Maybe I got that wrong: I'm still confused by this kind of logic.
Video and stat profiles of the 23 from SI.com: http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/06/03/world-cup-2014-meet-23 Great videos, like hearing the guys speak.