Biggest Underachievers/Disappointments in USMNT history

If you guys start mentioning all the disappointments, this thread could reach 200 pages quick. Let's stick to BIGGEST disappointments only. To keep it decent.

 

In retrospect, I’m not really sure how a one-speed one-footed guy got so much hype in the first place. Seems to me he was used as a pawn in the dumb pissing match between MLS and Klinsmann.

 

Just saying...😉 #TBT pic.twitter.com/JmVN25mVUN

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) January 21, 2016

 

Tim Chandler. In terms of the US player pool, he's been a Best XI player since joining the US in March 2011, and he's been the best US right back since Cherundolo's late career renaissance was cut short by injury at the end of 2012. Chandler should have 2 World Cups and around 100 caps under his belt as he nears the age of 30.

Instead, Tim Chandler is the biggest disappointment in US national team history.

 

I think there are two that are clear to me. One has already been mentioned and generally agreed upon. The other I am sure will be controversial. We have only had two players who looked to have the potential/expectation of becoming a world class player. Neither got to that level.

Freddy Adu is the clear #1 underachiever. He was over hyped and exposed at very young age and never developed the habits to come close to realizing his potential. His pro career fizzled out and was never a mainstay with the national team.

Landon Donovan is #2. A golden ball at the u17 WC and the top young player at the WC at 20 yo old. He had the advantage over Adu to spend some time as nobody in much more professional environment at an early age to develop the habits needed. He had fine MLS career in a much inferior league than it is today, had two nice loan stints at Everton after failing in Germany three times.

Internationally, he was always great against Mexico, gave some amazing moments, racked up nice career stats, but rarely was a player that could be counted on to carry the team. His best WC was probably 2002. His second best was 2010 which was uneven and absent late heroics vs Algeria would have been deemed a failure, and 2006 was quite poor ( a very good game sandwiched by two games with no impact).

He had the physical and technical ability to be a true WC class player yet fell well short. The top players in the world his age had peak values of over 50M euro and he was never valued over 5M. Leverkusen finally sold him to MLS when he was 23 yo for less than million.

LD had the supporting talent to get us to the next level and be a huge inspiration for youngsters, but instead his career coincided with a huge stagnation of our program. His die hard fans see no flaws in his game while the rest see a player that couldnt be counted on and wasted a ton of potential.

 

I give this post 5 Weeping Pulisics out of 5. Well done.

 

You know, he’s not wrong about LD.

Part of me wonders if he didn’t suffer a bit by not having anyone seriously push him as USMNT “alpha” until 2009 or so when Dempsey started becoming Dempsey. You saw the Everton stint and how Donovan played so much more assertively; had he maybe not been the annointed one without comparison maybe he’d have hit greater heights (that said, he is still 1 or 1a all time).

 

No, Donovan was never a great technical player. He was not physically imposing, either. His only natural quality was speed. You can find dozens of guys with his same technical ability in South America, guys who over there never make it to any big club.

No, the talent around him looked good because he made them look good. But it was the team that followed him, when he was barely playing, the one that had the highest value.

That team with Chandler, Johnson, Wood, Pulisic, Brooks, Yedlin, Jones, Bradley, that was the one full of excellent talent. The team we fielded in Costa Rica in that game we lost 4-0 was probably the most expensive team (Transfermarkt-wise) we've ever fielded: in Pulisic, Brooks, Johnson, Chandler, Jones, Wood alone we had over 100 million bucks on that field.

Donovan played before that, with the only guys of value on the field being Dempsey and Bradley, Yedlin towards the end of his career. Brian McBride's peak value was under 1.5 million pounds --Pulisic is worth 30 times as much.

Don't re-write history. Donovan made a bunch of £100K-£150K players look good. He qualified us and put us on the soccer map. But he was not particularly skilled. His technique was good, but not remarkable. He wasn't strong, he couldn't do feints, he wasn't big to win air duels.

Donovan biggest attribute, and one that eludes most people, was his intelligence. He could do exactly what was needed to compensate for the shortcomings of the other guys on the field. When he "disappeared" from the attack, it was because he was aware of holes in the defense. When he pushed as a forward, it was because he had found a hole in the rival himself.

In a big way, LD screwed us making us think we had a better pool than what we really had. Can't blame him for it, though. It's a shame, however, to have wasted such a brain in soccer. He could have opted for something of more benefit to mankind.

 

It sounds like you are trying to re-write history. The peak of the USMNT was 2002 when LD was a role player with no expectations. The US was on the map before LD even came along. The team wasnt a bunch of no names in 2006 and 2010. Im not sure why you have so much lack of respect for the rest of our players. Keller, Cherundolo, Onyewu, Pope, Lewis, Beasley, mastroeni, Reyna, Convey, and McBride were not some low level players that LD made look good.

I dont the idea you have been pushing that LD was some type of footballing genius. His speed and quickness (absolute physical traits in this game) enabled him to read the game easier against lesser opponents. If he really had some special intelligence, then he was a bigger failure than I thought. He may have "disappeared" and covered other spots at times, but there were many that he was just MIA.

 

You are probably onto something. He seemed happy being better than the rest, which was well below his potential. He was "affected" by the criticism in 2006 and think he felt he was bigger than the program by 2011.

He is clear number 1 for me in terms of career, but think Pulisic has already exceeded him in talent.

 

Maybe someday he will join this list... [/sarcasm]

 

What we have now on paper is very good. The teams that Klinsmann was fielding were much more expensive than any of our previous teams. Look at the team Klinsmann fielded against Mexico in the game we lost 1-2 in Columbus:

Howard - recently moved from EPL to MLS, valued €2m. Replaced by Guzan, Premier League, €2.5m
Besler - MLS, €1.2m, replaced by Orozco, MX, €1.2m
Gonzalez - MX, €2m
Brooks - Bundesliga, €14m
Fabian Johnson - Bundesliga, €7m
Chandler - Bundesliga, €2.5m, replaced by Yedlin, Premier League, €4m.
Bradley - MLS, €3m
Jones - MLS, €2.5m
Pulisic - Bundesliga, €12m
Bobby Wood - Bundesliga, €3.5m
Altidore - MLS, €2.5m

Total value: €59.9m ($66.5m).

Players in Top 5 = 7
Players in MLS = 5

By comparison, let's look at the 2009 game vs. Mexico, same stadium (I'm ignoring the 2013 game, because of Chepo de la Torre could be considered a factor). We won 2-0, that was the same Mexico that beat France 2-0 in South Africa:

Howard - Premier League, €8.5m
Hejduk - MLS, €0.32m
Onyewu - Belgian League, €5.5m
Bocanegra- Ligue 1, €3.5m
Pearce - MLS, €0.4m
Dempsey - Premier League, €5.5m
Bradley - Bundesliga, €4m
Kljestan - MLS, €0.4m. Replaced by Clark - MLS, €0.3
Beasley - Scottish Premier, €1.5m
Donovan - Bundesliga, €2.5m
Ching - MLS, €0.5m. Replaced by Altidore - Spanish Segunda, €3m.

Total: €35.92 ($39.5m)

Players in Top 5 = 5
Players in MLS = 5

Not sure if Transfermarkt adjusts values for inflation. If it doesn't, the second value ($39.5m) is close to $47m.

 

It seems like the value difference was due to a 19 yo and German-Americans who werent fully committed.

How much did the Mexican team change in value for those two games?

Donovan being the sixth most valued starter given his potential is the point. The five players valued less than him were two outside backs, a target forward, Klejstan, and his buddy Beasley all valued at 2 to 10 times the top end of the range you threw out before. What did he do to make those players look good?

 

Chandler. I remember fans thinking it was a big win when he committed. Soon after he's begging off the Gold Cup before crawling back to offer the worst competitive debut I've yet to see with the U.S. Dubious start to say the least, and it never really got much better for him.

 

He made a lot to make Ching, Beasley and Sacha look good. Compare how those guys looked with LD around and to how they looked without him.

His low value is part of the point that his big attribute was brains: he didn't impress in Bayern: he was not going to make feints, dribble through defenders, send curving shots to the corner to score.

To impress in Europe, you need to be extraordinary in something that can be shown right away. Beyond speed, what could he show? To show his smarts he needed some time playing with the team, and needed the others to trust him.

It didn't happen there, but in Everton it did, with players who (unlike the ones in Bayern) didn't believe themselves the best thing since sliced bread.

 

Dude has been injured for basically two years straight. All of 2018 and large chunks of 2017 either out injured or playing injured.
Yet he helped us win the Gold Cup when others weren't stepping up in 2017.

Its easy to forget about him due to his injuries and being out for so long, combined with the young talent coming up to get excited about. But I wouldn't write Jordan Morris off yet. He will have to earn his spot back though.

 

I apologize for derailing the thread.

 

Is he going to grow a left foot? Because if not you have a guy who’s main attribute is speed coming off multiple leg injuries, who is one footed and doesn’t posses elite technical skill. He’ll be lucky if he has Conor Casey’s career.

 

You are helping me make my point. LD had the potential to be a game changer at the highest level of the game and instead his biggest club success were two short stints as role player at a mid table EPL team. The team wasnt centered around him and was thus his speed enabled him to be more productive.

He was so smart that his genius was only noticed by a small subset of american fans noticed it. He was so smart he was able to keep his value low. "Europe" where the majority of the top players and coaches in the world spend their time didnt recognize his brilliance. He wasnt smart enough to figure out how to impress them even though he had the potential to do so.

His most complete "tournament" for the USMNT was the 2013 GC. He accepted the role of central figure and dominated. That is what he could have been, but instead was content to let the game come to him.

Beasley and Kljestan looked fine with other players. They both created good careers and made the most of their talents.

 

It's kind of ironic how our best player ever could also be our biggest disappointment.

I get it. Yes, I really do. I think Donovan never really wanted to be a jock. He's even said in interviews he liked more the managing side of soccer than playing it.

On the other hand, he did well for us to the end. He qualified us in Columbus a last time. He sent us through group in 2010. He was magnificent in those last two games in our mythical Confeds '09.

Infuriating, maybe. But a guy like that needs tranquility to produce. That's why they give tenure to profs --it's not so much to keep the independence of the gifted, but to give them enough peace.

They tend to be a very nervous bunch.

 

I dont really think it is ironic, but something that some people cant wrap their head around how it is possible.

He was good for us when he decided to be. After 2010, he acted like he had earned tenure when such a thing doesnt exist in sports.

Those things you mention are moments and not consistent play. If he had retired after the 2010 WC cup, you could claim he did well to the end. Instead, after the 2010 WC he had some amazing highs and some very low lows.

 

Definitely not the biggest, but Jack McInerney somehow destroyed his career while sitting on the bench during the 2013 Gold Cup.

IIRC he finished 7th on Golden Boot list at the age of 21, but almost all of those goals came pre July.

 

what's the story behind that?

 

Not me. I did it at work. Which makes me a millennial before the millennium! I was working for a defense contractor so we actually had a decent network.