LD's statement about training at least brings into question how many minutes he could have played in the style deployed. I wouldn't have changed the starting lineup for the Ghana game. Based on how he responded to being cut makes me wonder how he would have reacted to being benched.
There is nothing squishy about it. LD spent his career playing by his rules and not the teams. The idea that "he was all square" after the gold cup is a joke. If he was the pro you suggested, he would have never thought like that. Klinsman wanted all of the players to act more professionally and LD ignore him. It isnt an unreasonable request and one made by coaches all around the world and in the US in other sports. You keep talking about best players and completely ignore the cohesion of the team. He also wasnt the best players in the previous game. Klinsman got more out of LD than any national team coach. Arena's coddling of him didn't work out for him in 2006.
LD was man of the match against Italy. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2006/jun/18/worldcup2006.match2 Man of the match Landon Donovan - A touch of class in a chaotic match. The American golden boy was the most technically accomplished performer on the pitch, displaying the skill and vision to make Italy's defence look ordinary.
yep, that is LD. Great against Italy and absent to very poor against the Czechs and Ghana. Showing up for one of three games means you go home early.
I generally dont think a single player is indispensable, but as you guys have pointed out, we have historically lacked depth. I didnt say anything about just JJ, but him and three other players. I dont think there is a chance we lose that game with the three of them playing. I'd go as far to say that simply putting JJ on for Nagbe whould have been enough. It is amazing how much one physically and mentally tough player can impact a team. There is also this from LD on JJ....
I think a reasonable person could have him out of the top 3 field players. I don't see how you keep him out of the 11 for three group games. Davis and Zusi got starts.
Agreed on the three group games part. Would it be unforgivable if Davis or Zusi got cut for not toeing the party line?
No, bit players have to mind their manners.I wouldn't have taken either of them due to their clear physical limitations.
Yep... this is view that is prevalent in our system. You are actually making my point why Klinsmann didnt want him in his side. LD needed special rules and JK wanted the same rules to apply to everyone. Ive seen many a teams morale be poor when rules are enforced for some and not others. I liked the way JK treated the players. It was a lifecycle evolution through a career. He pumped up young kids and demanded his veterans performed. Exactly the opposite of how LD fans think it should.
Everything in there is true. There is enough evicence to believe it was a possibility, but that wasnt the reason that was given. The reason was that he didnt he was going to start and that it could become a distraction to the team. He didnt want to be sitting in a press conference after beating the team that had knocked us out of the last two tournaments and get questions about why landon wasnt starting.
High performers are treated differently everywhere where results matter. The best people where I work aren't treated the same as the fungible people. Actual leaders know that guys need different handling. The players are also smart enough to get it. As Bill Parcels said: "I never believed in treating everyone the same," Parcells said. "I don't believe in consistency as it relates to handling players. I believe in being right for each guy. I tried to do my best to understand what a particular player needed to be pushed to do his best. I felt an obligatory responsibility to give the players what they needed for the best chance to win." https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw21_WCp_KJm0rL9kvpP19lM&ust=1549665900680614
It's value versus hassle. He was low hassle and very high value. In our pool in 2014 he was irreplaceable. We started two off brand versions of him in the World Cup. Teams regularly succeed with malcontents and criminals on their rosters. Landon wasn't that. Jurgen seemed to think he was coaching a high school or church league.
Respectfully, he wasn’t irreplaceable because we did replace him and suffered no apparent consequence given our results.
I did watch the games and thought we played as a cohesive team - I thought JJ and FJ were very strong, CD was a warrior and MB surprisingly meh. I thought we were extremely organized vs. Belgium and almost stole the game against a very good team. I recall it was the opposite of the WC games under BB where we would give up a lead early and then come alive at the end. In 2014, we played better at the start of the game and then tried to hold on.
I’m on record as saying that I though LD would have been a valuable player in 2014. However, coaches and teams get judged on results and we achieved even with the LD cut and the loss of Jozy, whom I thought was primed for a monster tourney.
Results are fluky (one can argue we got lucky to even make it to the KOs in 2002 - our best result ever) but we played well enough to get out of the group even though we weren't expected to. My point is that saying "LD was irreplaceable" is fundamentally not true except in your subjective perspective (which you are entitled to). What else do you judge on other than result btw?
Coaches around the world do this every single year. Heck even Lippi, arguably the greatest coach of his generation, left off guys like Billy Costacurta with no real replacement forcing him to use players out of position and then he had to use an idiot like Materazzi when Nesta got hurt! There were Italian coaches that refused to take ROBERTO BAGGIO, TOTTI and ADP! Argy coaches leave off world class talent every single time they call teams up! Roberto Martinez left off the only player Belgium had with grinta for the WC and still did pretty darned well. It happens everywhere. When you have a huge personality and the coach has decided you aren't gonna start every game or have a big role, he does have to look at how you and your reaction to that decision will sit with you, your teammates and the whole balance of the team. IMHO, he should have taken LD, BUT, I it was pretty clear if he did, that LD was going to be a super sub, spot starter at best. I can see where a coach could be worried that that would cause dissension in the ranks, and LD certainly showed, like John Harkes did back in 1998, that he could snipe from the sidelines, which he did, BTW. Personally, I would have pulled LD aside and put it to him. This is the role I see you in for this cup. Are you willing to accept and embrace that and can you row with the team and our decisions in unison or not? If he agrees, then you bring him. if he doesn't he has to go. Remember this was in BRASIL and we played in some of the hottest places with the most travel of any country in the Cup, so someone like LD was not gonna be playing multiple 90 minutes games at his age and fitness level in that kind of environment. Maybe someday Klinsi will come clean and tell us why he really made the decision. I do think it was prolly because of the reasons I and others have outlined above. But it is certainly a defensible one given the realities of what LDs role was likely to be and where, when and against whom we were playing. And no matter what you think of JK's record after the WC, anyone trying to denigrate the accomplishments in Brazil looks like a hating fool. We had one off the toughest draws of anyone in the Cup, both in the Group stages and then in the Knock out round. If Belgium had not had such a plank-head of a manger (Klinsi haters need to think about that - I think JK takes that Belgium team farther than than idiot did), they could easily have been in the final. They had that much talent. So yes. Like it or not, on any reasonable basis, we exceeded expectations without LD. It is hard for me to see how we go any farther with LD than we did without him. But, it is also fair to say that that decision did cost Klinnsman a great deal with American fans. And, ultimately, with SUM and MLS big wigs. Which cost him his job in the end. So I wonder if looking back at it now if he still thinks it was worth it? BTW, people often forget that he did the same thing with the German team he inherited, but on a much bigger scale. He cut many "LDs" and the fans and the DFB were not best pleased. If he hadn't redeemed himself at the Cup where his German team also exceeded expectations (and laid the foundations for the long run in German performance since then by bringing in all those kids), he would have been blasted over there as well for similar reasons. Funny, now we WANT a manager that is going to "blow up" our team and banish our past stars to oblivion! Now our coaches are blasted for KEEPING THOSE STARS AROUND! SMDH! fan bases are never happy I guess.
Super sub might have been the perfect role and he probably would have embraced it if offered. We know it wasn't offered. Also the idea that travel and heat is a new problem for a guy who played MLS/Concacaf since he was a kid is something. Brad Davis, was just as old btw. As I said in 2014, if we had a pool of replacements that weren't Zusi, Davis and injured ArJo I wouldn't have been angry. I'm a huge NFL fan, I'm used to ruthless roster churn. This wasn't ruthless, it was mindless.
02 was super fluky! We had results go our way via S.Korea, got screwed on the handball etc. I judge a manager on results plus decisions. Results trump decisions but that doesn't make them disappear. Detroit drafted Darko over Mello and coincidentally won the championship the same year. That didn't make it a good idea.