I think he did well considering that he was out of position. He was also kind of mixed up with Altintop, I think, with Altintop playing very far forward. It was like they had 2 right wingers and no right back at the end.
Great game! LD had a couple of bad touches, but he had some nice passes and a good cross. He added something to the team and they played better with him than without him. That through ball that went out of bounds was because of a slow reaction by his teammate. LD plays a fast break type of game and his teammates will learn to react quicker. I think Donovan will learn that he doesn't have the space he had in MLS and be a little more careful with his first touch. If he is given the proper chance I don't see him failing. He looks like he belongs out there, and he has qualities his team needs. Hopefully they learn to use them, and egos don't become a problem.
He started off shaky and did better as time went on. Hopefully he'll get to play at striker because I don't know if he will impress enough while on the right wing.
Not many bad touches, true, but then he didn't have many touches at all. The one that sticks in my mind was his first or second of the match -- a pointlessly heavy first touch straight across the touch-line. Nerves, presumably. I agree it's not enough time to pronounce him passive, but he did seem to be out there on an island quite a lot. In that situation, I would have liked to see him present more direct attacking options.
Wuh? Where do you get this? Klose on the open market is worth, what, 20 million euros. Donovan can be had for, what, 4 million? He doesn't need to blow Klose out of the water; he needs to be good enough to justify 4 million. Any clue what Klinsmann asked him to do? Given how he was playing compared to Bastian, I'm guessing he said stay out wide. There was a reason he wasn't crashing the box or making runs. The HSV defense was collapsing and BM was playing, in essence, four up already (Ribery, Toni, Klose and Altintop). He was there to stretch the D and serve balls. He nearly served two goals.
He did get in the box that one time, but he had no balance for the pass to Klose (I think), although it was still good enough for him to get it in the net.
I wish Landon took on guys more... Bayern's finishing was woeful... they used all of their finishing ability in the Stutgart massacre
hard to be great when you are a sub and usually you always start. Donovan was fine, and if he gets more time, he will continue to get better.
Truer words have not been spoken. LD did very well for what was asked of him. It is hard for anyone to make that much impact in such a tense hard-fought match. Just keep in mind, HSV Hamburg has been Bayern's Boogie-man the past 2-3 seasons. It is always a nailbitter and HSV have gotten the better of Bayern on many occasions. It was a great experience to just get in the match. To nearly set up the equalizer will again be a confidence boost. With more time allowed will he make a difference? In theory yes, but look at both Klose and Toni today... both played the full 90 and were simply unlucky. Toni missed an open sitter but on the otherhand was arguably Bayern's best player today. It is a cruel focking game, mates... a cruel fecking game.
I was surprised they brought him in for Bastian, I thought Klose was very quiet tonight aside from the header back to Toni who obviously should have scored. Donovan looked pretty good, one bad touch and then he got manhandled trying to get it back, but other than that he looked good.
"Any clue what Klinsmann asked him to do? Given how he was playing compared to Bastian, I'm guessing he said stay out wide. There was a reason he wasn't crashing the box or making runs. The HSV defense was collapsing and BM was playing, in essence, four up already (Ribery, Toni, Klose and Altintop). He was there to stretch the D and serve balls. He nearly served two goals." No, I have no clue what Klinsmann asked him to do, but neither do you. And no one is asking him to make crashing runs at the box, rather, move more for the man with possession. He stood idle many times when he could have made short checks to, or worked to position himself for a chance to receive the ball wider and further back on the pitch. No doubt I am being over critical of him, but at the same time he will not get a lot of time to impress since his loan is only through March. He needs to make the most of every chance he garners. And I want it to be clear that I do not think that he played horribly, just that he did not play to his full potential in his small amount of time on the pitch. I don't think Klinsman will judge him completely on this game as it was a position he has never played on this team, but he will have to improve that much is certain.
On the layoff to Borowski, when he started that run and cut inside to his left - I was thinking of WC 02 in the Germany game for that similar run that he unleashed a rocket that Kahn just got fingertips too. I was hoping he would do that, and instead, probably based on Borowski's yelling, laid it off. That made me think of WC06 (ugh) and the layoff to Olsen. Granted, in the WC 02 game he was on a breakaway with no one else in the box, and today it was probably jammed packed and would have richoeted anyway. I still wish he had taken that shot.
You shouldn't be surprised. German referees will always, or at least in 99% of the matches, give 2 minutes of stoppage time. Doesn't matter how many injuries, they will give 2 minutes. Over here, we call it the "2-minutes-conspiracy"
I was hoping for a storybook ending. Not this time. Donovan did fine. His first touches were a little nervous, but then he settled in and did what he was told to do. He wasn't playing forward; he was RM. The sub that I was scratching my head on was Altintop for Lell. Altintop was wayyyy too slow back there and was getting absolutely torched. Then Schweini had to go back and help him. I thought Lell had been doing a surprisingly good job. Definitely a little faster than Hamit. As the game wore on, Altintop did settle in, though. Funny, neither Hamit nor Landon were subbed into the positions that they'd been put into in all the friendlies. Klinsi sure likes to do things his way, huh? I would have taken out one of the central midfielders, moved Schweini inside and put Altintop at RM. Then I might have taken out Klose and put LD in - he makes different runs and might have surprised the defense. Loved Landon's great defensive play and then the lob pass. Almost worked. The right idea. His cross was good. He almost got sprung on that through ball. That would have been sweet. I, too, wish he'd have been put in earlier and as a forward, but what are you going to do? I think he did what he was asked to do. Hopefully he continues to work hard in practice and does enough to get a permanent transfer. I feel nervous and anxious about his situation. I can't imagine how he must feel. And man, Bundesliga games sure are fun and exciting. Oh, and Luca Toni was robbed. That was a legit goal.
That's my guess, too. I hope Klinsmann learned a lesson today: Don't insist on LD playing wide. It's a waste. He should have been given free reign to mix it up anywhere in the midfield and attack. I will say that, on one level at least, Bayern got what it deserved. Way, way too many mis-reading of the attacking opportunities, going the wrong way sometimes; not going anywhere at others. Toni also looked really slow in his movement with and without the ball. Screwed up a lot of between-player time. Despite the negatives, if Bayern had scored half of its decent chances, they would have had 6 goals.
Demichelis and Lucio were great today and so was Lahm. Lell was incredibly solid. Its just our midfield which is a bit screwey. But our gk has been pretty mediocre so far. Also, Toni played his ass off but his finishing seems to be in self-destruct mode. Klose was pretty invisible. Landon's got to make sure he makes people know he's there. Get into people's faces and make himself noticeable.He wasn't bad, he was alright.
exactly, the box was packed and his shot would never have made it to goal...but he made the pass that beat the defense... How did Klinsmann learn any lesson other than donovan out wide still provides danger in the attack. Sorry, but if you're not at Real Madrid, Man City or Chelsea, you're stuck with strikers the caliber of Toni and Klose. JK put Bayern in a formation to create a lot of clear chances, as a manager you can't do anything more than that.
Donovan did well, but I would like to see the guy get a bit more time. Ray Hudson is awesome and certainly seems to respect Donovan's abilities.
LOLOLOLOL "stuck with." Klose has a WC Golden Boot and Toni scored like 324 goals for Bayern last year.
Hamburg is officially the luckiest team of the year, holy crap how the hell didn't Bayern score? That last shot by Klose where he beat the keeper and somehow the defender sticks his foot out and prays was just crazy. The look on Klose's face was priceless. I know Hamburg hit 2 posts or close to it anyways, still they were very lucky to escape today as Bayern really had golden opportunity after golden opportunity. Landon started off slow but by the end of the game he was making a difference. You guys need to chill and realize that Donovan is going to be more than fine. I just hope MLS lets him go. I think we're in for a Cold War of epic proportions.
I looked at the Hamburg goal in slow-motion. Even paused my DVR at the moment the initial shot was taken. The Hamburg player who eventually scored was at least 2-3 feet onside. Clearly a good goal. It's really frustating when commentators try to create controversy and mislead viewers just because they have nothing else to talk about. There's a reason why nobody on Bayern really complained about the goal. The foul call on Toni was an awful decision, but it was a pretty weak shot towards goal. It's debatable whether the goalkeeper would've let the ball go in the net had the whistle not blown/distracted him.
That's basically how I felt. He didn't have enough touches but not all of that was his fault. Sometimes he didn't check into the proper lane, sometimes he was just ignored by the other players. Notice, none of those guys plays one-touch. At the end, Bayern sort of looked in 3-4-3 there, with Donovan given a lot of room on the right by Marcel Jensen, who - at 6'5" - was begging to be taken off the dribble. But that didn't really happen either. Podolski is out with a flu? At some point, Klinsi will have a decision to make.
I thought LD was ok...not good and not bad. He started off pretty weakly and then picked it up. It seemed that he was definitely nervous, which is reasonable at this point. He isn't the finished article, and he isn't used to playing in these kinds of situations, which is precisely why this kind of move will improve him as a player. IMO, he clearly has the talent to play with these guys; he just doesn't have the big game experience yet to have settled in. Unlike in the other games of the last month, he wasn't aggressive enough in making runs or getting involved in the flow of play. It appeared that a bit of the timid LD who wants to lay off responsibility was rearing itself. However, that started to dissipate with time. I'm sure that this will disappear as he gets more minutes in these situations, and I'm sure Klinsmann knows that. The only problem is that the loan is over in a month and a half, and 15-20 mins a game doesn't add up very quickly. I don't know if that will give Hoeness, Beckenbauer, etc. enough "real game" time to have an accurate picture of a fully acclimatized Bundesliga player such that they will be willing to spend $10mm...maybe $5-7mm, and we'll have to see how MLS will respond. Hopefully, LD shakes off the nerves sooner rather than later.