News: USMNT GOAT Player Landon Donovan coming out of retirement

Slick little finish. Nice to have the legend as an option if we hit a major stumble in the hex.

 

Brad Davis is ready for the call.

 

Bwahahahahahahaha!

 

He's just a little bit ahead . . .

 

We can laugh and joke about it all you want but the bottom line is that it's absolutely a joke that we have a manager and Juergen Klinsmann that gets away with the crap that he does. What he did to Landon Donovan during that World Cup cycle would have gone any other coach fired in any other sport. He was a starting player for this team back then. Absolutely sickening still in my stomach. We all know that it was personal because of what Juergen son put on Twitter. Also, there's no doubt in my mind that he still is a top 23 player and if Jurgen wasn't the manager now, he would be getting called up against Mexico or at least would play in the Hex sometime and play in the 2018 World Cup. I think Landon would commit to playing two more years if Juergen wasn't the manager of the national team

 

I am calling bullspit on the bolded part. The team the coach picked at least met pre-exclusion expectations. Seldom does meeting or exceeding expectations get a coach fired. Comparison to what would happen in another sport don't matter because this is US Soccer and it is a unique animal.

 

Exactly, he would have gotten fired after the World Cup, after the GC or the Confed Cup playoff loss.

 

I think we'd have been a bit better of with LD killing off the clock at the end of the Portugal game, or getting on the end of the ball that Wondo missed. Unless we get to the semis in Russia, leaving LD off the '14 team will be what he's most remembered for.

 

True story.

 

He maybe wouldn't have gotten fired after the WC. He met expectations. But after the GC or Confed Cup loss (which ofc compounds the GC failure)? Definitely, JK should've been fired at that point.

 

I'm all for LD, but I always thought it was stupid to say "_________ would have finished that". If LD plays there's no chance he gets put in that same exact situation

 

No he's really not.

 

I have a question for this group about Landon Donovan's USMNT career. Are there any other mens international players who have accumulated at least 50 international goals AND 50 international assists for their country? I've searched endlessly on the web to try to find a descending order list of all-time international assists leaders, to no avail.

Here is a list of men with at least 50 all-time international goals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...l_players_with_50_or_more_international_goals I'd love to see an equivalent list for assists since that stat began to be tracked, or a list of who's achieved the prestigious 50/50 club.

My take is that it is an incredible achievement to have accumulated 50 goals AND 50 assists at the international level, and that Landon is likely in very elite company.

 

Yes he really is

 

I don't think people really realize how great he actually was. It's a shame. Not saying he had a world class career but there were moments where he was world class. Especially in the World Cup. He literally carried the national team on his back for 9-10 solid years

 

As an all-around attacking player? No. As an attacker? Absolutely is, just less than two full weeks off of a 2 year layoff.

 

I think we had a thread about this one and the problem was that it's only quite recently that people have started consistently tracking assists in international soccer.

 

Bedoya has played 500 MLS minutes this season with no goals and no assists. As a midfielder, that's kind of damning.

 

Although quite a few on these boards never rated Bedoya, it has been a bit weird watching him come in from Europe and perform at such a pedestrian level.

And Donovan can return and score an important goal in a 17 minute sub appearance after almost a two year layoff. One might get the impression that Europe might be a bit overrated.

 

We're listening...

 

Or, it's more likely that one might get the impression that it's nigh on impossible to equate one situation with another instead of trying to draw random conclusions based off of 1 player's performance in a different position.

 

Trusting these might prove sufficient for the Federation . . .

Welcome back, btw . . .

 

More likely that Donovan is just a better player than Bedoya.

 

Bedoya has 2 goals his entire career with the US. That's pretty damning also.

And here comes the "workhorse" union to hate me.