Donovan Cut - is this the end of Landon?

Jond, when in his career did Landon carry himself, of and on the field, with "an entitled attitude?? Make a bet with you.
When the story comes out my bet is that Landon was put off by JK's end-game of uber-Germanizing the squad, with Green perhaps as final straw. And JK squashed the opposition.
You can go with "LD is a double-faced dude with a bad case of the Entitlement Blues".
I'll take my chances on that one.

 

I have no problem taking Green because, honestly, if the best players we have for wing positions are Bedoya and Davis, then we're already kind of screwed anyways. The problem for guys beginning to break out isn't ability, but consistency, and I think he has the ability to make positively impact our team, at least in the context of the other wingers on the roster.

 

Its not even a little bit like that. Germany has half a dozen or more attackers that could easily take Klose's place and Klose, while a good German player, is nowhere near the upper echelon's of German football.

Landon has been US soccer for a generation and he is still, clearly, one of our top attacking players.

This hurts so much I can't even post. I feel so bad. So very, very bad. I know this was not about his play.

It was CLEARLY about JK showing everyone how big his balls are (or something close to there) and that he was the man in charge and the face of the team. We have NO ACCOUNTABILITY and Sunil Gulati is a chump. We are a Mickey Mouse soccer federation. This is such a sad day.

 

The above may be the only way to make sense of this.
Is LD better than Davis? Yes.
Is LD our most experienced player in a roster that has 17 out of 23 players who have never been to a WC? Yes.
Is experience important in the WC even if the experienced player is not a starter and is not at his top form? Yes.
Are there 23 players who are all better than LD in our roster? No.

So, based on the above, the decision to cut LD makes no sense whatsoever.

Then, now we need to try to understand the decision.

Is it because JK is jealous of LD? Nope, that would be preposterous. JK has achieved a lot more in soccer than LD. Besides, JK is not stupid. He knows very well that this decision puts his job in jeopardy, because if we fail (as we probably will anyway) then people will second-guess him even more. Therefore, he should better have a rather good reason to keep Landon out.
Is it because JK wants to privilege young talent? Huh... what talent? It's not like he is keeping a Neymar in order to dump LD.
Is it because LD hasn't been at his best, is overweight, and unmotivated? Hm, nope, because this would make sense for any other player, but not for our most experienced player who would still be useful regardless of his form, for the sheer sake of his experience and the guidance he'd be able to provide to the youngsters. It's not like JK can't take more than 11 players to the WC. The roster has 23 spots. Burning one spot with the most experienced player around still leaves 22 spots for the others. That's two complete teams.

So, if all other explanations above don't make sense, the only one that would be credible would be if LD has lost his ability to be useful (that is, useful for the sake of his experience) because of locker room issues. If LD can't transmit his experience to his teammates because they all hate him, then indeed it makes no sense to take him to Brazil for the only sake of his experience (which, let's acknowledge, is his biggest asset right now).

Now, this said, I actually have to tip my hat to JK for his courage.

In my opinion our team won't survive the group stage either way, with Donovan or without him.

The one difference of the "with" or "without" situation is that JK will be a lot more blamed if the team fails without Donovan. So, he effectively has just shot himself in the foot.

Another idiot who shot himself in his foot is his son, gloating about it on Twitter. He has managed to turn a whole nation against him. What an imbecile. He won't ever play for the USMNT, and JK won't ever be the head coach again, past July.

What a sad mess!

 

My prediction. Green will do for the USA in 2014 exactly what Walcott did for England in 2006.

 

I agree with Green..But not so much Davis.

Speculation time--We all know that Landon was NOT hated in the locker room, and I don't buy the whole "Klinsi is jealous" bit. But the tweet from Klinsi's son did show a bit of tension from JK... So I postulate this--Did Klinsi and LD have a row because Landon was not expected to start? I can see Klinsi telling Landon he will be a utility sub and Landon not liking that, and that escalating into what we see now.

I sure wish I could be a fly on the wall in Stanford..

 

I feel terrible for players being cut. I think I'd rather see only 23 called in. Evans, Goodson, and Parkhurst, while I'm not particular in love with their games, really contributed and worked hard for this team. Boyd is a great kid, too. Agony and ecstasy of sports, I guess. Side note: Yedlin just doubled his income for the year.

 

There is no reason for Klinsi cutting Donovan...







... which can come close to as unhinged as some of the speculation and outright defamation of Klinsmann in this thread. Wow.

Nazi accusations?
Death penalty comparisons for a Tweet?

WTF people, you can't stand on the street corner drooling, and scream that the world is ending, and claim it's because somebody *else* is the crazy one...

And BTW - Nobody can ever claim again with a straight face that Bob got anything like this level of vitriol during his tenure. Nepotism? Bah!

 

2014 World Cup is now a training session. Klinsmann is comfy with his contract through the World Cup. His personal distaste for Donovan, their clashing of egos ended up hurting the team. While we thought it was possible Donovan would be a sub he was left off completely.

Very petty. This was all personal, nothing to do with soccer.

 

What?

 

If Donovan has good taste, he'd have to go with Dempsey's.

 

I just hope those who are hooting and hollering don't flip flop if things go well.

Period.

 

And you know this how?

 

So Donovan's not the greatest practice player anymore. He knows his own body and what he can do but apparently that's not good enough for coach. Jurgen has never been much of a fan and either sees him an obstacle to implementing his "system," or his authority in general or both. So now he gets to be the unchallenged smartest guy in the room and on the pitch with no more bruises on his ego. Theres no question that without an undisclosed unjury LD isn't even in the bottom half on this squad but so be it. Congratulations and lets see if we can hold Portugal under 10.

 

I love the guy but Boca was done. In truth I thought he was done before 2010 and had my doubts when he was included. Dropping him was the right call.

Not sold on leaving Landon off but I see the reasoning.

Front page news: 14-year-old boy says something stupid on Twitter.

 

WAY TO ABSOLUTELY NAIL IT BRUCE ARENA. I still love that dude.

 

I dont agree with leaving Landon off at all, but you don't fire him over a guy on the decline who would have been a backup anyway. Especially considering how successful Klinsmann's been

 

Landon for all his talent has been happy to settle for less. As a young man he choose to return to the US than stay in Europe and make the effort to play at Leverkusen and later at Munich. Donovan seems to choose comfort over a challenge. That does not make you a better player and does not endear you to a coach trained in Germany to strive for relentless perfection. I am sure Klinsmann looked down on Donovan's sabbatical from the national team. Similarly, Donovan has been off form all season. He can't play 90 and his physical abilities are eroding. Are we even sure Donovan can come in for 20-30 minutes and create instant offense? Donovan's lack of commitment and his eroding skills and conditioning made this inevitable.

 

I expect us to do well. I just feel that this is a terrible way to do something. At the end of the day, he is one player. He could have missed the WC by injury and we would be in the same situation

 

Jond said: " I get the impression Landon said one thing to the media, being the ultimate team player and willing to do anything and everything to make the cut, yet carried himself differently when actually in the squad. Was he taking it easy while having an entitled attitude?"

So you claim Donovan is two-faced, and is all about Entitlement.
I claim that it is far more likely that Donovan resented JK's pouring in German-Americans, and that JK was squashing opposition by hitting directly at LD.
We will see soon enough, once Brazil has left us in the dust.

 

Come on man. Brad Davis is there. It's evident Klinsmann hates complimenting him in the media. The two don't get along. This started with Landon taking his sabbatical and spiraled out of control.

Even the journalists we have are shocked and know it's personal. Behind the scenes they never got along.

 

Captain for Life, Part Deux, by Landon Donovan

 

I think JK is making a strategic decision. Taking a short term loss for a long term gain. The group made it a lot easier.

 

As a son of an American serviceman and non-US mother, I really have problems with these kinds of statements. When I was a kid, even before I set foot on American soil, I felt that I was American through and through. This choice is not Donovan vs Green, is it?