Donovan Cut - is this the end of Landon?

Seriously hard to read that without laughing. Sorry man.

No worries though 5 games left in the JK tenure, unless he decides he can't even face his friends and countryman and bails before the Germany match.

Exactly. This is just more smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the reality that JK made a horrible decision that will probably cost him his job and a decent WC showing for the USA, never mind end the greatest American soccer player's career on a sour note.

First, it was "he isn't fit, he's fat." Which was refuted by the media reports that he was in the top third of fitness for the team, and even some reporting he crushed the beep test.

Second, it was "well he is out of form and has lost a step." Which is so dubios an argument on so many levels, especially when we begin to compare Donovan to Wondo, Davis, and Green.

Now it is that he is a locker room cancer. Which all evidence points to the opposite conclusion.

At the end of the day, this was a narrative decsion by JK. He wanted to kill the sacred cow of Donovan, and he has said as much before. He and Donovan did not gel the way he wanted and so he cut him.

It is a massive mistake, and the US will pay dearly for it.

 

There's always been this tension in US soccer between needing to be more worldly versus making do with what we got. Sunil's courting and then bagging Klinsmann has always been about trying to take a shortcut to addressing our lack of domestic talent and worldly experience. That this is what we get shouldn't be a surprise. Klinsmann brought the US a name, a Eurocentric attitude, and a sparkling resume.

Whether or not that's what the US really needs is open to debate. To me this World Cup is a grand experiment to see if the theory that this shortcut will work. It's on Sunil that he doubled down on the idea before even putting it to the test.

I've always been under the impression that Bruce was pretty much great, and honest, with players. His intolerance being reserved for pundits, bureaucrats, and superfans, who believe that the next great US player is just out there playing street soccer waiting to be discovered. Or, perhaps the overlooked x-American offspring of a army romance who just happened to get overlooked by the country he lives his life in.

 

Yea--bruce is a dick to the press, but he's a great friend and mentor to his players. He housed Ben Olsen when he was a teenager earning pennies with the project 40 program. Etcheverry came out and said he was the best coach he's had in his career, and keep in mind this guy played all over the world from spain (Benito Floro, his ex coach was Real Madrid's coach for a bit) to chile, colombia, etc.

Bruce was a great motivator to players, and often times knew when to let them do the talking on the field like he did with Etcheverry who ran DCU from 96 on. Bruce gave him the keys as a last ditched effort when they couldn't win a game to save their life in 96'.

 

(source)

"“Bruce’s man management is very good. He’s very good with the players. He’s strict when he needs to be, and then he’s good at putting an arm around a player that needs it,” said Beckham. According to Arena, motivating players is as important as setting them up, tactically. “Everybody knows how to draw up a play, how to run a practice. That’s the easiest thing you could possibly do. The biggest key is get to know [the players], and get them to know you. Try to create an honest working relationship. If you can develop a good working relationship, then you can deal with the highs and lows that come your way.”

One of those lows came this season in May. The Galaxy were 3-9-3, hanging around the bottom of the conference. Then the team had a two-week break.

“During that break,” said Donovan, “I think he went player to player and let people know what the expectations were. Bruce and I had lunch, and I think for the first time I realized the urgency. He made it very clear that the team was gonna go as a few of us went. If we could change it around, the whole team could.”"

 

Couldn't resist using this image, which potentially says more than the thousands of words that have been spilled here.



and if you would rather listen to it on a loop instead

 

The thing that should then greatly worry us, is the number of times that Bruce has gone out of his way to kind of point out the JK is full of it.

First there was when JK was talking up the importance and novelty of players from MLS going out on loan to Europe. Bruce basically said that was a bunch of bs, and that it was nothing new or all that great.

Then there was his direct refutation fo JK saying the players on the WC team were better than Donovan.

I get the sense Bruce does not think highly of JK.

 

That is just good leadership.

 

Bruce is being a little bit hypocritical here. He was very much a supporter of MLS players going to Europe when he was the USMNT manager and he was the opposite of deferential to MLS clubs' interests. It's a bit convenient, though understandable of course, for him now, when he's an MLS manager again, to trumpet MLS and his team's interests.

Also, Bruce's comments on the WC team re Donovan came out before Klinsmann's roster was released, unless I'm mistaken.

 

Tomorrow is a big day in this debate. Strong performance by the USMNT or a weak performance by Donovan will quiet things down a ton. On the other hand, another shit show from the US coupled with another MOTM performance by Donovan and this boiling kettle explodes.

 

No, I think that was still Arena's point. JK was kind of acting like this was going to revolutionize US soccer and that it was his idea. Arena was non-plussed, as was really anyone paying attention, since US MLS players having been going on loans to Europe in the break since probably around 1996. I think he was refuting more of the idea that this was revolutionary and novel... another master stroke by Klinnsman.

 

The Swiss national football team (also known as the Schweizer Nati in German, La Nati in French, Squadra nazionale in Italian) is the national football team of Switzerland. The team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association.
Its best performances in the World Cup have been reaching the quarter-finals three times, in 1934, 1938 and when the country hosted the event in 1954. Switzerland also won silver at the 1924 Olympics. The youth teams have been more successful, winning the 2002 U-17 European Championship and the 2009 U-17 World Cup.

 

The team is ridiculously unsettled. This is a la Honduras. Hopefully, JK gets his act together. My gut tells me that this is going to favor Donovan in the end. Landon will have his cake and eat it too.

 

Ok, your post takes a lot of liberties.

For starters, even the most ardent LD defenders must admit that falling from the top down 7-9 spots is a concern. I don't care how you spin it.

Imagine if Hejduk were to show up in '02 or '06 and fall from the top down to the 2nd tier on the beep test. That would have been a concern b/c it probably indicates that he's lost a (significant) step and probably could not compete at the same level.

Just so you know, this is part of the reason they do these tests, to be able to monitor athletes over time.

C'mon, bro. Universally, it's accepted that LD does NOT have the same speed as before, and at the very least, he cannot sustain it for as long as before.

And that's fine. It doesn't negate his ability to contribute.

To be fair, this is more from LD defenders trying to figure out what the **** may have been behind The Decision.

Nobody is saying he's a cancer. You're getting that from ppl saying, "Look, there's no way he was excluded bc he was locker room cancer."

 

I'm not saying he's wrong, just that he's not a disinterested party to any of this.

To what comments of Bruce's of Jurgen's and when are you referring here?

 

I think I might have missed this somewhere in the last 100 pages or so, but is there a link to Donovan's beep test results that everyone keeps referencing?

 

There was an article (more of a blog really) on MLSsoccer.com that claimed, without source, that Donovan finished "in the top third." I found it by Googling. I haven't seen any other statements about it.

 

The truth is that the majority of people who UNDERSTAND sports and people management, also share Bruce's views.
It are what it are.

 

@KALM I know it is really stretching at this point but I will note that in the filmed portion of the test on the ESPN special he did look smooth and was towards the front of his group at times. He also was not one of the people shown dramatically collapsing after the fact.

Knowing that he has been one of the best in the past and that he came to camp to win a spot I would be surprised if he wasn't a very high scorer. Also when you consider that it is a test of endurance and that endurance doesn't really drop off at such a young age (see marathon results) I am willing to say he was probably very fit and definitely fit enough to help the team in Brazil.

 

maybe i missed it, but how it is becoming increasingly clear that this was a decision based on either personal bias or ego driven control issues?

unless your referring to the volume increasing in the big soccer echo chamber.

now i personally think donovan should be in brazil, but i don't think anything has become increasingly clear related to why he is not.

 

"Ridiculously unsettled"
Have you been in this lockerroom at all to talk to these players?

 

to be fair, in this group, the pressure to win vs ghana is there no matter who is in charge. i don't think donovan being there or not, adds or relieves any of that pressure one way or the other.

 

probiotics?

 

I see no reason to debate this. Let's see what happens tomorrow. My guess, and that's all it is, is that Donovan outscores the USMNT tomorrow and that the media has a field day with it.

 

I have no clue, just saw this picture on fox sports website from the game the other night.

 

We'll see. While I don't like the looks of what Jürgen seems to have in mind, the team has talent, and the first game against Azerbaijan was always going to look sloppy anyway, what with the heavy legs from intense fitness training (which was totally normal and advisable) and the Candlestick winds, and I like the fact that we had enough fight and quality to get the breakthrough anyway. Tomorrow's game against Turkey will be the first "real" indicator that we'll have. If we look unsettled and/or listless tomorrow, then I begin having real doubts.