News: Donovan and Dempsey to miss Jamaica prep to attend family weddings

Yes, Landon set up Agudelo. In exactly the same way he set up Altidore in an earlier game for his cross that Dempsey scored.

I've read on these boards praise of Dempsey's play for Fulham how he often sets up the plays by making the pass that sets up the pass that makes the goal. Same thing LD does.

They are both excellent players in what they do. They are different players. Why one has to be put down (Donovan usually) in order to lift up the other (Dempsey usually) is absolutely beyond me. I love what they both bring to the team. And I must admit, I used to not care for Dempsey and his attitude. But I absolutely love him now. Just like LD.

 

yes, certainly this would have been a different (and worse) story had the US not showed that they were indeed the better team (while playing at home) versus Jamaica in a 2011 Gold Cup QF.

some more wrap up on this issue (hopefully) --

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/soccerblog/downs_ten_man_jamaica_to_reach_gold_FSLLB2oFxUf84MAMn9b0qL

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...rterfinals-2-0/2011/06/19/AG00svbH_story.html

 

I am interperting this whole situation from hear-say and that Donovan got to the airport at 11pm PT. If you are saying otherwise then ok he made the effort to be back in DC to get some sleep.

Food for thought:
Its Euro 2012. Quaterfinals stage. Spain's/Germany's/Netherlands' star player gets in the morning of the game from a 5 hour flight at 7am on gameday from his sister's wedding. What do you think happens? And would this situation ever occur?

 

Given how close everything is in Europe, it'd be hard to take a 5 hour flight. There definitely isn't a 3 hour time difference in Europe either.
I have no idea what would happen with another player. Perhaps they are rested enough to start and perhaps they aren't.

 

Comparing the Gold Cup (and the competition there in) to the European Championships won't get you very far in a reasonable analysis.

I'd say that the hypothetical you're creating has a very low chance of ever occurring.

There are 5 hour flights in Europe?

And siblings of Euro players probably realize that scheduling a wedding during the Euros is not the best plan if they want their footballing sibling to be at their wedding (and not with their national team).

do we have any idea how much prize money is on the line during the Gold Cup?

Here's the Euro2012 payout data:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2011-06-17-809946452_x.htm
certainly UEFA and CONCACAF are operating somewhat different sized businesses.

 

Gold Cup won't get anywhere near the Euro but the Gold Cup does get the US into Confed Cup which brings more $.

I should use a baseball analogy. Derek Jeter's sister scheduling a wedding in early October. It wouldnt happen.

 

fyp

 

Why not? You have NO IDEA why the two soccer players' sisters scheduled the weddings when they did.

Are baseball players' siblings somehow different from soccer players' siblings?
Is Derek Jeter more self-centered than Clint or Landon?

 

that made me laugh.

 

true, true. Or really it'd be the North American Baseball Classic (if there is such a thing). Most of the best baseball is in CONCACAF anyway... it'd be like the Euro Cup crossed with Copa America of baseball (almost all the best teams in the world with a few exceptions)

 

But that's because she's a whore.

 

“I just wanted to reward the U.S., pay back the team for letting me go to my sister’s wedding, come out with a good performance and not let the travel be an excuse (but) motivation to come out and fight harder. I was able to chip in and help the team win,’’ said Dempsey

“I know we get caught up in the soccer world, but there are certainly things that are equally if not more important to a lot of us,’’ said Donovan


So which one of these guys would you want to lead the team into battle???

 

Are you saying that there shouldn't be as or more important things to our players than soccer?

 

Donovan's choices weren't simply stay in Germany from age 20 or stay in the US for the rest of his career. He made a choice to sign a fat MLS contract a few years back, knowing that MLS would fight tooth and nail to keep him and would inflate his price, thereby making a move to a top league in his prime unlikely. As I said, he clearly values home comfort more than testing himself as a player, and he's still been damn good. But don't try telling me he wouldn't be a better player now if he'd done what Dempsey did, and go to a top European league at age 24 or so. Dempsey decided to go play in a tough league and fight for his place. Donovan chose to go to the beach. I know which guy I respect more.

 

I won't. But I'll tell other people reading that he might have. Because I think it's possible. Saying "it's obvious that this is true because it's true, so don't tell me it isn't" isn't a convincing argument.

And I know that neither of them care whether I respect them. But, for what it's worth, I tend to respect people who know what they want, know what they value, and act on that (including sacrificing for it) without letting other people's expectations bully them. It seems to me that Donovan and Dempsey are both that kind of person.

 

Or maybe he'll go down as the guy who helped take MLS to the next level which in turn helped take the US National team to the next level.

 

I'm glad Donovan started on the bench.

 

I'm actually quite amazed that anyone thinks that playing consistently against top-level competition and fighting for one's place and playing with better players doesn't make one a better player. As best I can tell based on your comments above, you think that had Donovan gone to Europe he might not have played and/or been successful? I'm telling you that Donovan clearly has the talent, if he'd had the kind of motivation that Dempsey has, he would have succeeded in Europe, no problem. As it was, he had a bad experience in Germany, gave up and came home. Jay Demerit doesn't have half the talent of Donovan but worked his ass off to make it in England, whereas Donovan just never had the fight in him.

What exactly has Donovan sacrificed, anyway? He's paid top dollar to play in a league that really is below his talent level. With the exception of international play, he's able to coast his way through MLS season after MLS season. Hardly a sacrifice.

 

The wedding's in Iceland?

 

Iceland never makes the Euros.
Also, can they even afford to have weddings over there anymore, what with their financial crisis and all.

 

Neither. I'd want to be led by someone who, like most players for all countries, would not have missed the three days prior to the quarterfinals traveling to weddings.

 

This is often the case, yes. Probably generally the case. But it's not true for everybody. Some people are going to succeed better and enjoy their lives more if they're in a social environment in which they're comfortable. Donovan seems to be such a person, and he's made his decisions accordingly. For all you or I know, those decisions are exactly the right ones and they've made him as a particular player the smart, highly effective player that he's been for years and that he might not have been if he'd moved back to Europe (and broken up his marriage years earlier) when he was 20 or 24.

And, let's remember that we're talking about a sport. A sport. Donovan isn't honing his craft as a doctor, a Seal commander, a high-energy particle physicist, or even as a second-grade teacher. He doesn't have a sacred mission. Lives and futures don't hang in the balance. He's a middlebrow entertainer. So even if we were to grant your claim that he chose to make himself a less effective middlebrow entertainer than he might have been, I think it's bizarre to look at him and lose respect for him for deciding that friends and family aren't as important as getting 5% better at kicking an inflatable ball.

Also, let's remember that Donovan did get big contracts to stay in the US. Big contracts that Dempsey simply wouldn't have gotten, certainly not playing for the second-biggest skinflint owners in MLS. So, yeah, more power to Dempsey for making the move, but let's not pretend the cases were precisely parallel either.

Jay Demerit was able to go to Europe only because he had an EU passport that let him stumble into a job in the English fifth division, had the good luck to work his way up the ladder with a team that believed in him, play a couple seasons for a bottom-table Prem team and then come back to MLS when he couldn't get offers elsewhere. I love the dude and his grit, but the stories are so out of parallel that it's not worth comparing them.

I've watched pretty much every game Donovan's played for the Galaxy for the last five years. He doesn't "coast" much. He busts his ass every game, whether people like to give him credit for that or not.

I get it. You think Dempsey is a red-meat, rawboned 'merican hero, and that Donovan is some kinda sissified underachiever. Your opinion. Not mine. I admire them both in different ways.

And neither Dempsey nor Donovan gives a rat's ass about either of our opinions anyway, so, really, who cares?

 

Jesus christ. Why is it that every Landon thread has to degenerate into this completely tired Europe vs. MLS argument? Or the Dempsey vs. Donovan argument. Who the hell cares anymore? Can we just take our all-time goal scorer and assist leader and call it a friggin' day? Especially since he probably has another solid 3 years with us and will only pad his stats further?

 

Voice of reason and logic. I'm sure Landon and Clint stayed match ready, so I really don't see what the big deal is. It would have been more of a big deal if they missed the weddings, or if they didn't attend at all, or had either of them been scheduled for a match day.

 

This thread is still up?