Donovan Cut - is this the end of Landon?

As someone remarked, if we fail to make it out of group by a hair, then it's probably going to be when we're going to wonder the most what would have happened if...

 

eternal optimists! exactly right. some of the alternatives are not fun places to live (though perhaps a bit more realistic)

lando has made abundantly and consistently clear he is his own man, who plays by his own book. i can respect that, even if, as a fan, i find it frustrating that his book doesn't tell him to always go full bore with the considerable weapons he has at his disposal. but, such is the nature of people. everyone flawed (and gifted) in their own way. in the end, i don't begrudge lando any of his decisions (even if i may have called him "landycakes" at one time!)

yep. everyone makes their own decisions. sometimes others are happy with those decisions, other times not so much. the trick is to make sure the dude making the decisions is happy with them, at least more often than not. even if the difference is "success" vs "failure".

 

Some of you don't even recognize your hypocrisy. I've seen you and those who repped this post go on and on about recent club form as reasons for calling guys in. Now apparently, form no longer matters and previous international success is the only standard for getting called in and making the cut.

However, I guarantee after the WC most of your will be back in the MLS Flavors of the Week thread propping up this guy or that guy to get called in based on recent club form, without the international success.

 

There is direct evidence against this:
http://www.bild.de/sport/wm-2006-deutschland/sport/klinsmann-hammer-nein-618852.bild.html
They in fact worked behind the scenes to get him to change his mind.
x - Debunked

True conclusion, but opinions vary as to Bayern's performance... That said, his successor had even *worse* performance. FWIW.

Ask a fan? Sorry, this is just absurd. He was something like a fitness/motivation consultant for them. Hardly someone who should be held accountable for TFC's performance.


... soooo, basically you're down to the "But he got fired Bayern!" thing.


Which has been "considered" plenty on these boards. The only thing new here, is the attempt to insinuate that the job he resigned from was actually a firing

Carry on.

 

We can be as critical as we like now.

But we will have more evidence then if we are right or not!

I'd love to be wrong, but I doubt it.....

 

I loathe Klinsmann as much as anyone, but embellishment aside, a challenge that reckless, spikes up, deserves a straight red every time.

 

Because we did not play Ghana, Portugal, and Germany in the Hex.

We are now underdogs with no margin of error, needing our best, plus some luck to advance.

 

Worse? How do you figure?

 

3) the forward thing is a red herring which was supposed to avoid comparisons which are even harder to justify than those at forward. But it didn't work for most here.....

 

Why are you upset with me? I am a 43 year old with a beer gut. Klinnsman would likely call me a PU$$Y also. I don't see anything wrong with what I said.

 

You're right. I had forgotten van Graal's first season went well. I was thinking of his second season which felt a lot like JK's end.

 

So, was Joachim Low not the one pulling the strings on that team then, and more directly responsible for their success?

http://www.espnfc.com/news/story?id=641725&cc=5901

"Klinsmann was offered the coach's role at Bayern Munich on a wave of popular support of he guided the German national team to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup.

However, some doubted Klinsmann's credentials and pointed out that before taking the role with the national team he had no managerial or coaching experience, and some argue that Germany's success in 2006 was explained by a combination of home advantage and the coaching of Joachim Loew, Klinsmann's then-assistant and now current Germany coach."

 

I see your point, and Bradley alluded to this as well. But to be fair to Donovan he's done more in THIS cycle than the following list of players: Wondo, Johannsson, Davis, Green, Diskerud, Chandler, Yedlin, Brooks. Including the round prior to the hex, he's done more than Bedoya. Thats about half the roster. Donovan also was the most important player in our one tournament win so far this cycle. So going by how Klinsmann has evaluated players prior to the world cup camp, Jurgen Klinsmann thinks Jurgen Klinsmann is wrong.

Sorry. Getting carried away. I'm still trying purge my disappointment

 

I don't know whom you are speaking to.

My very first post on this controversy said:

"Form is temporary, class is permanent"

And we are not discussing "calling guys in" but the final 23.

But feel free to start a "Ream not called in, is this the end of, Timmy" thread.

 

lol, I'm really not upset with you.

I really wish Klinsmann would come forth and say what the truth was with regard to Donovan. That would take all of the speculation we have out of the scenario.

What he said was that Landon's performance at training was this much short of making the team.


Donovan said "Based on my performances leading up to camp, based on my preparation for the camp, based on my fitness, based on my workload, based on the way I trained and played in camp, I not only thought I was a part of the 23, I thought I was in contention to be starting," he said.

Donovan continued, "You all know me pretty well, I'm pretty honest with my assessment of my performance."

One of these guys is a liar. That's the guy with the real character issues.

 

fair enough. the above comment by klinnsman is likely bull$--t.

Like I said, I really don't think he could have stated the real reason - at this time at least.

 

You here to rehash old times? I was just debunking your speculation which had been refuted already in this very thread. JK was in charge there. If he used assistants that helped him be successful so be it. People who have an issue with that probably think Steve Jobs programmed iOS personally

 

By the way, I think Donovan is correct in that he has regularly been one of the most candid interviewees I've ever seen in professional sports, so that assessment does mean more to me coming from him than it would from nearly any other cut player.

But his form during the next month or so in MLS will most reliably confirm or refute this assessment.

 

Yeah, me too . .

Nice guy Mix Diskerud was once criticized by Jurgen for being too soft:

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/...ents-that-may-sound-harsh-but-probably-arent/

Mix brings a lot of qualities, but he also needs to learn to become more robust, to become more physical, to not be kind of just moving around and not getting into real battles. You know, battles are everywhere; we all go into battles. This is something he will pick up the more he is playing in a certain environment, and so we are there to kind of guide him in that process.”

And guess what, Mix is going . .

And, here is what nice guy, Philip Lahm had to say about Klinsmann:

“We practically only practiced fitness under Klinsmann," Lahm said, according to excerpts published in German newspaper Bild and translated into English by several outlets. "There was very little technical instruction and the players had to get together independently before the game to discuss how we wanted to play.”

Jurgen Klinsmann's direction isn't always appreciated by his players. (AP Photo)
Lahm, a 27-year-old defender who has played more than 80 times for his country, also wrote, “All the players knew after about eight weeks that it was not going to work out with Klinsmann. The remainder of that campaign was nothing but limiting the damage.

 

It's funny you bring that up.

Mix you could tell played the game before as a guy looking to watch out for his own ass, not make the harder tackles, play almost on his tippy toes and avoid some harder tackles.

Since that criticism you could tell he's worked on that side of his game--and it's paid off. He wins us some dangerous fouls close to the box and also has raised his presence on the defensive side of his game too.

It's all mental--it's the fear of getting hurt that screw people up. Scared of going in too hard and catch a knock to the shin or to the ankle.

 

This is the one point I have to take issue with. Donovan has 5 WC goals. Klinsmann has 9.

 

Yes, absolutely correct . . .

 

I think there is some truth to this, but I also think that Donovan has been preparing for this WC since before the sabbatical. The sabbatical may have been his first step in his preparation to avoid exactly the problems and issues you describe.

That's only my opinion and an impression I have. Nothing to back it up but my gut.

 

Here is another old article from January 2013, I found while looking for the Mix information,
a very forboding and foretelling quote about LD:

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2013/01/22/jurgen-klinsmann-us-mens-national-soccer-team-sounds-off/

On Landon Donovan’s future:

Landon wanted his time off. He made certain decisions throughout the last couple of years that are his decisions. I watch that. I evaluate that. I could have evaluated him a few times when he was with us, not that many times, but a few times. I will make the call at the end of the day if he fits into my plans or not. I told him in December he’s not part of the January camp, and I told him in December he’s not part of the Honduras game. From his perspective, he’s still on his break.

And the entire article is a good read re:Klinsmann's perspectives.

 

You can't have it both ways. You can't say it's about the team AND Landon is a forward.