He should have taken their spot on the roster, not their role on the team. It's pretty clear that Donovan should have been playing in Bradley's spot, as Bradley couldn't handle it, and Donovan is still the team's best playmaker.
So a guy who, on his own accord, stated he cannot practice at a high level for five straight days is somehow supposed to be fit enough to play as a CAM four times in two weeks against the likes of Portugal, Ghana, Germant and Belgium?
Go back and read the threads in this forum. Overwhelmingly, posters said that, even if Donovan wasn't good enough to start, and couldn't go a full 90 minutes, he would be invaluable as an attacking spark off the bench and a backup to Dempsey. When Altidore went down in the first half of the first match and Dempsey moved into his role, there was no effective player to bring off the bench to fill in for Dempsey. Others constantly harped on the idea that Brad Davis, even on his best days, could not hold a candle to Donovan (even at his worst). Davis was rated as our worst player in the WC, so even if JK hadn't used Donovan to play Dempsey's role, he would have been an asset. It is disingenuous for you to pretend like this isn't the case, and pretend that critics of the decision did not want the USMNT to get out of the group. It undermines your credibility. So in spite of the overwhelming preponderance of evidence, you will take the word of the man whose son mocked Donovan in public over another player with no vested interest? Gotchya.
Now you are making stuff up. Get your facts straight if you want to be taken seriously. "Donovan admits he can't go 12 days in a row at a high level in practice"
They just make up whatever numbers fit their argument. The guy is going 90 every match for LA. There's no reason to think he suddenly can't play, even if he's admitted his mortality. Jesus, does Dempsey ever go 100% in training?
90 mins vs MLS teams once a week = 90 (or 120) against three of the best teams in the world and Ghana? Gotcha!
Donovan > Davis. That shouldn't need to be said. It's pretty obvious. My entire issue is that the squad cuts happened over three months ago and some of you guys are still so freaking butthurt. If I'm JK, I take Donovan. I said it in may and my tune has not changed, in case you'd like to scroll thru the thousands of posts on here. I've read posts like "Donovan have some great free kicks last week from the same spot as a couple of ours against Belgium." (Or along those lines). These people believe that a cross is going to reach Gonzales wether he's playing agaisnt MLS players or Kompany, Vertonghan, Fellani, Witsel. Wtf?! It's not like you can transpose one situation into another, yet people treat it like gospel. And who gives a crap about some punk ass 18 year old and his twitter feed. When I was 18 I hated Italy (still do) but my dad liked them. It's almost like, get this, were two different people with possibly different sets of opinions on a subject! It's wild, man.
Make it up or got the number of days wrong? If I made it up, I was pretty close! (Spoiler: I didn't make it up, I remembered incorrectly)
Understood. What's a week between friends? I'll have a fact checker next time, my own fault for multi tasking. I think the point that he was making excuses about training wether it be a work week, or under a fortnight, is telling. And he'd have to play against high quality opposition 4 times in a two week stretch, after training hard for a month. And he was down on himself after 12 (see: TWELVE) days. But I still didn't make it up. "Landon Donovan hates training and wants to sit back and make the team on his résumé." That's made up.
Why move the goalposts to require him to play 90 every game in Brazil? Also, the MLS is known as a very fast, fit league so his 90 minutes do mean something.
Ima say something right hurr... I think we can all agree that Klinsmann left Donovan off the team for nonperformance reasons. The sixty four dollar question is: what were those reasons? a( refuse to reward a player who went walkabout during WCQs? b)Not wanting a player who thought he should be starting sitting on the bench and possibly messing up the chemistry? c) Just didn't he could or would be able to play the pressing midfield style necessary? d) Just don't like him-don't want him on the team. e)All the above.
Lmao so a week is now 7 weeks, and so on and so forth. My point of him on his own accord saying he can't train for "x" amount of days when no one else on the team said that. And he didn't say it at 19, 23 or 27. It's telling. Overlook it for my mistake, fine, but it is telling, like it or not.
The fact you're obsessed with my mistake in days proves the validity of my point. Edit: my point doesn't hinge on the number of days but the statement that he was unable to do something that seemingly, everyone else had to do and did. If you want to overlook that and concentrate on the number of days, you're missing the point completely.
I'm not moving goalposts. The level of competition of the World Cup exceeds that of the mls, and in the group we were drawn in, exceeds most if not all leagues. Don't compare apples to oranges and I won't "move goalposts"
To be fair to you, "making stuff up" is probably too strong a description of what you are doing. However, you have demonstrated that you formed your opinion and your arguments based on erroneous information. I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt and explain why that was relevant... but it's pretty clear from your last series of posts that you are just trolling at this point, and not interested in having a discussion.
The inference that LD had to be a 90 minute player for every game in order to make the team is why I say you are moving the goal post. As to the level of play argument. The fact that he is able to play 90 in game after game in a fast paced. physical MLS is not apples to oranges at all. It is soccer and he is fit enough to have started in Brazil. He should have started 2/3 group games and the Belgium game. He has shown nothing to indicate he couldn't start 3 games in 2 weeks.
I'm not trolling, I just disagree. I've argued for Landon many times. I thought he was one of the best wide players in the world around the start of the decade. Growing up (I'm 27) LD was *it* then Dempsey came, Howard, Bradley, so on. When I think of 2002 and 2010, I think of him. I don't hate Landon. I just think he took time off at the wrong time, during qualifiers. He was burnt out from playing non stop between club, country and loan games. I buy into thinking Klinsmann didn't want give off the idea someone could take time during qualifying and waltz onto the team because of who he is. I like the "no one is bigger than the team" message it gives off and that's the point of it for Klinsmann. If it's me, I'm taking him 100 times out of 100. It does kind of send a bad message but he's just better than Davis and a few others. Klinsmann didn't take him and he navigated the team out of the group of death. His job isn't to worry about offending the best player we've had. It's to get out of the group and try to win some knockout games. A lot of the success (and almost success) came down to some of the questionable calls he made (Yedlin, Brooks, Green and I'd consider Gonzales (over Goodson along with Brooks)).
That rah rah stuff is great for games that don't count and for kids. This is professional sports. If the job is to win, leaving arguably your best overall player home is a bad start. If nobody is bigger than the team then JK isn't bigger and he should have swallowed his pride and taken LD to Brazil. If we all agree that he needed to be on the team then what is the point of making excuses for a clearly stupid choice. It was dumb at the time and dumb in hindsight.
JK isn't bigger than the team. It's just his team. He chooses the way he wants, that's the control he has. He thought keeping Landon at home was best for the team. And he exceeded the outside world's expectations of the US team after being drawn in that group, and met most of ours here (get out of the group). They're just two men, and as anyone who's played any sport knows, sometimes coaches and players, good as they may be, just don't click for whatever reason. This wouldn't have happened when he was in his twenties because, then, he was just too good. But after the time away and him really not being the same player anymore, it's just the way it is. I just don't think it should still be an issue.
That was me who posted about free kicks. Go watch Bedoya take his corner in the 87th minute against Belgium and put the ball right on the head of the Belgium defender playing a one man zone at the top of the six (near post extended). Useless corner - you HAVE to get the ball past that first defender or you are not doing your job. But the guy didn't even have to move - he just stood there and headed it away. Then in overtime, 30 seconds after Belgium scored, we win a free kick in a dangerous spot and Bradley kicked the thing out of bounds 10 yards over everyone. He might as well have just picked the ball up with his hands and handed it to Belgium. The next one Bradley gets in the second overtime, he hits it right at the first defender 10 yards away. Those were three pressure packed free kicks where we were amateur hour. The point was not that Donovan would have picked out Gonzalez's head against Belgium - the point was he would have at least put it into danger and given us a chance. He's an important weapon since he's good at them - and he tends to handle the pressure. The fact that he found Gonzalez from the same spot just was a microcosm of a larger issue - we see unprepared to take a dangerous free kick when we needed it most. They were wasted chances - and for a team that had trouble creating them in the flow of play. Watching Donovan serve one from the same spot and pick out his target just was a reminder that we could have used him out there.