23 Tickets to Brazil

And for this reason as well:

On US No. 10 shirt: Sponsor Nike already took a hit on jersey sales when Donovan cut. No way Dempsey would take 10 with Nike 8 shirts ready.

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) May 27, 2014

 

The logical choice.

Also tells me, since Bradley is the #1 for the same position, that Mike and Mix are going to play closer to the attackers than the other guys (#1 Jones and #2 Beckerman). I like the idea of having a more dedicated DM. Not sure I'd trust JJ in that position though.

 

True I can say though that most . Of the players in thr qualifying got selected

 

Agreed. Goodson is the classic good soldier who helped at key times in the WCQ process. The slowest of the CB's is probably the key Clarence did not make the cut, given who the backline - has - to keep up with for USMNT to stand a chance at not getting blown out.

 

Quote an excellent post!

Interesting take away.....

 

Tough shit for Landon then, I guess he did himself a disservice by doing nothing but succeeding since 2002..

Should have tried failing at one of these loans or Galaxy seasons, might have helped the cause.



Just being a smartass, hopefully no one takes my post too seriously.

 

You are surely not claiming he succeeded at Bayer Leverkusen, are you?

 

Agreed 100%.

For example, the fact is folks are going to get punched in the face/knocked down presumably when the ref is not looking in Brazil. Speaking of Jones, who is known to dish it out, and whom many question his automatic inclusion when he too is a 32 year old (like the one I will not name) with a troublesome knee (like..), no longer playing in a top 3 league/Champion's League squad. Because speaking of toughness, I remember Jones getting absolutely clobbered by Costa Rica in the snow game. Apparently they figured if they could take out the tough guy then others might fold. Did not happen; Jones just kept getting back up, and going at them. So yes, Jones is needed in Brazil and likely in starting 11; since for all the talk of playing pretty soccer it will be an at times ugly battle too. And whether Jones is being targeted by the other squads or dishing it out, that's part of the game at this level.

Still, imho the key point all those perhaps calming down but still somewhat upset about the number of proven vets cut for unproven young'uns whose mental toughness can't be proven like Jones is...that was completely predictable based on what Klinsmann did with the German national team.

And, the media reaction and old pros/old boys reaction in Germany was just about the same as here, that is, right up until the start of the Cup in 2006, most folks in Germany were fearing a complete disaster/humiliation, made 100X worse since the Cup was being played in Germany. Meaning that most German word we all know - angst - was off the charts. Until the first game, when the kids were more than alright.

It is illogical to expect deja vu all over again in Brazil given the quality of the Group/horrendous cards USMNT has been dealt. But if anyone is still thinking it is personal, and not Klinsmann and colleagues professional judgement on who gives USMNT best chance at pulling - deja vu all over again - please.

Klinsmann's playing career was similarly littered with folks who actively despised the guy, because he - what? Was too blonde? Starting striker on a world cup winning side? Kept switching teams and countries and learning new languages? Yeah what a stupid idiot. How dare he learn Italian, and English, and move to the US.

In Germany he was way too American with his new-fangled focus on diet, sports psychology, and sports science/training methods, which he in fact imported from the US. Fact that he insisted leaving his family in sunny southern California, you know where Landon whom he supposedly now does not understand, after all these years, because Klinsmann is too German and Landon too laid-back - that was the final straw that drove many of the old boys like der Kaiser Beckenbauer mad. Before the Cup. (And again at Bayern Munich but that is another story/rant for another day. : )

Now, some in US media are portraying Juergen as way too German and traditional - yeah right ; ) Or is he the SoCal air-head the German media and Lahm made him out to be? Inexperienced/rookie national team and then club head coach back then yes, airhead, no. And Juergen is still relatively inexperienced as head coach, true. Hence savvy vets like Vogts and Herzog help. And some missteps, since Juergen is till relatively new at this head coaching thing.

Fact is, USMNT pool is deeper than it's ever been. Good young prospects like Agudelo could not even make the 30. And 7 plausible players who made the 30 did not make the 23. Of course.

The ones going to Braziil are the ones Klinsmann and his coaching colleagues think give them the best team capable of pulling - more than one - upset. Period. Maybe they are wrong, time will tell, and I still hold out hope Landon makes it back in. But it is just - business.

Hence perhaps Klinsmann's lack of touchie-feelie/SoCal comforting of those cut. It was not personal.

In my always humble opinion, and spoken as someone who followed Klinsmann's playing career including while living in Germany in 1980s; and then I followed the ups and downs of his coaching career including in the German press before and after the cup in 2006; and then at Bayern Munich. And then, the rest of the story more folks stateside are familiar with. If that makes me a Klinsmann fanboy, fine. At least, I know what I am talking about ; ). Ja sicher.

Taking soccer to the next level here in the US, with the killer instinct needed to overcome teams that are also (probably more) talented and also want desperately to win, is what Klinsmann has been preaching since 2006, as his next objective. He says it constantly - the next level - and is definitely not kidding. Not personal, no joke, just win baby. Or should I say just win --kind? : )

Still, odds are long we don't - win- even one game in Brazil; but that's what it is all about and what the coaches and the 23 are trying to do. No 'everyone's a winner' golden retirement tours for anyone, no matter how deserved because of how much, or little (cough, Chandler, Green, Brooks) they contributed in qualifying.

Anyway, my last rant on this - at least for the day: if folks have truly followed Klinsmann's career, both as a player and a coach, then all this business about Landon's, and Evans, and Parkhurst's, and Goodson's and Boyd's, and...exclusion being anything but - business - is just ridiculous. It certainly can be taken and naturally feels personal for those cut - they would not be competitive professional soccer players if it did not hurt a lot on losing out on going to the World Cup; but not for him.

Since if Klinsmann cares about anything, he cares about winning. And is trying to give USMNT its best chance at doing exactly that; given a talent pool that is not littered with players playing in top 4 squads in top 5 leagues; like ALL of our opponents. Rant out.

 

Well, we hired him to coach the team and do well in the World Cup, right? We didn't hire him to validate stories of struggle and redemption. I mean, he's there to craft the best possible squad, no matter if the men in it have come from the slums and fought their way to the top, learning from their mistakes, or are children of privilege who care more about their hair than the struggle of the impoverished masses of the world. He's not their dad and not a sociology professor.

So, if he's crafted just that, a solid 23, molded to his plans, able to fit together (and maybe they all having a background of struggle may help in that, Domenech's inclusion of Gourcuff, an educated, soft-spoken white kid from a good family irked many of the French players who hated him, because they were either minorities from the banlieues, or poor white French kids who envied Gourcuff's privileged upbringing) based on a shared work ethic and a desire to pick themselves up after each stumble, then I'm all for it.

But if in the end it proves to be just mere pettiness, and disregard for a different view of life, then it's cause for dismissal, IMO.

 

Domenech's not a good example. He supposedly cut Pires because of his astrology sign.....

:insertKlinsmannjokehere:

lol

 

I'm surprised by the number of posts that suggest Klinsi's primal instinct is to build character on the USMNT.

I've never known any character problems on the team as long as I have been alive, other than those the manager himself may have imported; ad hoc personality conflicts, maybe, but that's life.

Donovan seems to be in the spotlight which is just bizarre. He is 32. My guess is that the soccer establishment has made him the scapegoat to take the sins of the population and wander into the desert at the start of the festival period in Brazil.

 

/thread

Excellent post and I agree with you on pretty much everything. I think a lot of people who are reacting negatively to the Donovan decision are missing how fundamentally German/Klinsmannesque this move is. It's not about JK's ego, it's not about anything personal, it's all about being cold and calculating and ruthless about how to put the best team out on the field in Brazil in order to get results, with no regrets and no looking back.

Heck, even Klinsmann's son had a typical German reaction to the news (his immediate reaction was to find humor in it and laugh at LD).

 

Well in the off chance that his crazed choices, like DeAndre Yedlin is the best American right winger off the bench, don't bite us in the ass he'll get his due. But I'd like to hear exactly how these dumb choices make the US more likely to succeed instead of simply defending his choices in vague terms: "cold and calculating" and all that BS.

And as for his performance in 2006, Germany making the semifinal at home is a pretty low bar to clear. Much like the US qualifying for the World Cup out of CONCACAF. If that's what is a success, about the only genius he has is being a genius at setting his criteria for success incredibly low and getting the public to buy into it . Any random coach from America or Germany could and have accomplished those things. About all it proves is he's not been crazy enough to actually damage his team with his choices. At least not yet, though Bayern management seems to see it differently.

In his own word, "he hasn't done shit."

 

This is purely marketing. Mix will win the hearts of all America's young women this summer.

 

Just givin you a heads up: You're about to break the record for most reps in a single post.

 

Typical Germans are assholes?

 

Holy cognitive dissonance Batman!!

 

It just struck me that the apparent preferred lineup (supposing Chandler over DaMarcus) will probably be the most physical USMNT we have ever had. Altidore, Bradley, Jones, Cameron, Howard are just beasts. Bedoya, Besler, Chandler, Johnson are all big, fast boys. Zusi and Dempsey can hold their own.

 

Here are a few different statistics I worked on for the US World Cup roster after last night's performances. Kind of a raw, first take at everything so I would love to get your feedback and suggestions.

http://nnelli.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/risk-takers-defensive-stoppers-and-game-changers/

 

Funny how similar the stories against JK are now as when I lived in Germany into the 2006 WC, when he litterally mind melted the entire country by selecting 5 players under 21 for his WC squad. It's deja vu all over again

 

Ar you trying to tell us that we should trust Klinsi no matter what he does?

 

No, but are you familiar with the term schadenfreude? There's a reason why it's of German origin.

 

It's utter and complete BS. Donovan somehow wins a billion championships, succeeds in the EPL and is the leading US goal scorer of all time including creating and scoring the most clutch goal in the USMNT's World Cup history, but he lacks will or spirit? You're fuc$in& kidding me?