I have no proof just opinion. Cutting a productive/talented player because they don’t buy into your coaching philosophy and are outspoken about it is fully legitimate IMO. I THINK that JK straight up told LD that it was important for him to STFU both to the press and internally at the last camp and LD simply did not do that and therefore was cut. As to the “better off” discussion, if LD created locker room issues, it’s not true that having him makes the team better as we’ve seen what a divided locker room does in 2018. To be clear, I fundamentally don’t think his cut had anything to do with LD’s class relative to the pool but that’s IMHO.
If Jurgen can't man manage around as tame a personality as Landon, he's simply unfit for the job. I still have not seen any evidence that Landon was a bad locker room guy. I also firmly believe that sucking on the field is the biggest detriment to team chemistry next to going after a guy's lady or not paying debts.
Unfit or not, he exceeded expectations in Brazil - furthermore, the team played as a unit and had a chance to win each game (other than Germany, who played us like we should have played TnT in the 2018 Hex). I get it, you hate him for leaving off LD and think that decision alone disqualifies him from any consideration. I disagree and point that despite making a decision that I question on the merits, the team did better than a reasonable person could expect.
I don't hate him. I find him unfit to manage the team. My expectations are advancing to the KOs. He didn't exceed them. If you watched the games, his management wasn't impressive.
I'm far from a JK fan and wanted him gone after Brazil but much like a certain President, I'll give credit where it's due as that lend credence to criticism. The blind perspective of "we should make it KO" isn't reflective of how good our team is and there's little reason to think that we're expected to make it out of a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana. There's no easy games there. I'm assuming you're blaming a lot of the 2018 debacle on JK?
Ghana was a mess. They damn near went on strike for lack of pay. Portugal was hobbled and his poor management gifted them a draw. Germany worked us. We played Belgium like we were a tiny nation in Euro qualifications. 1 win and 1 draw is not that great.
Not to get political, but we're not that great. The betting odds were against us qualifying out of the group (<40% probability) and we beat them. That's literally beating the odds. Even if you think that we only met expectations, well, meeting expectations despite the biggest coaching blunder of all time kinda means that the blunder wasn't so big.
Landon would make for a very good tactician BUT I'm not sure he has the strong character needed to make a bunch of 20-somethings behave. He's more likely to get involved with positive causes, the type that these days get you called a "triggered snowflake" in the current Middle School climate that pervades US politics.
It's getting circular. I don't judge coaching decisions based solely on outcome. Punting in football is often stupid but isn't usually fatal. The fact that the bad choice is overcome didn't make it a better choice.
I know LD fans can't assimilate any information that includes him not being great, but I'd quickly comment on a couple funny ones I've seen. Process and decision making are what matter? You dont care about results at all? How can you be a USMNT fan and think leaving LD off for another bench player was even the worst decision made by a usmnt coach in the last 5 years. Let's see, Landon for Johannson might have meant LD would have come against Ghana when Jozy went down. I'm not sure that would have been great as LD doesnt have a great history against Ghana. Also, no have no facts about LD's fitness level at the time. I'd suggest Villafana, Nagbe, and Gonzo for FJ, JJ, and Cameron is much worse in terms of process, decision making, and absolutely in results.
This one always amuses me. I actually think the 2013 gold cup reflected very poorly on LD. I think him having the incentive to perform showed what quality he had and thus he underperformed it in every other gold cup he played in. Klinsmann was able to get the best of LD. I also dont think Klinsmann cared too much about that trophy. Your comment just shows that your mentality is as soft as LD's was when things didnt go his way. A player isnt "square" after a tournament. A player has to continually prove himself. LD took the attitude that he had met the test and went back to doing whatever he wanted. I know you refuse to acknowledge anything less than positive, but he did and said a lot of things after Hex game against Mexico.
I recall Klinsmann celebrating after that Gold Cup win. He was suspended from the final, and upon joining the team on the field for the trophy presentation he was clearly pumped up and beaming. I think he cared quite a bit.
Will you acknowledge is that a coach needs for the team to buy in to his coaching philosophy? It’s better to have everyone rowing together to a sub par strategy Then it is to have dissension in the ranks?
Whatevs, bro. Only hardware he got with the Nats. He prolly couldn’t have cared less. Klinsi was maybe still miffed at Landon’s failure at BM, after he personally got him over there. Klinsi stuck his neck out to get Lando there and Lsndon failed him. Landon was classified as a 2nd league player by the BM bosses and essentially had no chance there from the start. Klinsi was out shortly thereafter. Ok, ok..not all related but these things did happen. At any rate, Klinsi and Donovan had a strange relationship. How else does one explain the younger Klinsi tweeting with delight that Lando didn’t make the WC team? I’ve said in this thread here that IMHO Klinsi did some good things for the national team result-wise. But, overall, he was a splotch of frustration in my US Nat history book.
Nonsense. All reports are that Landon was one of the top beep test finishers. Also,MLS played during the WC so we saw that he was fit. I think that Arena mismanaged the final qualifier terribly. It's still not up to the blatant foot shooting of Klinsmann.
Where was the dissent reported? Landon was always a fit professional and tracked back. What more rowing did you need?
like I said before, I doubt you will listen to anything other than pure adulation for the guy. he publicly took issue with the training expectations. he said he couldn't train hard every day. he didnt track back in the last friendly before the camp he was cut from. LD tracked back when he felt like it and he didnt always feel like it. your statement would probably be true if we only played mexico.
What are you talking about? This is the kind of squishy feeling based nonsense that resulted in leaving off one of the three best players available to the team going into the WC. I am about doing what's logical. It is and was stupid to leave off a guy who could have started for the USMNT at multiple positions and been an upgrade. He was better than Johanson, Davis, Bedoya,Zusi and Green. A real coach needs to be able to look past his feelings to win games. Do you think successful coaches have a room full of yes men? Klinsy is soft as Charmin that he couldn't handle coaching a soft spoken pro like Landon. The BM players literally made fun of JK, in writing, for his lack of skill as a manager.
You are citing a friendly that took place on April 2, 2014, a full two months before the WC...you are grasping at straws. He was aging and told the truth. A 30 year old pro should know his body and when he needs to dial it back in practice. As i said back in 2014, tell me of a similarly situated team that has ever cut a player of that relative quality. NOBODY cuts a top 3 player on their team without a viable replacement. Argentina cutting Tevez was the closest I could think of and they had world class forwards to take his place. We replaced Landon with a hurt ArJo, a kid, two subpar athletes in Davis and Zusi, and Mix, a guy who can't get MLS minutes. That is stupid.
50/50, I've already stated that it was my opinion. LD was never one to toe the party line as it's in his nature to be a free spirit (and I don't mean that pejoratively). In your mind then, because Geoff Cameron was fit and tracked back in 2018, Bruce Arena had no cause for sending him home? Even though I think GC was one of our better CBs, BA made a huge mistake in keeping him around if GC wasn't toeing the party line. If a coach views you as undermining his leadership, he should get rid of you. Doing so to a good player has consequences and the coach has to live with those consequences. In the end, you think that anyone who cuts LD should be fired irrespective of how the team did after that and I simply disagree.
Is it possible that a reasonable person wouldn't think that LD was a top three player in 2014? Is it reasonable to think that he falls within the best 23 but not in the best XI? Or are either of those perspectives ridiculous in your mind?
This is a very weird charcterization of both situations. I'll go in chronological order. The 2014 team was a cohesive unit with all players working hard for one another. To disparage that team you have to overlay narratives. Arena didnt just blow that game. He completely destroyed the team. The complacency was apparent in the Costa Rica match and got even worse afterwards. His treatment of players was inconsistent. I'll take a coach he leaves off one player and gets the team to perform over a guy who eliminates a larger number of players and the team falls apart. I don't don't care how great you think Donovan was but he isnt greater than the combination of Jones, Johnson, Chandler, and Cameron. Again, Arena's process was Fu(ked and play on the field showed it.