Donovan Nixed From Real Madrid Game

Oh well...what can you do.


Like I mentioned in the other thread, the rest of the LA Galaxy starters should be available so it's not like they'll be completely empty-handed.

Is Joseph Ngwenya still recovering from injury?

 

bruce should release donovan for the game if not, how will galaxy be able to compete with RM with all kinda fancy players ? i don't wanna hear RM beat Galaxy 7-0 ...

 

Too bad, but an easy decision for Bruce Arena. They need him in the Gold Cup. The Galaxy might get clobbered, but then again they might get clobbered with Donovan playing too.

 

He'll be at the game. Bruce is delusional if he thinks we won't be eliminated by then. This squad selection is probably his worst ever, even worse than the road Costa Rica match Hex squad for 2002. I also think MLS will tell Bruce to compromise and demand Landon play in the match if we're not eliminated by some miracle. In this instance Bruce is defenseless, because he's treated this whole tourney as a joke with his squad selection. What's one player matter against the complete crap choices he's made already?

 

If he did let him go, he'd have some issues from everyone who wanted their players back for the matches on the 4th of July weekend. Or did a friendly just become more important than league matches?

 

Despite the euro-haters opinions, this is. A "friendly" against Real Madrid is more important than an MLS Cup. I guess if Landon't is missing it gives the Galaxy (and by inference MLS) an excuse. Face it Galaxy vs. RSL, or Galaxy vs. Real Madrid, unless you're a myopic dumbass the Real Madrid match is far more important. Until MLS faces and proves itself against recognized elite teams it won't land the cream of the crop player-wise, or fan-wise. Money can be had elsewhere, and MLS doesn't even have a lot of that yet. Proving itself can help bring in the doubtful fan, and eventually more $$$, which WILL garner higher caliber players.

 

*sigh.....

 

Regardless of whatever assinine justification can be made that this "friendly" is more important than the development of the USMNT, does anybody really think that Landon's participation can change this from a "Globetrotters v. Washington Generals" match to something more meaningful?

What the score goes from 7-0 to 7-1? Gimme a break.

 

fyp

 

I suppose it would be unwise to post here about how such things came about, but what the hell:

The concept of a league is a theoretical construct in the first place. Indeed when professional sports were first tried back in the 19th century, so called "league games" were only set up later so that the teams could have a reliable set of opponents on certain days and at certain times so as to maximize their attendances and ensure the opposition was of sufficiently quality to make for an entertaining matchup. Until that happened, the importance of a game was based solely on the opposition.

Now obviously as time has gone on, the "league" structure has become an end in and of itself. The league has champions and so forth. Some leagues play the champions of another league (the World Series was this way for many years before the line between the American and National league began to become blurred). Other leagues hand out prize money for victories and so forth. But until recently the concept of a league was simply several different teams agreeing on a uniform schedule with a uniform set of opponents.

MLS has turned all of that on its head. MLS is not really a league at all. It is a centralized top down entity that puts on regular soccer exhbitions in many different cities, but whose participants all reside under the same umbrella. The league has moderated this aspect a bit, but it still more or less is true.

Where that leaves us on the issue of Real Madrid vs the Galaxy as opposed to Real Salt Lake vs the Galaxy, I don't really know. But ultimately the importance of the match is as much under Real Madrid's control as it is MLS and the Galaxy. The reality is that Real Madrid doesn't really give a damn whether it wins this game or not. They're there for the pre-season training, and of course the cash, neither of which is predicated upon them actually winning the match. Like a lot of things in life, you get out of a soccer game what the competitiors decide to put into it.

And so ultimately the match lacks importance as much due to Real Madrid's approach as to that of the Galaxy, MLS or the USMNT. The game is meaningless in terms of MLS establishing its chops, but it should be fun to watch nonetheless. It would be more fun with Donovan there, particularly because he appears to be so crucial to the Galaxy's offense, but oh well.

This whole tour seemed to come out of left field anyway. Grabbing Fulham as the All-Star opponent seemed nice at the time, but now that individual MLS teams are playing Real Madrid, AC Milan and Chelsea, it seems like a bit of an anti-climax. I suspect we'll see better planning in future years.

 

There is ZERO possibility that the Los Angeles Galaxy will "prove itself" against Real Madrid's first XI.

Landon Donovan will not change that. Please! If he could, there's no way he'd be playing in MLS, because A) Leverkusen wouldn't have sold him to MLS, and B) if Leverkusen did sell him, let's say because he wasn't happy there, they would have sold him to a more "glamorous" team that would absolutely love to shovel cash his way (and Bayer's way) for talent that can carry a group of soccer tools against Real f'ing Madrid. (Used hyperbole to make the point, Gals fans.)

Now, neither A) or B) came to pass. So, I'm left to conclude that either the whole of the football-playing world is wrong about Landon's impact and/or the level of MLS, or you're wrong and the Galaxy are fodder before the Galacticos.

What will happen though, is "ReAL" Madrid will be respectful of their hosts. Zidane will let Vagenas keep his pride, and they'll leave town with a 2-0 victory, dabbing beads of sweat from their brow. Maybe that will fool some new fans. Hell, from the impression I get of Real Madrid's play-for-fee, profit-motivated tours, the Spanish might even lay down if MLS pays them enough. Hadn't thought of that... in which case, Donovan doesn't need to be present.

 

Ooooo, what a built in fallacy of a post.

Circular argument: There's no way the Galaxy can compete with Real Madrid. Madrid can beat the Galaxy so easily, they might not try very hard and only win by two goals, because they'll feel sorry for MLS or they will have been bribed.

Yeah, cause the richest club in the world needs the money.

Donovan already beat Figo when they met in the World Cup - and few expected that.

But damn, what a nice set-up for all the MLS bashers. If the Galaxy lose, that proves the league sucks? If they win, that proves Madrid was sleepwalking? You can't lose - except that you're still snobby losers if your purpose in life is to bash the only pro league this country has.

 

What if your purpose in life was to defend the only pro league in town?

Real Madrid don't NEED the money (nice straw man), but they will certainly take it, and do! They turn down other appearances because the exhibition backers can't pony up the dough. Facts are what they are.

Losing proves nothing. That's the point. It doesn't mean the league sucks, but in losing, MLS isn't going to "prove itself" to be an elite league. I could argue under certain circumstances that winning will not prove that either.

 

While it was nice for Egyptian football when Al-Ahly beat Real Madrid in '01, few outside Egypt cared or even noticed.

Newsflash: this is a bloody friendly.

 

No, no. In the USA, there's no such thing as a friendly. WE always care, so it counts. ()

 

Obviously you missed the point of my post - which was that you were saying exactly that.

So - in your little construct, it's all pointless, because you've decided the worth of MLS before the game is played and nothing in the outcome will allow that judgement to be affected, because you've built in the excuse of Madrid's lack of motivation.

At less than three posts a day, defending MLS doesn't take much of my time. Usually I don't bother with such defeatist, negative views anyway, but today I was in a good mood.

 

Well, looking at the LAG

With Donovan
6-4-1, 16 GF, 13 GA
================
6-0-0, 14 GF, 5 GA, at HDC
0-4-1, 2 GF, 8 GA on the road

Without Donovan
1-2-3, 6 GF, 8 GA
======================
1-0-3 5 GF, 3 GA, at HDC
0-2-0 1 GF, 5 GA, on the road

They are dogmeat on the road no matter how you slice it, but they can at least win at home with LD. Im pretty ambivilent about these friendlies, but then again im not exactly thrilled by the gold cup either.

I just hope LA doesnt embarass the league.

 

I'm fairly certain my evaluation of MLS is right. An astute observer doesn't need to see how well the Gals do in a one-off friendly against RM to shape an opinion, dodgy test that such a game is.

Furthermore, it's not an excuse. I was predicting RM may be unmotivated to perform to their "usual" level. Again, during the game, they may try. I can tell when players are giving their all. Can't you? I didn't say the Galaxy will only win if RM aren't taking the game seriously, I said they have ZERO chance of winning if RM is contesting the match. Obviously "ZERO" was exaggerated. It's more like <1%.

So, yes, my argument was circular... if you are a literalist hard-on.

 

By the way, Femfa, the whole point of the discussion is whether Donovan should be released from the Gold Cup to play in a club friendly. Not whether people who think the Gals won't perform well against RM are, what was it? "MLS bashers" and "snobby losers"?

 

dumbest. post. ever.

 

These arguments continue to be disingenuous though. You can say "continental championship" like it's the same thing as the Euros, but none of the teams are behaving as if it's the case. You can argue that the Gold Cup should be more important, but that doesn't instantaneously make it so.

Everybody is sending out patchwork sides mixed with a few starters and a whole bunch of guys who wouldn't make their World Cup roster if they had to pick it tomorrow. You can't wish an amount of importance onto this tournament if the teams involved don't co-operate. Whether this is right or not, nobody really gives a damn about winning the Gold Cup. Even Arena listed that third on his list of priorities, and we care about it a hell of a lot more than anyone else does.

The only way to fix that is to officially combine it with the Copa America, hold it every four years (preferrably the year after the World Cup) and maybe then we'd have something to stack up against the Euros. Until then, the Gold Cup are a bunch of glorified friendlies, and not really all that glorified anyway. I say this because this is the precise attitude the teams themselves are taking.

 

And the US puss'd out of that tournament twice already. We perfer comptetition agianst Canada and Cuba than Argentina and Brazil I suppose. So it looks like the barely televised Gold Cup is all we have.

 

No we prefer not interrupting the MLS season even more then we do now to participate in a continental championship in a continent we're not a part of, in a tournament where the big teams rarely send "A" squads for much the same reason we don't play our best players all the time in the Gold Cup.