Landon Donovan : The Time has Come

I don't know man, I just don't know.

I've always loved his potential -- fantastic potential.

But if I were coach, I'm not sure I would start him against Italy.

You put out the best team, not the best players.

And for this game, I start from this supposition: Johnson has to play, Dempsey has to play, Reyna has to play.

That means either Donovan partners Johnson, or there is no room for him in midfield, because Reyna plays centrally and will be paired with either Mastro or JOB. Dempsey goes right, Convey or JOB left. DMB sits.

And Johnson needs to partner a big forward like McBride. Otherwise, he gets sucked into doing the dirty work and we lose what Eddie brings to the game -- speed, strength and finishing ability.

However, I am not the coach. And we all know that if there's one player Arena won't touch, it's Donovan.

So yeah, Saturday will tell us a lot about Donovan. But let's face it, we already know a lot.

Too much, I fear.

(Now go ahead and neg-rep me all you pansies like superdave....)

 

Re: Landon Donovan : The Time has Come To Quit Bashing Him

My god, we eat our own.

 

Re: Landon Donovan : The Time has Come To Quit Bashing Him

What a joke.

 

If our best players do not form "the best team" its coaching/managements fault. You play your best players, if their not a "Team" its your fault. But the manager has to make it work. Bench someone, start someone fine. Make. it. work. Arena.

 

If you had a player of the right calibre waiting in the wings then maybe dropping him would be an option, but you don't. USA needs Donovan now as he can provide thatlittle bit of flair which no-one else in the squad can.

 

That's the disadvantage of having a long serving coach.

 

Hope he steps it up.

But I have to admit, his stock dropped a lot in my eyes after the Czech game.

ESPN2 is showing highlights of the post-game interviews and we see Arena calling out Donovan and Beasley (and they deserved it). Then we see Donovan talking about players not stepping it up for the game.

Hey Landon, you're one of those players! How about "We didn't step it up"? Blaming "players" makes it sound like "I had a good day, but my teammates aren't keeping up with me".

The team stunk. Outside of Eddie J. Stand up, take it, admit it, learn from it, and come out in game two making sure it never happens.

When people ask me about this game, I say you had two good teams. One played up to their potential, and one did not. Saturday is make or break. We don't have to win it (well, we do to keep alive), but we have to play very well to erase the image that we played the worst game of the Cup so far.

 

OK Donovan.

This Saturday is your D-Day.

Put the ghost of Roberto Baggio to rest.

And leave the F******g teddy bear at home!

You don't have to be "The man", but anything less than "A man" will not cut it.

You always say that you don't owe your fans anything, well you're wrong.

You owe them your best.

Let's see if you've got what it takes.

If you don't leave your heart on that pitch Saturday, you're letting yourself down.

Step up young man.

Your time is now.

 

Fine, but who do you drop? I want Johnson and McBride, Reyna and Dempsey. Tell me where Donovan fits in with those players on the pitch.

Donovan is one of our best players, but when was the last time he was so impressive? Why does he get what seems to be a year-round free-pass? I'm sick of it.

He played well mostly in qualifying. But hey, it ain't qualifying any more, and we need find a way to: 1. Prevent Italy from scoring, and 2. Score goals while preventing Italy from scoring.

I say McBride maknig space for Johnson and both going for early crosses (keeping our backs mostly in the BACK) is the best chance of scoring in a scheme that also protects our D.

My game plan doesn't care one iota about Landon's feelings.

 

Landon is still one of your best players.

Only because he had one bad game does not mean we should him write him off. Bruce should give him another chance and let him play against Italy. Italy is another team than Czechs. So Landon should play!. Your team did not lose because of Landon. The teamgeist was missing, your team did not work perfect together. But it is too early to say: Landon is crap and he should not play.

I bet if he plays against Italy very good, we will have here threads about how Landon is perfect. Don´t judge person only based on performance in one game.

Landon has got lesson in the game against Czechs. I´m sure he will not repeat his mistake again.

Bruce Arena also know that Landon is still one of your key player.

let see how he play against Ghana and Italy

we should make conclusion about Landon AFTER world cup, not after one game

Look Ronaldo or Zidane also did not look good. Both stars did not play very good. Sometimes it depends on "day form".

good luck on Saturday!!!!!

 

The problem is it hasn't been one game. Donovan has had plenty of lethargic games in the past year. I'm not singling him out because so have a lot of players, but Donovan seems to be the only one that people give a break to by saying, yeah well he's tired, or the others didnt' help him.

No, some games we have to just call it like it is and Donovan has NOT always played well. If he wants to be a leader, he has to start playing like one. To me he is not captain material.... he may become the USAs bestplayer, but I don't think he's captain material (please understand the difference).

However Donovan talks big, and he wants the limelight in this world cup... if he's going to be the face of the USA while in Germany, he has to step it up and make the effort.

Against the Czechs Donovan too often slipped into his invisibility mode. Watch the game again (I've seen it 4 times now and it hurts less each time) and you'll see Landon jogging around most of the time. He puts on light pressure when Czech Rep has the ball and doesn't break to getopen when the USA has the ball. Again he's not alone in this, the whole team was poor. However, if everyone else on the team is getting called out for bad play and possible benching, Donovan should be also.

Landon hasn't scored in what... 16 games now?
He hasn't been sharp -- and I hate to say it, but I think it's because he's had it tooeasy in MLS where he can always just turn it up a notch and his talent level is above the norm. Against Czech Rep and Italy, that won't work. It also won't work against Essien of Ghana unless he works his tail off.

Again, this goesfor the whole team.

 

No way should Donovan be benched.

This team's fate falls on the shoulders of Donovan. Now is the time to step it up or we are finished.

 

I don't necessarily know the formation would be a good idea, but here's one way to do it...

----McBride---Johnson----
---------Donovan---------
--Lewis------------Dempsey
-----O'Brien------Reyna----
----Boca---Pope---Gooch

You play Lewis at his natural left midfield because he'll be more apt to make the grinding tracking runs back on the wing to support the three-man backline and has more experience than Convey playing at the elite level the Italians will bring. You get Johnson up top, Landon at his preferred role at AM, Dempsey on the field and Reyna and O'Brien there to provide the poise and linking from back. The overall premise is to get as many of our high-skill players in the midfield as possible, so we might be able to keep some semblance of quality possession.

What say you? We might score with this lineup but I don't know if it will hold up defensively. If we're ahead somehow, we have Mastro and Beasley to bring in to fortify the defense. If we're behind, I guess Convey gets a runout.

 

On top of a diamond with Reyna as the Holding/Defensive midfielder behind him and either JOB, Lewis or Convey (or, in Bruce's world, Beasley) out left. It's the only way to make that formation work. Whether LanDo and CR can play together that way remains to be seen.

Donovan is still the best on our team at passing the ball in tight spaces up top. A skill that would have been very useful Monday had he come back and demanded the ball and worked to get himself open. It's also a skill we are going to need Saturday because I'm not sure we can beat Italy in the air (although with both BMB and GAM on the field we might).

 

Yeah, but no way in hell Arena plays Reyna and Donovan as our CM pair.

 

What will the Italians do? If they play like the Czechs and give up possession to us, this formation might work (although I worry about this midfield's ability to transition back to defense to help shut down the wings and close down the middle from those 30-40 yard shots that seem to be 40% or so of the goals scored so far at this World Cup).

If the Italians come forward in numbers, we don't have enough defense on the pitch to hold up.

What will they do? Bruce gets one chance to guess right. He clearly guessed wrong about the Czechs.

 

I posted this formation as a possibility on the Italy tactics thread. However, I put Dolo on the right just because wing-back is naturally his position and I'm not sure Dempsey fits the role. We need a defender with a great cross going up and down the wing. That's Dolo, if he doesn't lay another egg.

For this formation, I'd be willing to sacrifice Dempsey because it gets two tall forwards together plus we get to keep Donovan at his best position.

 

I agree with your assessment, but given that our approach is that we have to score in this game (a 0-0 tie will be helpful only if Ghana beats CZE, and even then, it's not supergreat), I think you have to roll the dice, go a bit more offensive and hope Italy stays somewhat true to historical form and concedes possession.

If we get run over in transition or if Totti beats us with a 30-yard rocket, c'est la vie. I'd rather lose 3-1 and look like we had an aggressive posture than get smothered, never have a clear chance on goal and lose 1-0.

 

With Dolo in for Dempsey (see post above) I think this could work. The key is to play with tactical savvy. If the wing backs rush forward with the first breeze on their back, then we're Fvked. We have to play a very, very clever match with this formation. High pressure, some sitting back, springing through balls from the middle and early crosses from the wings, without going overboard on pushing up. We can't give this game away, yet we can't just sit back. We have to be clever, and I'm not sure we can be.

 

I agree on Dolo and it adds Dempsey to our bench arsenal in case of second-half offensive need. It's not a bad formation and may give us the best case of risk/reward with the right personnel on the field. We have two strikers, we have LD at AM, we have Reyna and O'Brien on the field, we don't have Lewis playing out of position at LB and we have a lot of size in central D to combat Toni et al.

 

REYNA, JOB, and DMB to the bench

--------McBride---Johnson

---------------Donovan
-----Convey--------------Dempsey
---------------Mastroeni

---Lewis----Pope----Onyewu----Cherundolo

---------------Keller

 

That team will get killed by the Italians.
Sorry to say it so bluntly but how do you possibly expect this team to control the mdfield (which must be done) against the Italians. Please don't tell me speed because the Italians are fast enough for Donovan Convey and Dempsey.
If this is the lineup, the backs are going to get killed (and by that I mean Pope Onyewu and Cherundolo) with play coming down Convey and Lewis' side.

 

Actually I think at this point we haveto resort to Boca in the backline. He's a defender who has actually played on the left. I was never a fan of using a midfielder as a left back for the World Cup because the opposing teams are actually good enough to exploit it.

I'm guessing this would be the way to go, or possibly Convey rather than Lewis. However I don't think itwill happen because OBrien apparently can't go 90 (according to press reports) and so I think his spot would be taken by Mastro.

 

maybe Landon should learn by Borussia Dortmund as Rosicky and Koller did.
After joining to BVB Dortmund he will score goals like Tomas Rosicky.