I have been a fan of his since he took over the job, but leaving off the best player in the history of US Soccer and a player that is still arguably the best American player is a decision that should lose him his job. This man just does not get it. He doesn't have tons of World Class players at his disposal like he had with Germany. He can't just leave off a player who is still on his day as close to a World Class player as the USMNT has. When a country lacks requisite talent to compete with other nations at the World Cup, you can't leave your best player off of the roster. This decision is too much to ignore. Despite all he has done as coach of the USMNT, coaches need to be judged on the World Cup. Leaving Donovan off is a decision that should get Klinsmann fired.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills and I hallucinated LD's sabbatical. This whole site was up in arms when he abandoned the team. He voluntarily gave up his sacred cow status as soon as he did that, and all his past performances went out the window and he forced himself to earn his spot back post-sabbatical. I don't believe he has done that. Maybe others on the roster haven't either, but in the post-sabbatical world, Landon has by no means shown himself to be clearly worthy of a roster spot.
I want to see the team succeed, so I hope we do make it out of the group, but this is definitely up to this point the stupidest roster decision I have ever seen from a USMNT coach. Regardless of form the last few months or personal issues between the coach and player, Donovan deserved to be on the roster. I'm a fan of a player like Julian Green, but there is no way on earth that he deserves a spot instead of Donovan. There is no way on earth that he can help the USMNT more at the World Cup than Donovan. The same can be said for almost every player on the roster minus a few. I'm still in shock that this happened. This will go down as the stupidest decision in US Soccer history if the USMNT fails to make it out of the group. There is a legitimate argument that Klinsmann left his best player that he had off of the team.
No it shouldn't. Klinsmann's job is to take the best team to the World Cup he can. That's his job. No where in his job does it say pick Landon Donovan. He should be hired or fired based on the performance of the team NOT on the inclusion or exclusion of one player. The OP reeks of immaturity. At least wait for the World Cup to start calling for the guys head jeesh.
Has Green? And regardless of Donovan's current form, he will always been our best player. Dempsey was awful for what like 5 straight months but then he had a few good weeks and suddenly everyone forgot. Just because Donovan hasn't been amazing in the MLS lately, doesn't mean he isn't still a great player.
Leaving your best player off of the team because of a rift with him reeks of immaturity from the coach.
will JK be paid through 2018 even if he is fired in 2014? if so, it possibly makes sense to purposely get fired now...then collect checks for 4 years of doing nothing. why work when u can get paid for free? even if he wants to keep coaching, he has the perfect excuse to bomb with this group and still set up his next job without too much trouble. "it was the group of death" what could i do?
"Maybe others on the roster haven't." I acknowledge that Donovan may have been a tough omission, but when he quit on the team he voluntarily used up 100% of the capital, street cred, reputation points, whatever you want to call them that he earned with his past performances for the United States. At that point, he started with a clean slate. From there, I'm willing to accept that using one of the 23 on him would have been acceptable or even the right move. But there is no way that starting from that clean slate that his omission was such a huge injustice
The thing is...this is nothing new for Klinsmann. Since his earliest games with the US when he was benching Bradley and Jones for Beckerman and Edu, he seems compelled to make a completely counterintuitive roster selections with the intention of showing what an iconoclastic visionary he is. This is the grandest of them all. Whether it's feuding with top players, throwing histrionic tantrums in front of refs, or the whorish non-stop media shilling, Klinsmann has shown throughout his tenure that he is not interested in much else besides making sure Jurgen Klinsmann is the center of attention. There's a reason this clown couldn't find a job anywhere besides Toronto FC in the two years between his sacking at Bayern and his hiring by US Soccer. He is a goofy celebrity first and a coach a distant second. Maybe an argument could be made that US Soccer needed a celebrity to get some limelight on the team...but in the process we've completely sold our soul to a washed-up ex-player's ego trip. I would say fire him, except there have been signs since day one that he shouldn't have been hired in the first place.
Apparently JK didn't think he was our best player. And for the record he hasn't been our best player this cycle. For the record I wanted Donovan on the team and in my amateur opinion ( your's is as well unless you are a professional coach and/or scout) I thought he could help the team. But clearly JK doesn't. And as you clearly know by the thread name JK is putting his job on the line by this decision. The easy choice would be to take Donovan. So no offense but between the 3 of us (you, me and Klinnsy) he is the only one with something actually on the line. And yes I stand by my statement. To call for a coaches firing because he does something that hurts your fav players feelings while, so far delivering the results he is employed to do is a very immature position.
Except, as schrutebuck posted in the N&A thread, he is second in scoring and first in assists during the Klinsmann tenure.
Eh, I wouldn't go this far. It was doubtful we were going to advance anyway. If the team blows up a la France 2010 then yeah, he should definitely go. We shall see what happens.
What a spoiled brat. I went to find his twitter account but apparently, and Im assuming because of the harsh reaction to this particular tweet, young Jonathan has deleted his account.
I gotta applaud Klinsmann really. Here is a guy who literally just put his job on the line with his picks. I love it really.
I would be for firing him if they don't make it out of the group but Donovan or no Donovan this changes nothing. He is tied up for next cycle already, he is from outside the USSF, he for many is the sign of a better future for US soccer. Sum it up he's going nowhere.
Honestly, if that doesn't inspire you as a player nothing will. Your coach, just put his job on the line to back you as a player. Let's hope it works out like I think it is going to work.
To my mind you only leave a guy like Donovan off the roster if you think his presence hurts the team some how. Really odd.
And that'd be? Even if not the best he's surely in the 1 or 2 or even 3 of any position he regularly plays in and most assuredly has earned a place on the 23.
Gotta wait and see how the world cup pans out. If we do exceptionally poorly then I think Jurgen will have some questions to answer, but I believe he's going to get the results he needs
At least wait til the World Cup..Even if we dont make it out of the group of death, he has earned a chance to show how he can develop US Soccer.
Fair enough and I don't want to turn this into "Donovan sucks" "Donovan is amazing" as I said previously I would have picked him. But how many of those goals came in friendlies or the 2013 Gold Cup (I don't know but guessing a decent number considering how many qualifiers he missed). And I did specifically say isn't the "best" player, so I could take the low hanging fruit and point out that Bradley was the better player during this cycle. But again I have no issue with people critizing the choice. My issue is with people calling for him to be fired over it. Actually correct that, I don't have a problem with it, I think it is f*** hilarious, this entire thread is totally the stereotype of the crazy reactionary fan (cue fans pointing out that they have never liked JK and this is the latest in a long line of F ups)