If by blows, you mean easily one of the best US players around ... then yes. As much as I can't stand Landy-cakes, when he's on, he's a ton of fun to watch. The problem for him has been consistently staying at that level. And his PKs. God, I hate watching him take PKs.
How many other players have 59 caps and 19 goals before they reach 23 (numbers comparable to Cristiano Ronaldo)? At 25 he leads the US in both goals in assists. He can be extremely frustrating, but I gotta agree with Monty on this one.
Not just leads. Keep in mind, at the young age of 25, he holds the ALL-TIME record for US goals and assists, succeeding in both before reaching 100 caps. David Beckham has been a key player for England for many years and at 32, he currently has 98 England caps. Landon Donovan is already sitting on 94 caps at 25. Love him or hate him, you can't deny the guy is quality. Frustrating? Of course, but that's mainly because we have grown accustomed to his success and now demand it every time he takes the field so anything short of a 1 goal, 2 assist game feels like a let-down (only a slight exageration). I will agree about his PKs though. There is something personally irritating with his little ritual. But if it works for him, so be it.
Theres a few reasons why Donovan has the goals record. One, he's a good player, I'm not really saying he isnt, I'm just saying I think he's already peaked and is now on the decline. You have to take into account though, that minus his cameos at Leverkusen, while the rest of the comparable US players his age moved on from MLS to ply their trade in Europe, Donovan remained, thus playing in those January camps and basically never missing nat matches(I know he's missed two this summer.) He has taken the PK's for the nats for a while now, getting him some gimmie goals(Wynalda also got alot of those.) Also, he's basically been the focal point of our offense for some time, especially when Euro players arent in camp. I think his caps and goals records incredibly inflate what the perception of what type of player he is. He WAS a good/great player, I dont think he is anymore. He hasnt played that well since late 05/early 06, and to me, he's not close to being the best player in the US pool right now, especially if you go on recent form.
I don't believe that there were any practice sessions involving the players called up for the Switzerland game prior to Twellman's arrival. You could argue fairly that the travel time within two days of the kickoff affected him (though it doesn't look particularly good), but to claim that TT was at a disadvantage because he didn't have time to develop the chemistry that other players had the time to develop is, unless I'm totally mistaken, not the case. There are plenty of good arguments to be made on TT's behalf. The primary one is that Bob Bradley has faith in his abilities. But the above.... it sounds like excuse-making.
Taylor had quite the trip from Boston to Switzerland, apparently: "The Patriots are playing the Cowboys at 4 p.m. on Sunday, so I'm bummed because I have to check in at the airport at the same time. Of course that's because I thought my flight was at six, when in reality it wasn't until 9:15. Realizing the mistake, I met my wife and some friends for sushi and watched the game. Long story short, I tried eel for the first time - and the last time. I knew there was trouble when I was outside at curbside check in. It was 40 degrees at 7:30 at night, and I asked the lady checking my bag why it was so hot outside (she was wearing a winter jacket and gloves). That's when I knew there was a problem. I proceeded to go through security OK, but once the full body sweats started I knew my journey was going to take a slight detour. Twenty four hours later, I'm in Switzerland bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to go. By the way, the most humiliating part of the story was showing up at the airport the next day and having all the airline personnel recognize you and recount the whole experience." http://mnt-ussoccer.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html#1233454533685023713
There were four training sessions prior to Twellman's arrival. Taylor only got to train once with the squad, on the day before the match.
The Twellman experiment should stop. Enough of Twellman playing for the USA. If we're playing St Kitts in a qualifier or Nicaragua or Belize, then MAYBE give him 10 minutes or so. Nothing more. End of.
It not that hard to see why TnT struggles on the national pitch. How many times does TnT get the ball and create his own chance? close to zero. How many times does TnT go play with his back to goal to spin around a defender? rarely. How many time does TnT latch onto a good cross and finish it? all the time! TnT feeds of of crosses, he needs them. TnT is a target striker, nothing more (and that right there is his down side). The USA played a piss poor match against the Swiss. There was no control in the midfield and far too many balls over the top. There were some individuals who shows sparks of great plays but the rest of the team didn't. Ever cross was to a defender, every corner was decent, but was never aimed at anybody. If TnT's team mates don't create chances for him, then he will just fade away. Obviously this isn't a good thing for TnT, and this is why there are so many TnT haters, but if the USA found a winger that could put in an inch perfect cross, I would rather have TnT running onto it then anybody else. RRREV IT UP OH, and Dempsey should be an ATTACKING MIDFIELDER!!!!
Actually, yesterday during the game the US had a corner from the left side that TT had a open header at, it skipped off the top of his head. To clarify, I'm not a hater of TT, I'm just a fan of the USMNT, and I want the team to perform at their best. And we can make all the excuses we want for Twellman, he doesn't get the service, he didn't get enough training with the team, etc. Those excuses hold-up occasionally in certain games, but when it's a constant theme.... At the end of the day, the results are the same with him, a good workrate, and the occasional good pass, and that's it. He's too short and slow to win balls against international competition, to the point where any pass to him or ball booted in his area is usually won by the other team. Just look at how much more lively our attack looked once Adu subbed in for Twellman. Against lesser CONCACAF competition, Twellman is a capable target forward, against good international competition, I'm sorry, he's just not up to snuff.
yup. he is kinda one dimensional - if you don't harness it, he's like tits on a bull. or wolde harris. with out the gold teef. its a coaching issue. if you slot him in, you better put him in a positon to win the game for you. SN has that skill down pat. bradley only does it for his son.
It is baffling, how he's so good in MLS and almost totally ineffective at the international level. I'm thinking the reason why there's such controversy as to why TT doesn't succeed internationally is because everybody is a little bit correct: he doesn't get service because the US team isn't good enough to deal with a team that defends heavily against the cross, but also that he doesn't have the technical ability to combine with players inside to keep that tight defense on the wings more honest, or the speed to beat defenders to run on to long balls. With a great winger, maybe TT would be great. But even Steve Ralston, who is one of the top crossers ever to wear a US shirt, can't overcome the double-teaming that a lot of teams throw at our wingers. The man has been the beating heart of the Revs, and I understand why folks are so passionate about him. But I'm afraid that we're not good enough to take advantage of the impressively developed but terrible narrow skill set that TT has. I really do think we need someone more versatile than TT up front, as for whatever reason, he's just not getting results.