Memorial Day.....Patriotism?..Landon Donovan, hmmmmmm.
Well,
this is a tough one, so I purposely extended my traditional 24-hour
rule to allow my emotional side to relax before commenting because I
gotta say, when I first heard the news of Donovan's absence from the
final roster of 23, and then saw some of the inclusions, I was calling
for Mr. Klinnsman's head.
Let
me be straight here: I never believed Donovan to be the superstar
soccer player that some folks think he is and I still don't. When he
decided to take a mental sabbatical from the team during qualifiers
last year, from my coaching chair I was calling for Donovan's head. "Give the slot to someone else," I said.
However,
once Klinnsman allowed him back into the squad and said he would base
his world cup selections on current form and the final training camp for
Donovan as well as all 30 training camp invitees, I was very surprised
by his exclusion.
Current
form has seen Altidore play an entire season in the EPL and score 1
goal! The so-called dedication and commitment that Coach Klinnsman is
calling for has seen Tim Chandler waiver back and forth as to his desire
to play for the US or Germany, and after Germany didn't show interest,
he accepted Klinnsman's offer to join the US Team.
Julien Green is a whole other story. I have nothing against this
young talent, but it almost wreaks of some back-room deal made that if
he chose to wear the US jersey he would be rewarded with a World Cup
ticket. Too bad for some of these American raised boys who have gone through all the supposedly correct steps to put themselves in position to
get a real shot at playing for their country, only to be transplanted by
the dual citizenship players who Klinnsman seems to favor.
Unfortunately,
it seems to me that Klinnsman really never got over the snub by Donovan
when the player decided that he needed time off to re-energize. We
all know that Donovan has started to move towards the end of his soccer
career and at times has hinted as much. But I'm sorry guys, international
World Cup experience has to count for something. I certainly think
that even coming off the bench he can provide 25-30 minutes of spark that could
save a point in a critical match.
Where is Mr. Klinnsman's respect for the American player of the last
decade? Why did he choose to add very young, inexperienced foreign
players with "potential" who have dual citizenship, rather than
choosing a player who has proven himself for the US National team for
over a decade and who recently broke the MLS all time scoring record?
I
think Bruce Arena, former US National Team coach and current coach of
LA Galaxy put it best with his comment, "...if there are 23 players on
the current US roster better than Landon Donovan, then the U.S. should
win the World Cup this year."
It makes one wonder, if
Coach Klinnsman had not received a contract extension good for the 2018
World Cup, would he have chosen to experiment with these young players
in Brazil next month? Has he decided to give these young players with
potential the opportunity to get experience this time around, conceding any favorable result this year, and making a true push for it in 2018?
The World Cup is hardly the arena for giving young players
experience. I would be surprised to see many of these young
players get off the bench this time around, unless the team is completely out
of it by the second game and he just throws them in "to bloody them," as
they say.
Well, I guess time will tell and I hope the US team does well despite this bump in the road.
Let's go USA Soccer!
No comments:
Post a Comment