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Started By
Message
Wayne Drehs with the best Donovan story of the year
Posted on 12/5/14 at 12:27 pm
Posted on 12/5/14 at 12:27 pm
And there have been a lot.
LINK
LINK
quote:
ON MAY 22, Donovan was the last player to walk off the training field when Klinsmann interrupted his path to the locker room.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked.
Klinsmann told him that he wasn't part of the group going to Brazil. If someone got hurt, he would be the first person he would call. Donovan told Klinsmann he was making a huge mistake. He added that there were guys on the team who did not always care about the outcome. "But I do," Donovan insisted then. In the locker room, most everyone figured out what was happening. When Donovan entered, he felt their stares. He walked into the shower, sat on the floor and cried. Beasley and Michael Bradley sat next to him.
"You just try to be a friend," Bradley says. "Did we need him? Would we have benefited greatly by having him there? Yes and yes. If it was just about quality or the best guys, there's no doubt he still has the ability to make a difference. But Jurgen didn't see it that way. And Landon didn't give him enough of a reason to change his mind."
5
Posted on 12/5/14 at 12:31 pm to Broski
quote:
His favorite band is Boyz II Men. He's friends with the guys from Five for Fighting. And this morning, no matter what Top 40 song is on the radio (right now it's Brit pop band Rixton), he can't help but sing along. "Me and my broken heart...
quote:
When U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati first approached Donovan about playing one last time, he wanted no part. He was still bitter about not going to the World Cup. His mother agreed, telling her son she wouldn't go if Klinsmann was the coach. But in time, Donovan changed his mind. "I didn't want my family's last memory of me on the national team to be something so shitty," he says. "I was hoping to change that."
He avoided Klinsmann in the lead-up to the match, instead planning details, including when and how long he would play, with Gulati. Still, when an intermediary informed him that Klinsmann wanted to shake hands when he left the field, Donovan was irritated. "Like we're fricking 6 years old," he'd say later. "You'd think we could just talk about this like men."
Posted on 12/5/14 at 12:48 pm to hendersonshands
That was a pretty good read.
Posted on 12/5/14 at 1:35 pm to Broski
"Fat" . . .
This post was edited on 12/5/14 at 1:41 pm
Posted on 12/5/14 at 2:56 pm to Broski
We should post a lot of the good Dononvan stories and videos in here. Does anyone have that short series on him? I think Grantland did it a couple months ago.
Also, was the footage shown at Donovan's last game on the video board available anywhere? I never saw any of the postgame stuff from 10/10.
Also, was the footage shown at Donovan's last game on the video board available anywhere? I never saw any of the postgame stuff from 10/10.
Posted on 12/5/14 at 3:01 pm to Broski
He's sensitive," Arena says. "He often tries to overanalyze things. He doesn't have Michael Jordan DNA or Kobe Bryant DNA. Those guys know their job and compete every day. If it's not the best day, it's not the best day. But they're there, 100 percent mentally and physically. He wasn't always that way. In the last eight years, it's been a coin flip with what to expect from him."
Posted on 12/5/14 at 3:45 pm to LSUMJ
quote:
He added that there were guys on the team who did not always care about the outcome. "But I do," Donovan insisted then.
*cough*TimmyChandler*cough*
Posted on 12/5/14 at 3:46 pm to hendersonshands
quote:
His favorite band is Boyz II Men. He's friends with the guys from Five for Fighting. And this morning, no matter what Top 40 song is on the radio (right now it's Brit pop band Rixton), he can't help but sing along. "Me and my broken heart...
Cakes is such a basic bitch.
I'm gonna miss him.Posted on 12/5/14 at 6:02 pm to LSUMJ
I think Landon is constantly the most (or one of the most) hardest working guys on the field. He is not like Dempsey that sulks about for 70% of the time and can't be bothered to play defense.
This post was edited on 12/5/14 at 6:31 pm
Posted on 12/5/14 at 6:17 pm to FunkasaurusReb
Just to clarify, you find Dempsey to be the harder worker of the two?
Posted on 12/5/14 at 6:29 pm to FunkasaurusReb
quote:
FunkasaurusReb
I get that Landon disappears in games from time to time, but to act like Dempsey doesn't do the exact same thing is a joke.
Posted on 12/5/14 at 6:29 pm to Sheep
No, sorry started drinking and went a rant in my head and tried to clear it up. I find Donovan works hard every game I have seen him in, and Dempsey is infuriating at times when he doesn't track back or when he quits on runs.
Posted on 12/5/14 at 7:25 pm to FunkasaurusReb
quote:
Dempsey is infuriating at times when he doesn't track back or when he quits on runs.
Or when he gets his goal early and quits for the remaining 80 minutes? Dempsey is one of the most infuriating people to watch out there.
As for the article, I really enjoyed it. It was a very fair, honest piece, and I really wish there was more of this sort of openness about what really happens in sports more often.
Posted on 12/5/14 at 8:15 pm to Broski
Read this article earlier.
Honestly, it just enhanced my reasoning as to why he didn't deserve to make the final 23-man roster.
He was, without a doubt, talented enough. There's no question about that. But the guy kind of checked out mentally and didn't put in the work necessary to make the squad.
He really only performed at his potential when he had a chip on his shoulder, evidenced by that first game back in the MLS after getting cut from the USMNT.
I will say this though, Jurgen probably fricked up by not putting the heat on him. Landy responds really well when he's told he can't do something.
Just my opinions though.
Honestly, it just enhanced my reasoning as to why he didn't deserve to make the final 23-man roster.
He was, without a doubt, talented enough. There's no question about that. But the guy kind of checked out mentally and didn't put in the work necessary to make the squad.
He really only performed at his potential when he had a chip on his shoulder, evidenced by that first game back in the MLS after getting cut from the USMNT.
I will say this though, Jurgen probably fricked up by not putting the heat on him. Landy responds really well when he's told he can't do something.
Just my opinions though.
Posted on 12/5/14 at 8:17 pm to FunkasaurusReb
quote:
No, sorry started drinking and went a rant in my head and tried to clear it up. I find Donovan works hard every game I have seen him in, and Dempsey is infuriating at times when he doesn't track back or when he quits on runs.
I figured you were either drunk or retarded.
Posted on 12/6/14 at 1:56 am to AirRaidTT
quote:
didn't put in the work necessary to make the squad.
What a crock of shite. We don't have near enough talent in our pool to leave our best player ever, still in his prime, at home for the most most important World Cup in our national team's history. Regardless of some of the dumb stuff he did during those couple years leading up to Brazil. He would have needed a couple weeks of good training to be more than ready for the WC. Having him in that squad would have made us a completely different team. It was a personal thing with him and Jurgen and anyone with half a brain understands that. Honestly, it kinda seems like Jurgen handled it like a bitch. And that scares me for the future a little bit.
Posted on 12/6/14 at 7:26 am to mynamebowl
quote:
Honestly, it kinda seems like Jurgen handled it like a bitch. And that scares me for the future a little bit.
I disagree with that. Jurgen wanted a team molded in his likeness, and was willing to sacrifice talent in order to accomplish that. He could do that in Germany, because there are tons of talented Germans. If you're allowing a 2-3% talent gap to get a guy that plays the way you want.... well, that seems reasonable.
Of course there aren't that many talented Americans and when you're excluding what elite talent you do have for a guy who will never be HALF the player Donovan is (Davis, Chandler) or guys who are only halfway to being able to be what Donovan is (Green) - well, that's just ignorance.
Which means Klinsmann is either epically stupid or epically stubborn (neither of which is ideal), and was willing to put results at risk to have a team that played and thought like he did.
Posted on 12/6/14 at 7:51 am to Sheep
My real problem with it is that Jurgen tried to make a cultural decision about how US soccer should start behaving by making a stupid roster decision that hurt his team in a once in a lifetime event.
Donovan did some things that opened up this possibility.
Jurgen wanted to send a message that would resonate.
Jurgen hurt his team because of it. No doubt Donovan could have helped, especially once Jozy went down.
Donovan did some things that opened up this possibility.
Jurgen wanted to send a message that would resonate.
Jurgen hurt his team because of it. No doubt Donovan could have helped, especially once Jozy went down.
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