Jurgen supporters, gather here*

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Bob Ley said it best on ESPN this morning, when he compared the Landon omission to the Sterling case: "It's shocking...if you haven't been paying attention for 18 months."

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I've been paying very close attention for the last 18 months and it's still shocking. Anyone that says differently is lying.

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Donovan himself said his body can't handle the training regiment anymore. He said he can't be consistent for 10 straight days. That's a must in the WC.

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Players roles change over time for a reason. He seemed to be willing to occupy a new role. Telling everyone that you're getting old when you're getting old isn't a character flaw. He more or less indicated that this was going to be his final tournament with the national team. I'm sure he had a little extra saved up for it. Nothing coming out of camp made it seem like this wasn't the case.

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I'm not saying I agree with JK's decision. In fact, I disagree. I think Landon should be there. But I support the decision. I support this coach. I support this team.

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This seems like the healthy perspective to me.

I am also predisposed to thinking Landon would be more of an asset than some of the other players. However - I did not see the training sessions of the past week, so I can't say for sure. And I believe that the coaching staff is in a position to make that call.

I don't think Jurgen wanted it to be this way. I believe he would love nothing more than to have a 2010-era Lando in his side, but I give him credit for making this decision that was sure to have an enormous amount of vitriolic backlash.

mca

It's not that I want the US or Klinsmann to fail this World Cup. I just think that when we are a goal down and he subs in Green or Wondo and we loose, there are going to be alot of angry people that are going to be pissed that he didn't include one of the most clutch finishers in US history. Realisticly Donovan isn't going to get the goal every time, but hes the best option we have, and Klinsy told him to go home. Also why all this bs about "going young" when they will only really see the pitch if we already advanced or can't advance agianst Germany? All he had to do was pick Donovan and let him ride the bench. Unless he has no intentions of trying this WC and waiting until Russia, which is way worst than not picking Donovan.

I don't like Klinsmann's decision to leave Landon out, but that doesn't mean I don't support Klinsmann.

Obviously he is the coach and he knows this team and its players better than anyone, but using Klinsmann's own criteria that he gave Donovan for getting back into his good graces and rejoining the national team after his sabbatical, I'm left scratching my head wondering what Donovan did wrong.

He tore it up during the Gold Cup. (It's the Gold Cup, I know. But he was by far the best player on the pitch in all the games he played in.)

He did very well in the Hex games he played in, scoring the goal that sealed our spot in the World Cup.

He brings a veteran knowledge that is useful to the younger Americans that will face criticism from the global media during the World Cup.

He is by far our best PK and set piece threat. This is a very important piece to have.

And I just have a hard time believing he wasn't working his arse off during training to show he was still capable of playing at the top level. Has he sucked recently in the MLS? Yes. I tend to think that maybe he was waiting to get back to training with the USMNT, because the only reason he stuck around this long was for another World Cup. Perhaps that attitude is what did him in.

We don't know the whole story, and maybe Donovan simply told Jurgen he can't go 100% anymore. Maybe he's not even that upset about not making it, I don't know. We'll find out.

I still fully support Klinsmann and still believe he's the guy to take us to new heights. It is just very saddening to see the guy I wanted to be when I was younger cut from the team. I bought Landon's 2002 World Cup jersey after that tournament and wore it almost everyday. Just sucks to see one of your idols growing up have their career come to an end like this.

In. Out with the balding, little, tubby man. Time to rip Ghana a new one.

Good to see this thread. Too many people are putting a player above the team and are making statements based more on emotion than on the facts that are before them.