re: Donovan: Does he have a point or sour grapes?

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For Klinnsman (and everyone else), Hindsight is 20/20. Landon probably should have been there. 

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Yeah - but it's not a "hindsight" thing. If before the Super Bowl, John Fox says "Peyton Manning has been great, but Brock Osweiler has really looked great in practice, so he's going to start. Peyton will be inactive" - everyone would have said he's a fricking loon. And you can't say "well, the Broncos lost anyway - so in hindsight, it really doesn't matter." That's wrong - it's still a monumentally stupid decision.

An "in hindsight" decision is bringing Edu instead of Mix, maybe to have more natural replacement for Beckerman, or bringing a target striker instead of Chandler, or bringing another RB that you felt comfortably playing so you could push Yedlin up more often. Those are hindsight decisions.

Leaving a guy behind that does almost everything you were lacking the entire tournament - that's not a hindsight thing - that's being a dumbass.

And I disagree with Stewie's assessment. We got run ragged against Ghana (though you *could* argue that forcing them wide was key) and we were e fortunate to win. One of our few competent set pieces changed the tournament. We *didn't* make the right moves to beat an undermanned Portugal, just the right moves to get back in the game. The way we played in stoppage time looked like we had never practiced or discussed what to do with a lead late in a game. Who knows what Germany looks like if not played in a monsoon, and if Howard doesn't have one of the best goalkeeping performances of all time, our result looks a lot more like the friendly result against Belgium.

I applaud the players for leaving it all on the field - and I applaud Jurgen for motivating the group he brought to do the best he could.

But I'm also a big believer in "where there's smoke, there's fire" - and right now, all of the suspicions, complaints and comments about Jurgen before he was hired and during his tenure - from the Lahms, van Buytens, "unnamed US sources", and Brian Strausses of the world - all of that still looks to be dead on. Too much "fitness work" (hello, pulled hamstrings), bizarre roster and lineup decisions, lacking tactical knowledge and an over reliance on motivation to get results - all of those concerns appear to have come true.

i don't really find anything wrong with what he said. I like that he qualifies it with the hindsight comment.

Belgium's midfield is their strength. No matter how "attacking" we wanted to be i'm not sure we would win many midfield battles against them.

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But I'm also a big believer in "where there's smoke, there's fire" - and right now, all of the suspicions, complaints and comments about Jurgen before he was hired and during his tenure - from the Lahms, van Buytens, "unnamed US sources", and Brian Strausses of the world - all of that still looks to be dead on. Too much "fitness work" (hello, pulled hamstrings), bizarre roster and lineup decisions, lacking tactical knowledge and an over reliance on motivation to get results - all of those concerns appear to have come true.

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I don't disagree with that.

But I feel like Jurgen's made progress with our group. We'll see.

sour grapes

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We got run ragged against Ghana

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The team that drew Germany and had beaten Donovan-led US teams in two straight World Cups.

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We *didn't* make the right moves to beat an undermanned Portugal, just the right moves to get back in the game.

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That Cameron shank was totally about tactics.

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The way we played in stoppage time looked like we had never practiced or discussed what to do with a lead late in a game.

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You're probably right. Neither JK nor any of his assistants ever had the foresight to practice this. That was definitely the problem and not that everyone was just dog-tired and made mental mistakes. Klinsmann totally needed to instruct Bradley not to give the ball away and Beasley not to let Cristiano get that cross away. Brilliant, Sheep.

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Who knows what Germany looks like if not played in a monsoon

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6-0 at least, obviously, because Phillip Lahm and Van Buyten.

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Leaving a guy behind that does almost everything you were lacking the entire tournament - that's not a hindsight thing - that's being a dumbass.

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Like scoring 3 goals in 11 matches in MLS this year? That guy totally would have given us more goals in this tournament. Never mind that we equaled our goal total from 2010 when he was in his prime and playing against much lesser competition.

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bringing another RB that you felt comfortably playing so you could push Yedlin up more often.

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Awesome that you found a way to criticize Jurgen re: Yedlin. That takes talent.

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all of the suspicions, complaints and comments about Jurgen before he was hired and during his tenure....appear to have come true

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Bravo, Sheep. You waited almost two whole days days before saying that despite the results, you were right all along!
Since Jurgen is not Bielsa, he really is a worthless coach. Since it took awhile to integrate the German Americans (Brian Strauss article) and get the team to buy into what he was saying, he sucks (let's ignore that we won CONCACAF and that German Americans, now happily integrated, got us through the group of death).

Being a master motivator is really of no value at all when your players are outclassed by every opponent they faced in the World Cup.

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That's wrong - it's still a monumentally stupid decision.

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Yep, in a World Cup where team spirit, motivation, and fitness were going to mean everything to our chances of advancing, it was MONUMENTALLY stupid to leave off a player who chose not to participate in early qualifying, publicly declared his intentions NOT to practice hard, and showed up out of shape and form to the final pre-camp friendly (according to Sheep, Broski, etc. Do I need to link those posts again from the Mexico friendly, or will you just be honest and admit/accept that he was fat in the spring?).

Donovan at 27 wasn't good enough to counter-attack his way to beating Ghana. He is certainly not good enough now to single-handedly beat Belgium or Germany. He could have greatly helped this team by buying into the coach's philosophy from the beginning, showing a consistent desire to do whatever the team needed from him, starting getting in shape prior to April, showing the same fire in the pre-camp MLS games that he showed in the ones right after he dropped, etc. Instead he did exactly what he wanted to do, said whatever he wanted to say to whoever he wanted to say it to, and thumbed his nose at the coach for 3 years.
The coach thus leaves him off, proceeds to exceed all expectations in the World Cup, and to you all of this is proof that Jurgen is a dumbass not worthy of coaching the USMNT.

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Which is why he should have brought E.J. and Landon over Wondo and Davis.

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NO. EJ has had his time, and to tell the truth has had more time than he disserves in a US kit.
I don't believe in bringing Davis over Donovan, but lets not get carried away and bring EJ in this.

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Apparently I missed the let's pile shot in jk memo.

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Don't sweat it. It's a forward from 2 years ago.

once altidore got hurt, the shite hit the fan, on what Jurgen wanted to do.

Jurgens failure was not getting Bacon and Green more minutes, and bringing in old, mls garbage instead of those 2.

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Wondo should have scored and would have scored 9/10 times. Sometimes the soccer gods don't look favorably on your team Tough luck for us but that how the game goes sometimes

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Wondo was needed in the squad IMO. Every team needs that poacher, or player that just finds himself in the right place at the right time so often. He did exactly that against Belgium he just didn't take his chance to bury it. Leaving Donovan home in favor or Davis and, after his performance, Zusi is the bigger issue.