re: Klinsmann bashes Donovan and Kobe Bryant!!

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I thought we were talking about current concerns and fitness considering the WC is this year. Not last year or 4 years ago.

Plus although statistically CD did not have a great year in 2013 he moved to three different team in a calender year. Hard to be a dominate goal scorer with new teammates and getting into new systems. Either way like i said his Tottenham (8 goals) goal scoring was certainly on par with LD at LA (10 goals).


Either way the world including sheep (see above) has realized that LD looked out of shape and not at the top of his game.
He made 0 effort to assuage JK and prove otherwise.
Now we are bitching and wondering why he was left out?

I don't understand

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Do you think Brad Davis is better than Landon Donovan?

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Do you think Brad Davis is better than Landon Donovan?

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No of course not but the best team is always not built with the best players. Maybe Jk likes having a player with a dominate left foot to run down one of the flanks or to provide a different type of sub.

However i still think this point is vital:
LD was out of shape.
LD did nothing, stubbornly and apparently disrespectfully toward JK, to prove otherwise.
JK said no LD at world cup.
This chain of events does not surprise me and would happen at any level on any successful team in any sport.

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You do realize he finished 3rd in the beep test, right?

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It's a good thing some anonymous source leaked that Donovan almost finished the beep test. Otherwise, all we'd have to go on would be that he let himself get overweight 2 months before the World Cup and was in poor form for his club before deciding he felt like scoring after he got left off.
But no one ever said Donovan was in such bad shape that he was like Fat Ronaldo (well, almost no one). Donovan relies on pace and fitness, and he was in poor shape for him, which says something about his motivation. Does it mean he wasn't good enough to make a difference in Brazil? I don't know, but that's a different question than whether he was displaying the kind of hunger he knew Jurgen wanted to see from him.

Y'all keep throwing out the beep test and his post-cut goals in MLS as if that means he was never out of shape (for him) or form at all.

Stick with the argument that even if he has lost a step and can't practice hard every day, he is still one of our best players and still would have helped us in Brazil. That's a much better argument than trying to pretend that he didn't act in a way that gave Jurgen a reason to leave him off the team.

The two sides of this argument have one major disagreement, and it's over whether the coach has the right to leave off a player of Donovan's caliber for not doing what the coach asked of him.

I can buy the argument that Donovan is still good enough that Jurgen should have brought him anyway. I definitely wish Landon was on the team.
You can also make a solid argument that Jurgen held Landon to a higher standard than some of the other players.
But you can't make an argument that Donovan did everything he could to make the team.

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Seriously, that is just a terrible argumen

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lol. You have never come anywhere near refuting anything.
Maybe calling me names will make people think you know what you're talking about.

Sheep at least knows what he's talking about and has been following the team since most of us barely knew it existed. He just hates Jurgen.

You basically just love Landon and don't make any sense.

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You basically just love Landon and don't make any sense.

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You saying this tells me that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Sure I like Landon, but my reasoning for thinking he should be on has nothing to do with him being "Landon Donovan the greatest USMNT player ever", I just think he is better than Brad Davis as a left midfielder off the bench.

I already said my piece, I don't have to defend it again.

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"We cannot win this World Cup, because we are not at that level yet," Klinsmann told the magazine in December.

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If so what is the harm in allowing Donovan a goodbye tour like Derek Jeter is getting? Leaving Donovan off the roster was an insult to Donovan and all he has done for American soccer over his career. The roster has 23 players. Assuming Klinsmann plans to use the same starting 11, and he has 3 substitutions per game, the most he can use is 20 players in group stage. Some players aren't getting off the bench. Why couldn't Donovan be one of those players?

I'm sorry, but I think this is Klinsmann being petty and wanting to be the focus of the story from Brazil rather than allowing the World Cup to be Donovan's last hurrah.

I agree that adding a player as a last hurrah is not a good idea - you bring ONLY players who can help you for the next month. Don't care what they do, before OR after. However - 2013, camp fitness and recent MLS performance shows that Landon still has (most of) the goods.

Just back from practice - a few notes.

Players did all of their agility drills right in front of us. Brooks is crazy agile and quick for his size. Green was very quick moving in and out of the sticks - noticeably faster than everyone.... but is also the youngest, lightest and shortest, so you'd hope he would excel with that.

Brad Davis had KT tape on his knee, and looked not much faster than me in the agility drills. He pulled out of agility drills and did not participate in other drills or scrimmage with the group. He came out toward the end of practice and jogged a bit on the side with a trainer. Take that for what you will.

If it's a hammy (which is what Ives said), he won't be replaced unless it's torn.

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Is it wrong that I have a semi chubby thinking that he will be replaced ?

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If Davis is replaced, I doubt Donovan gets the call.

I could not even imagine the butthurt (especially mine) if Davis went down and we brought in anyone else.