World Cup 14 Squads Discussion

as someone who is not a Donovan fan at all

i say good riddance

inb4imabused

Altidore was included because he performs for the national team. Regardless of his club form and struggles, when he puts on the USA shirt he tends to produce results. His inclusion is neither a surprise nor an issue really, particularly because it's not at the expense of Donovan.

Other players like Green, Yedlin, and a couple of others who've barely played at club level or for the international team and have certainly not shown that they're ready for a WC however are a concern, because at the very least Green and arguably Yedlin are in that squad at the direct expense of more experienced and productive players like Donovan.

As a galaxy fan i can tell you Donovan had been playing very shitty for a long time.
Is he a better play that Green ? Or Wondo ? Yes, but from watching galaxy games Donovan wouldnt have started for the national team, and sometimes sitting a player like that might not work out too well, USA couldve turned into france 2k10 of he went and had to sit on the bench aha...

RedOranje wrote:Altidore was included because he performs for the national team.  Regardless of his club form and struggles, when he puts on the USA shirt he tends to produce results.  His inclusion is neither a surprise nor an issue really, particularly because it's not at the expense of Donovan.

Other players like Green, Yedlin, and a couple of others who've barely played at club level or for the international team and have certainly not shown that they're ready for a WC however are a concern, because at the very least Green and arguably Yedlin are in that squad at the direct expense of more experienced and productive players like Donovan.

I should have been more clear in the Jozy example as many people where saying how Donovan's poor form can't be used as a reason for his exclusion because Altidore's form has been very poor as well.. But I think that it was Donovan's poor form + his poor attitude and work ethic this past year that led to the exclusion. If he had been in good spirits and put in the same amount of work and dedication that Altidore had put in recently then he would have been on the roster. Klinsmann wanted 100% out of Donovan but it seemed like he just didn't want to give it. Also, I remember Klinsmann being insistent on MLS players going on loan during the long offseason break.. I don't remember who did and didn't go out on-loan, but I do remember Donovan defiently tweeting "I'm going NOWHERE this offseason".. Or something to that effect.. I think it was the little things that such as that that didn't sit well with Klinsmann.. plus said many things and dropped a lot of hints as to how he wasn't a lock and would still cheer for the team if he wasn't picked etc. where as other players perhaps made it more clear how much making the roster would mean to them..


Even so despite all that I still think it is kind of crazy. I get having Julian Green on the roster, because when you lack offensive quality like we do you may want to bring in an x factor player whom you aren't quite sure what they can bring to the table.. Kind of like when Oxlade got picked for the Euro for England in 2012.. But when you lack quality like us it is also hypocritical to leave your best player probably ever at home no matter how bad his attitude or form is. I don't agree with Klinsmann's decision but I guess I can say I at least understand it.

This is honestly more akin to Walcott getting picked for the 06 World Cup.

I still remember the hype around that decision.

No Donovan or McBride

USA football has been stripped of it's heart and soul

McBride has been retired from international play since 2006, and club play since 2010 (unless you count the odd Wembley FC situation in 2012)... bit odd to include him in this discussion.

Lars Bender got injured during Training and won't be able to go to Brazil

rwo power wrote:Lars Bender got injured during Training and won't be able to go to Brazil

Thankfully, we can just take Sven and opposition teams won't know the difference.

Jokes aside, VERY bad news.

tbh, including Green is pretty much a joke. I mean the kid has not played ONE MINUTE yet for us in the Bundesliga.

He's played 4 minutes of CL football though, so maybe that's enough top level experience for Klinsmann

But what on earth were you thinking when you got Klinsmann as manager anyway, serves you right.

TBH Klinnsmann has the USA playing some of its best football in some time. Not just talking about the Gold Cup either. Style of play is much more adventurous than under the more pragmatic Bradley.

He's had his ups and downs, but there have been more of the former than the latter during his tenure.

Keep this in mind...  Donovan may not be very good for the group if he's on the bench.  He may create unnecessary tension and he also may not be the best example/worker if he's not playing.  France NT has direct experience with this when they put Henry on the bench in 2010...  he was horrible at Barca and did not deserve to be on that team.  Yet he was given the bench role and it backfired badly. Same problems with Nasri except that Nasri is a crap player who is not even starter for France although he may think he's the next ZIdane

Putting guys with huge egos and a sense of entitlement on the bench, especially if you're starting younger guys, is a very  bad idea.

what's up with the high number of german born , half black / half german players in the us national team ?   there are like 5 of them in the us national team . did german women exclusively marry black serviceman ?

Meh, Donovan has never been much of a boat-rocker though, that tussle in the media with Beckham notwithstanding.

It was not expected that he would be a negative influence in the way the French veterans were. If he did go, he'd likely be the statesman of the group and a source of leadership from the bench.

As he's said, he's obviously disappointed to have been left off, but he had also made it clear in earlier interviews that he knew this was a definite possibility and that his place was not guaranteed. That's a farcry from the entitlement some of the French players felt.

Hello

farfan wrote:what's up with the high number of german born , half black / half german players in the us national team ?   there are like 5 of them in the us national team . did german women exclusively marry black  serviceman ?

Maybe it's because there were far more male US soldiers etc in Germany than female ones? That way it is more likely that you get German women marrying US guys than German men marrying US gals.

LOL at klinsmann's son

rwo power wrote:

farfan wrote:what's up with the high number of german born , half black / half german players in the us national team ?   there are like 5 of them in the us national team . did german women exclusively marry black  serviceman ?

Maybe it's because there were far more male US soldiers etc in Germany than female ones? That way it is more likely that you get German women marrying US guys than German men marrying US gals.

i'm more curious about the race thing .


almost every person i hear about born to an american soldier and a german mother has a black father...

farfan wrote:what's up with the high number of german born , half black / half german players in the us national team ?   there are like 5 of them in the us national team . did german women exclusively marry black  serviceman ?

Chubby chasing GIs.

What Viva said basically.

Became more and more prevalent towards the end of Bob Bradley's tenure. Was always going to accelerate under Klinnsmann.

Most USA fans have very little issue with it though since these guys are essentially Army brats.

farfan wrote:almost every person i hear about  born to an american soldier and a german mother has a black father...

Again it is a question of numbers - there were more black US soldiers stationed here in Germany than white US soldiers.

Similar it is with other ethnic mix-ups - if people immigrated as guest workers, there were far more men than women, so it is more likely to have combinations of Turkish/etc guy / German woman than the other way round. Moreover, especially Turkish families often marry their girls off to men in Turkey as they might not consider it to be proper for a Turkish girl to have a German (and possibly Christian) husband.

The thing is that Germans were quite accepting of the GIs in general, so there was a lot of friendliness going on both ways, and to be a bit reverse-racist here, it's pretty hip to bang someone exotic (iE non-white, non-european) over here, and has been for decades.

Also, GIs stationed in Germany really are mostly here to maintain bases, repair aircraft etc, they never have to be on guard, expect combat or anything, they can just go out to town. There is even a night club dead center of Heidelberg, where I live, that used to have more Americans than Germans going there, while the US barracks were still fully staffed.
And boy did you see a lot of thick blonde German girls going to that club back in the day, to peruse that cliché again.

If only Tim Ream could have stayed fit. Having him at LB would have been fantastic. Would have let Fabian Johnson be able to play LM like Klinsmann prefers him to play.

I just hope to god O. Gonzalez doesn't play a minute. He is horrible.