venerdì 23 maggio 2014

Klinsmann made controversial decisions



U.S. men's national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann announced his 23-man roster and it was a bit shocking. The most surprising pick was that Landon Donovan has been left off the squad for the World Cup. Honestly, it had been rumored for a while but Klinsmann’s move remains a stunning decision. Klinsmann knows what he's doing. Donovan will remain as a huge distraction for the team. Should things go bad, questions will be raised about what might have happened with Donovan part of the squad. Donovan is struggling with his club in term of shape but the same happened for Jozy Altidore, who has been included in the 23-man roster for Brazil. Donovan were overlooked in favor of Aron Johannsson and Chris Wondolowski. Also shocking was the fact that Klinsmann needed of just eight training camp days to made Donovan and other veterans expendable. Klinsmann selected an young team, passing over Donovan, Brad Evans, Clarence Goodson, Michael Parkhurst and Maurice Edu. Terrence Boyd also missed the cut while John Brooks, Julian Green and DeAndre Yedlin are in. The decision to cut both Goodson and Parkhurst also is a surprising one. The defence will be highly scrutinized and Klinsmann will have plenty to answer if the pair of Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez doesn’t work and things go south. Klinsmann’s approach raised a lot of questions: are the kids ready? Is this roster containing the best 23 players at Klinsmann’s disposal? Like or not, it’s a risky strategy to face a World Cup in this way. Some suggested that, with Klinsmann's contract running though the 2018 tournament, the German coach opted to sacrifice this World Cup for the next. But one has to wonder if it was Klinsmann’s thought. A thing is sure: as Doug McIntyre twitted last night, if things will go well this summer, Jurgen will look like a genius. If they don’t...

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