I just disagree with the Donovan statement. He was hurt, old, and not at all in the condition or playing like he was in South Africa. He did some goo dthings but I did not see a WC quality player in him at the time of selection. I had zero reservations when he dropped him from the Brazil Squad.
As to Jurgens practice habits, IDK what he does or what he demands. But outside of Jozy, no one was injured and we looked the most fit of each team we played and also had the longest travel of any team in the tournament. Not buying the flaw is his brutal practices causing injuries. Jozy has had problems with his hamstring before IIRC.
And as to Wondo, the specific reason he was there was he always seems to be in the right position at the right time. That is who he is. His career has been as a poacher in front of goal. That is why he was picked. Jurgen brought people with specific talents to have a well rounded roster. We did not need Donovan. We had everything we needed in other players (Leadership and experience included) and at some point we have to move on as team.
As to a back up plan for Jozy, we had plenty of strikers. That issue was way over sold IMO. Jozy was playing great prior to his injury but its not like we did not have options. How many players go into a tournament on fire like Jozy was? Not many. You just don't replace that. Its a loss no matter how you slice it. Its a big deal becasue its not easily replaceable. You can't blame Jurgen for not having another guy on the bench and on fire.
I watched every minute of every game and I just don't see how we would have had a better team at the WC.
1. Wondo is a club player, nothing more. When you bring a club player to an international game, that is what happens. It wasn’t surprising in the least…matter of fact I was saying that here long before the WC had even started. Meanwhile, Donovan was definitely not injured and unfit; just look at what he did for the Galaxy the rest of the summer, leading them to a title and playing extremely well. He just wasn’t “Jurgen fit”, which was ridiculous bc Jurgen didn’t know how to handle an older player the way other coaches do. Instead, he left one of the best players off the roster in lieu of a club player who clearly wasn’t good enough to be on the big stage. That was a massive mistake by Jurgen, and it showed in the Belgium game (and throughout the tournament, esp when Jozy went down).
2. I absolutely think that Jurgen’s over-the-top intense practices hurt our team, and the numbers bear that out. How many times do we have to give up late goals for Jurgen fans to get this? For a team that is supposedly so fit, we give up a TON of late goals, and it’s not a stretch to say that it’s bc the players are burnt out. There was a stretch of time that from the start of the World Cup, 14 of the last 17 goals the U.S. had given up have come in the second half. Nine came after the 80th minute. That’s insane!
And this has dogged him since he coached Germany and Bayern. Look at what Philip Lahm had to say:
“We practically only practiced fitness under Klinsmann,” Lahm said, according to excerpts published in German newspaper Bild and translated into English by several outlets. “There was very little technical instruction and the players had to get together independently before the game to discuss how we wanted to play.”
Jurgen took a team, ‘Merica, already known for its fitness, and tried to make them even more fit? Great, Wondo can run forever, Donovan needs to save his legs to perform better…let’s go with Wondo because he can run for longer distances, which will be great when we put him in for 8 minutes at the end of the game. Makes perfect sense.
3. As for the WC, tactically, again, he screwed that up. He has been known forever to be AWFUL tactically. The current coach of Germany was Jurgen’s tactician when Jurgen was in Germany, and without him, he has been lost. Yeah, we had strikers, but there are different types of strikers that fit better in certain systems. How are you going to go to the WC and be set on one formation (lone striker, 5 mids) and only go with ONE forward that can play that role effectively??? When Jozy went out, instead of changing tactics and pairing Johansen (sp) with Clint or something like that (or be able to put Landon in the game w/ Clint fml), he put Clint up top by himself, which is not even close to his best position, and stuck with forcing Bradley to be his #10, which he failed at miserably. The striker thing was not overblown…it was a real issue and had us playing at a disadvantage than what we should have. If you insist on playing a certain formation, then you better have some back-up plans. We essentially wasted the forward spot.
Anyway, love you Cack, but we will never agree on this. There were a lot of mistakes made in that WC run, as fun as it was.
(And don’t even get me started on the Brazil tactics 2 nights ago…Putting Bedroya, probably our most effective wide midfielder, at
defensive mid for the first time in his life???? WTF?)
