The U.S. national team is not one player, no matter how important he is. Sometimes it seems like a few people forget that.
Yes, I think Landon Donovan is a definite asset for the USMNT. Yet I don't think he's the reason for all of the results of the squad, whether positive or negative.
Landon is resigned to that treatment, though.
"It comes with the territory. I get a lot of credit when I shouldn’t and criticism when I shouldn’t and that’s the way life is. That’s the way it’s going to be for me."
1 comment:
Though I agree too much credit gets dumped on Donovan as well as criticism.
I disagree with the assertion some of the non-MLS didn't know how to deal with a grind-it-out team. Its not like grind-it-out is anything new. Many of the non-MLS guys may encounter that style when playing in domestic cup games where a lower division team is looking for a tie. The real problem is an enability to crave up a defenses that have pacted it in. Remember the Jamaica friendly last year? What about the Morocco friendly last year? How about the Gold Cup in 2005? The US has repeatedly not been able to break down teams playing in shells when it has was damn lucky to get the result it got. Those games had plenty of experienced US players either MLS or non-MLS and they could not or barely were able to get a goal.
It maybe time for some of the forwards playing on the youth teams to get a shock with the full USMNT the way Donovan and Beasley were given on the 2002 WC squad. I say b/c the current group of US forward just lack the necessary talent to break a team looking for the tie. Benny F and M. Bradley are good start on the midfield but our forward pool is a serious problem that will continue to rear its ugly head in Gold Cup or Copa America.
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