Friday, June 1, 2007

Captain picks club over country

Toronto FC's Jim Brennan, that is.

What's interesting is that Brennan is passing up on the regional championship of his country. In fact, Canada is the only team other than the U.S. and Mexico to have ever won a Gold Cup.

Brennan captains FC, though, and he thought that was more important.

Landon Donovan captains the Galaxy, but honestly, I think he'll be made to go to the Copa America.

I'll explain and give more info on why I believe this later.

Here's a hint - Donovan's skill is actually working against him here. If he was a nice, solid contributor, like Brennan, he'd probably be allowed to stay with his team, especially given the Galaxy's rather horrific injury situation right now.

But Donovan is better than that.

He's a real difference-maker, and so his wishes and his club be hanged - he's going to Copa.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I look forward to your info and reasons why you believe LD will be at Copa. And if he's going to be forced to go, I hope he blows Wynalda's scoring record out of the water!

Anonymous said...

This is a good example of why Canada's national team hasn't been that good lately. Last World Cup cycle they had a few players who wouldn't play in qualifiers.

For LD its tough b/c he is the US team captain and the US strongly relies on him. An MLS heavy Copa squad would seriously need his skills. Some say we should test some newbies in the Copa. This is a valid point but is Copa the proper place to test newbies such as Hill or Nguyen? If we rely on these newbies for Copa and they get destroyed, Copa could do more damaged then good for the US in the long run. The US will need LD's skills and leadership at both GC and Copa.

Anonymous said...

The US should go all out to in Copa. With Brazil's depleated squad (no Ronaldihno, no Kaka), La Copa is there for the taking.

Winning this tournament will be huge in making believers out of the doubters. Plus, nothing will leave more of a sour taste in the mouths of the rest of America than the US winning La Copa.