Gulati and Sermanni himself were quick to put down talk of a player’s revolt…
Neil W. Blackmon
Greetings. We’re under 70 days until the US tries to exorcise two World Cups worth of demons against Ghana and get group play in Brazil off to a roaring start. If you’re anything like me, the sense of anticipation grows more palpable by the day. Here’s a few thoughts to jumpstart your Tuesday, which features Champions League play this afternoon. I’m especially looking forward to the second leg of Chelsea and PSG. This was the most intriguing tie when the quarterfinals were drawn, and it is even more fascinating now that Mourinho has to figure out a way to score two goals without conceding one for the London club to advance. Mourinho has never lost a quartefinal tie– but perhaps 2014 is the year that streak comes to a grinding halt
First, some additional thoughts on the dismissal of Tom Sermanni as the manager of the USWNT.
John Halloran, who does a great job at Bleacher Report and American Soccer Now, wrote this piece after Sunil Gulati’s press conference yesterday, and it confirmed my thoughts on this website Monday afternoon that the likelihood this was a firing based on a “player revolt” was low. Gulati talked a great deal about broad-stroke issues, and essentially suggested that the change was about a general malaise regarding the direction the team was headed with World Cup qualifying just around the corner.
As expected, social media and various commentators were skeptical, and in one sense, they are correct: if it was a player revolt, it’s unlikely Gulati would have just said so. At the same time, my observations yesterday remain some of the only based on actual observation– I was the only journalist at pre-Algarve Cup training sessions with any remote claim to a national audience, and morale and spirits seemed high. If there was a revolt, it was a fast one. Furthermore, Sermanni did an interview this morning on Sirius XM FC where he made clear the change was from the top, not a groundswell-type player’s revolution. To back this up, he noted that more than half his former players sought him out to wish him well and assure him they had nothing to do with the change. The social media gag order by US Soccer was odd– but a player’s revolt coupled where the players then reach out to the object of their revolt with well-wishes and affection– that’s Mean Girls stuff, except less believable.
The US has a short time remaining to find a role for this guy…
Shifting to the USMNT, the thinking here is that what Landon Donovan’s precise role will be in Brazil is still very much a mystery.
Landon Donovan is one of the most thoughtful, candid, refreshing athletes of his generation- in any sport. So it came as no surprise that after he was benched for the beginning of last week’s Mexico match in Glendale he not only said the right things and towed the company line, but his remarks were extraordinarily insightful and honest. Brian Straus wrote a piece at SI that includes a great number of those quotes, but the two that stuck with me were that Donovan is willing to adopt whatever role Klinsmann feels best helps the team win and that he was only disappointed that he didn’t start because last week’s match may have been the last time he’ll play Mexico.
Klinsmann said the decision to sit Donovan was based on how he performed in training sessions, and there’s no reason to believe that isn’t true- but it is fascinating, especially given the fact that Donovan has been in fairly good form to open the MLS campaign. As I’ve written on this site before, Donovan is oft-maligned precisely because he’s, you know, Landon Donovan, and the expectations have always been absurd. The rub, of course, is that Donovan has almost always come close to living up to those idyllic standards.
Finding a role for Donovan this summer, in a world with a (still) underrated Graham Zusi on one flank and players like Ale Bedoya, Fabian Johnson and even Clint Dempsey or Aron Johannsson, depending on deployment, on another is a tricky challenge for Klinsmann, but the reality for the Yanks is that Landon Donovan is still one of the best players the US have and he’s had an extraordinary amount of success at the World Cup, 2006 disappointment notwithstanding. Donovan allows the US to relieve some of the pressure on Michael Bradley because he’s a good enough passer to serve as an additional possession hub and he’s probably still the best pure counterattacker Klinsmann has at his disposal.
There’s some merit to the notion that a fresh Donovan, off the bench at around the sixty minute mark, might be the most effective Donovan in Brazil, but given the opponents the US will face, fast starts will be at a premium and the risk there is that by the time Donovan enters the Yanks are chasing the game and what Donovan does best is truly minimized. The Send-Off Series will give folks more answers but the thinking here is that we won’t know what Klinsmann is going to do with Landon until we see a teamsheet the afternoon of the Ghana match. Enjoy some Tom Petty while you ponder that…
I’ll leave you today with some MLS/USMNT links– it was a fascinating weekend where the bar was set extraordinarily high by the Cascadia Cup match between Portland and Seattle.
Jason Davis of ESPN and Soccer Morning fame on that match and the weekend that was…
Liviu Bird with a fresh batch of MLS Power Rankings at CNNSI…
and finally, this intriguing piece from friend of TYAC Roger Bennett on why MB 90 didn’t catch on in the Barclay’s Premier League...
The comments, as always, are yours…
Neil W. Blackmon is Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at nwblackmon@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @nwb_usmnt.