#zach ricchiuti
The USMNT kicks off its World Cup campaign without Landon Donovan, this generation’s brightest soccer star.
Landon Donovan is the greatest American soccer player of all time.
Goalies are often cited as our greatest player export, but there is an unfortunate scaling in assessing the careers of a goalie. In order to be remembered as great, their feats must be unimaginably brilliant, and no such American keeper has reached the same heights as Dino Zoff, Gordon Banks, or even Gianluigi Buffon. Landon on the other hand has consistently proven himself at the international and club level as a player that delivers at the biggest moments against the biggest teams. In order to understand Landon Donovan, all aspects of his career must be looked at – his tactical evolution, his feats, and his personality.
As a player, Landon has always been somewhat of a contradiction. Tactically, Bruce Arena once famously said that the problem with him was that it didn’t matter where you put him because he’d be your best player in that position. Bruce was right, and during his time with the Galaxy and the USMNT, Donovan played on both the left and the right of a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2, as a striker, behind the striker, and even as a central attacking midfielder in a diamond behind two strikers during the 2006 WC qualifiers.
But his versatility isn’t what made him a contradiction–his qualities did. Glancing at Landon Donovan, you would immediately notice his speed, technique, vision, and coupled with his crossing ability led to many believing that he was some sort of tricky winger. He was anything but. Landon Donovan combined all the qualities of a goal-poacher with the elite speed of a sprinter. Jurgen Klopp, the Borussia Dortmund coach obsessed with “verticality,” would have loved Landon Donovan. He was at his best when combining quickly with precise passes and making runs behind the defense. He could run at players, exchange a 1-2, and be behind the defense slipping the ball into the corner of the field within seconds.
Landon was also an unbelievable counter-attacking player, essential during so many of the USMNT’s world cup and tournament games. He was arguably the best player of the 2009 Confederations Cup, leading the U.S. to the final and scoring one of the great all-time counter attacking goals against Brazil to put the U.S. 2-0 up. They eventually succumbed to a much better Brazil side than people remember, but he had cemented his position in U.S. lore.
That was until 2010, when he gifted us with the greatest U.S. soccer moment of all time.
The goal against Algeria will live long in the memories of all U.S. soccer fans as the moment that Landon Donovan awoke a sleeping beast. The passion and furor that followed that goal as it rang across all US. news outlets felt like we had finally made it. The broken and sectioned off soccer community in some ways has always felt like a diaspora of sorts. We all share the same love of the game and sense of belonging, yet without any attention from the media, it has always been hard to find one another and create a solidified identity. Landon Donovan’s goal that won us the group in 2010 will forever be in my eyes the day that soccer in America experience it’s “Miracle on Ice” moment. Ian Darke’s spontaneous “GO GO USA” line already belongs in the annals of history as one of the all-time great sports commentator lines.
As a person, Landon Donovan has never lived up to the athlete persona that many fans and pundits expect from a talent such as himself. He moved to Germany at a young age and decided he was better served coming home to build his career. First at San Jose and then the LA Galaxy, Donovan built an impressive record of championships and goals scored, quickly asserting himself as the most successful player to ever play on American soil.
A stint at Bayern Munich under Jurgen Klinsmann was doomed from the start. Klinsmann had already lost the dressing room and the backing of the entire club as a whole, and Donovan became nothing more than another reason to sack Klinsmann. The squad never respected Donovan and perhaps he failed to impose himself. But bigger players than Donovan have failed at Bayern Munich and it has no bearing on his quality or career.
A loan spell at Everton confirmed what many U.S. fans already knew, which was that England would prove a far better home to Donovan than Germany ever would. His familiarity with the language, high-tempo style of play, and choice of club, Everton, all combined to make his spell extremely successful. Phil Neville once even declared Landon Donovan one of the best right-sided players he ever played with.
But Landon Donovan always came home. There was a natural pull to being in the U.S. and representing his country, even when playing at club level. By staying in the U.S., Landon Donovan provided a sort of legitimacy to MLS that no player could have provided at the stage the league was at during his early years. Despite being the greatest American soccer player, Landon never felt the need to leave and play in Europe, and this was his greatest contradiction. He is the man who never left, the one who chose to remain, and this is why we hold him at the top.
Perhaps leaving him off the squad will turn out the right decision, Donovan has certainly not been at the top of his game in recent months, but it will certainly remain a note on this World Cup for years to come. No matter how far the U.S. squad goes, we will always be left wondering how far we could go with Donovan, the man who carried us to the quarter finals in 2002, the Confederations Cup final in 2009, and to the top of the World Cup group stage in 2010.
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Cross-posted through a partnership with The Philly Terrace.
Ronaldo is flashy and brash, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
[UPDATE:A Messi fan responds.]
Whenever I tell people that I prefer Cristiano Ronaldo over Lionel Messi, I find myself on the receiving end of a few derisive comments about hairstyles, diving and poor attitudes. Messi is the kind of guy who brings flowers when he picks your daughter up. Ronaldo, with his fast cars and jewelry, would drop her off the next morning, disheveled and holding last night’s heels. Even FIFA President Sepp Blatter has taken a public stand against the Real Madrid striker, criticizing him for spending too much time on his hair.
But I’m not particularly turned off by Ronaldo’s public image. He’s a successful, wealthy and talented athlete, and has every right to be confident in his own abilities. He also cares deeply about winning, and that shows through during matches, including, at times, when disputed calls bring him close to tears. What you see is what you get with Ronaldo.
That differs from Messi, who seems perpetually too awkward and shy to ever open up to the public. He can be timid and even immature at times, despite his on-pitch brilliance. He hands over most of his media and sponsorship deals to his brothers and agents, effectively letting them run his life. Ronaldo likely has a similar team of agents, but his personality enures he remains in control and the center of attention.
For two players molded so much by their childhood, Ronaldo’s and Messi’s younger years are rarely put side by side. Messi grew up in La Masia surrounded by youth coaches who sang his praises and tended to his needs. They even pumped him full of growth hormones when it looked like he wouldn’t reach a normal height. But Ronaldo came of age in a poverty-stricken part of Portugal, where he spent his days in the street, kicking a ball against a wall. He was shipped off to Manchester at 18, a separation from family that qualifies as a personal tragedy in Mediterranean culture.
He spent the next several years receiving a crash course in English football. Teammates and coaches spent the weekdays toughening him up for Saturday and Sunday matches. He stopped diving, put on muscle and developed his free-kick and finishing skills. According to those who played with him, Ronaldo would spend hours practicing new tricks before and after training, and then spring them on opponents during matches. His time at Manchester United turned Ronaldo from a skinny 18-year-old into one of the best athletes to play the game.
He dumped that comfortable setup for high-profile Real Madrid when the opportunity arose. And since then, he’s scored an incredible 201 goals in 180 games across all competitions. Off the field, he’s purchased houses for all his relatives, brings his son to every home match and picks up friends’ bar tabs as a matter of practice.
So go ahead, you can have Messi. Enjoy his vanilla interviews, tepid fashion and muted temperament. I want my superstars to act like superstars. I want them to hit the gym for hours, stay late at training, change countries if need be and do whatever it takes to reach the tops of their games. I want them to puff their chest and put the team on their back whenever needed. I want Ronaldo every time.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in ‘96.
As soccer expands, it is redefining the meaning of “nationality.”
All of you who’ve paid attention to soccer news in recent weeks can go ahead and join me in hammering the final nail into international soccer’s coffin. It’s been a long, slow slide, but it has now officially been eclipsed by the club game.
The main culprit is the inexorable march of globalization. International soccer used to represent a cluster of nations coming together to fight for their particular brand of football, and by extension their particular culture. But the world became more mobile. Boundaries dissolved, and players increasingly transfer from country to country just as they would clubs. A typical weekend Champions League match now features more talent – and often just as much diversity – as the World Cup.
That movement of talent throughout the world means that loyalties are increasingly fluid as well. Deco, Pepe, Marcos Senna and Camoranesi are just a few who have traded in their native nations for new ones. Senna and Camoranesi even won titles with those new sides. Choosing between the place you were born and the place you were raised is a fundamental career move for many of these athletes.
Diego Costa has taken that one step further. In choosing recently to play for Spain, the native Brazilian has redefined what “nationality” means within the football world.
The official FIFA rule is that you can play for any nation where you hold citizenship or have a blood relative. However, your loyalty is not established until you play for one country in an official, competitive FIFA match. This has helped the U.S. in a number of instances, most notably with Jermaine Jones. He played for Germany, but only in a friendly, leaving him eligible to switch to the U.S. later on.
What Diego Costa has done is somewhat different. He has not only played for Brazil in a friendly, but was selected to play for the national team in upcoming matches, with the expectations that he would be a main component of the World Cup team. But he rejected that call-up and took up Spain’s colors instead, a country whose connection to him is limited to his five years of residency. In essence, Spain bought Costa from Brazil. Fully aware of its limitations up top, it went out and found a top striker much the way Real Madrid would if they needed to replace their own forward, Karim Benzema.
Costa’s decision, nor the choices made by New Jersey-born Italian-American Giuseppe Rossi or Senna, Comranesi or any of the others, are particularly right or wrong here. It’s just the reality, one created by FIFA’s lax nationality guidelines. The organization is extending a convenience to the participants of a global — and globalized — game, but it does so at the risk of losing the nationalistic essence that for so long set the international game apart.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in ‘96.
The MLS has done a wonderful job of embracing technology. But the final frontier remains television, and without it, the league will continue to struggle.
As the ratings for NBC’s Major League Soccer programming roll in, perhaps the only way to characterize the partnership’s early days is as a disappointment. Television remains a tough nut to crack, especially for U.S. soccer.
It’s a problem that’s emerged rapidly in the last decade: other nations like England, Spain and Italy provide hours of soccer coverage each day, and still have trouble keeping up with demand. There’s SKY, Setenta, beIn Sport and BT Sport, to name a few, all of which skyrocketed in popularity with the ‘90s-era rebrandng of the English Premier League. Highlight shows and 24-hour soccer news is wrapped around the match broadcasts, bringing in billions of dollars in these major markets.
Yet as professional soccer expanded beyond its original borders, its broadcasting sources failed to keep up. And so fans in the U.S., Southeast Asia, Africa and South America have instead turned to the internet to fill the void. Despite legacy broadcasting companies’ efforts to shut down illegal streams and online television channels, the internet has become a refuge for those eager for greater access to the sport. Media outlets, blogs and even the clubs themselves have in turn rushed to feed that hunger online.
MLS has been on the forefront of this “alternative screen” movement. It’s repeatedly proved able to adapt and creatively market its product through different channels, and created an effective platform online by embracing the internet’s capabilities. While the Barclays’ Premier League polices YouTube, pulling down any copyrighted material, the MLS has gone the other way and offered its own HD-quality highlights for every match. It followed that with a mobile app, and developed it into what is likely one of the best of all the leagues in the world.
But the ultimate goal is still television, with its promise of the kind of mass audience enjoyed by the NFL or NBA. And there, MLS has had significantly more trouble. Prior to its deal with NBC, the sport didn’t even have a home. ESPN halfheartedly broadcast a “game of the week” that rated high in production value but lacked the support of the pregame and postgame shows that have become part of the fabric of other sports programming. Add to it that ESPN often put MLS games up against ratings giants like American Idol, and it’s unsurprising that the league never gained much traction.
With NBC, at least, there is hope. It’s similarly gone all-in on the internet, providing free streams of every Barclays Premier League game. And it is committed to producing MLS programming in a way that ESPN or even Fox Soccer never managed to do. Its “MLS Insider” show packages highlights and news with quality production, providing coverage that goes deeper than simply airing matches. Consequently, it’s managed to generate storylines around the sport. Recent shows have profiled talented young players like Diego Fagundez, reported on Eddie Johnson’s troubled past and featured promising coaches like the New York Red Bulls’ Mike Petke.
Doing that is important in creating an identity that the league might be able to further develop. But that depends on whether people are watching in the first place. As MLS mulls further expansion, it needs to to support itself through better television ratings.
What can MLS do to ensure that its visibility improves? For a start, it should increase the salary cap and invest a significantly larger portion of revenues in attracting star players. Clint Dempsey is a great presence in Seattle, but the league needs more big names to offset falling attendance in major markets like D.C., Los Angeles and Houston. Already fluent on the internet and finally supported by a strong television lineup, it seems the MLS only needs that next big story to propel it into the general consciousness.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in '96.
Just how crazy can Italian soccer get?
Calcio.
Derived from the verb calciare, or “to kick,” calcio is the Italian word for football or soccer. And like food, wine and women, Italians tend to think their version of calcio is both much different and much better than the rest.
In reality, soccer in Italy has suffered in recent years. Yet there is no denying that, for better or worse, Italian footballers are dedicated to doing things their own way. While the rest of Europe measures itself through shirt sales, marketing figures and global reach, Italy is defined by corruption and truly insane owners.
Just last year, for example, Palermo owner Maurizio Zamperini fired his club’s coach and sporting director. That’s the normal part. Here’s what followed: the firing and hiring of five coaches during the season, two of whom were fired and then re-hired in the same year. Zamperini would finally settle on Giuseppe Sannino, who just so happened to be his original choice. But by then it was too late. The club had been relegated to a lower league.
Zamperini’s indecisiveness pales, however, in the face of Luca De Pra’s dedication. The Genoa youth coach was in the midst of preparing for a crosstown derby versus Sampdoria when he decided he needed a bit more intel on his squad’s rival. So he equipped himself head-to-toe in camouflage and spy gear and camped in the trees near Sampdoria’s training ground.
Fans attending the practices quickly noticed a man in full Navy Seal-like gear hiding in the trees, and alerted club officials. Sampdoria’s training staff captured De Pra and, after what we assume was hours of interrogation, released the coach. Intent on beating Genoa at its own game, Sampdoria’s press office released a statement on the incident:
“That the derby is a question of nerve, tactics and strategy we already knew, but frankly we could never expect that it could turn into a scene of espionage.
Like Rambo hidden among the branches on the hill, Luca De Pra, Genoa goalkeeping coach and man of noble footballing ancestry, failed to overcome Sampdoria’s intelligence and counter intelligence operations.
However, no prisoners were taken, and no blood was shed. Once tracked down and caught red-handed, the opposing side’s soldier was let free to return to base. You should always forgive your enemies, as nothing annoys them more.“
Much like the real spy world, Genoa denounced De Pra and maintained that he acted alone. Tossed out by the establishment, De Pra now faces a suspension. Just another day in Italian calcio.
The funny thing is that amid all the stories of espionage and owners gone mad, it’s easy to look past the quality of play shown by many teams. Juventus are finally looking like a side with a plan, Napoli keeps winning on the back of star Marek Hamsik, and the embodiment of Italian craziness, Mario Balotelli, has kept ailing AC Milan in contention. The battle for the title and Champions League spots looks to be one of the most exciting in Europe.
Discounting that because of all the off-pitch drama would be a shame, because like their food and wine, Italian fans and players take their calcio seriously. If only the people running the game there did as well.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in ‘96.
Began in ‘96’s two soccer experts offer their thoughts on the World Cup-bound U.S. Men’s National Team.
The World Cup: An expectation fulfilled
As the match’s 94th minute approached, Mexican midfielder Jesus Zavala carelessly dragged down Clint Dempsey. Zavala’s eyes seemed to protest the call, but his body language betrayed a player who had all but given up. It turns out Zavala got the memo late; the rest of his team had given up 60 minutes earlier.
Dempsey approached the resulting penalty shot anyway and sprayed it wide, as if some mysterious wind carried the ball away to preserve the “dos a cero” score line that has plagued so many of Mexico’s previous encounters with the U.S.
Nevertheless, when the final whistle blew in Columbus, Ohio, and the U.S. Men’s team celebrated their win, manager Jurgen Klinsmann looked a man content. His side had dispatched a poor, yet full-strength Mexico at home, riding the inspired crowd all the way to victory. And he had done it without Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley and Geoff Cameron, his three steadiest players. It was further testament to Klinsmann’s long-term emphasis on depth and flexibility, one that involved employing 47 different players over 19 World Cup qualifiers, international friendlies and Gold Cup matches. The U.S. now boast the largest player pool they have ever seen.
The win propelled the men’s team to 13th in the FIFA World Ranking, placing them above such teams as England and Chile. The ranking is certainly misleading to a degree. But unlike its fourth-place position leading up to the 2006 World Cup, the U.S. have earned their spot through stout defensive play and a string of victories over respectable squads like Mexico and Italy.
What will push them higher is an offense that is blossoming under Klinsmann. Altidore, Landon Donovan, Graham Zusi and newcomer Aaron Johnson form an attacking corps capable of much more damage than their predecessors. Throw in the European experience gained by players like Bradley, Cameron, Fabian Johnson and John Anthony Brooks, and this squad is far more talented and experienced. Most will be full-time starters with their respective clubs, ensuring that they enter the summer at the tops of their games.
They will need to, given what comes next. A World Cup birth to this team is less an achievement than fulfilled expectation, and it has so far gone according to plan. Klinsmann and the U.S. now face the opportunity to show how far American soccer has moved forward. And really, it has always been about moving forward.
Klinsmann’s masterful turnaround
The U.S. Men’s National Team punched its ticket to the World Cup this past week with a solid 2-0 win over rival Mexico, providing the perfect moment to reflect on Jurgen Klinsmann’s nearly two-year reign.
The 49-year-old German replaced Bob Bradley in 2011, bringing with him the promise of an attacking, flowing game underpinned by a consistent strategy. It was a departure from his predecessor’s one-game-at-a-time philosophy, an approach that bred familiarity and experience but left the national team thin on depth. As the U.S.’s core players aged out of their prime, there were few able and ready to take their place.
Klinsmann set out to change all that. He promised the same general approach game in and game out, but ensured that there was always a plan B. Every player had to re-earn their spot, and even stars Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore found themselves dropped from the squad at various points. Through it all, Klinsmann methodically assembled vast ranks of players who would aid the U.S. over the next couple years and further into the future.
That long-term vision got in the way of early success: the U.S. team went 1-1-4 in Klinsmann’s first six matches. But the tide gradually turned, and soon he had signature wins over Italy (in Italy) and Mexico (in Mexico’s dreaded Azteca Stadium) under his belt. Then the U.S. withstood a blizzard to beat Costa Rica, and then reeled off 12 wins in a row en route to a 13-2 record, and eventually lingering doubts about Klinsmann’s grand vision evaporated. The team now heads to the World Cup as strong and as deep as it has in years, and perhaps ever.
At the core of that success are Klinsmann’s subtler accomplishments. He’s figured out how to get Altidore scoring consistently, something no other USMNT coach could do. The 23-year-old found the back of the net in five consecutive matches, and seven times in 10 contests.
Also revitalized are Donovan and Eddie Johnson, even as they drift closer to the end of their careers than the midpoint. Much of that lies in Klinsmann’s more forward-thinking tactics. The U.S.’s freer style allows it to score on the build-up, counter and against the run of play. And thanks to the the squad’s newfound depth, it has found scoring sources from a variety of starters and subs. Klinsmann even trotted out what was essentially the U.S. B team during the Gold Cup, and went on to win it all.
It is a transformation of the national team that has grown soccer’s reputation and visibility both among players and fans. Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson and Mix Diskerud, among others, could have played for other national teams. Instead, they joined the U.S. More MLS players are being funneled into the system, and Klinsmann’s policy of playing the best players — no matter their popularity — raised the level of play for all those involved.
And when those players run out onto the pitch, they do so to a packed house. Fans sing and chant, and follow the squad into enemy territory like Azteca. That would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. But the U.S. now plays attractive, winning soccer, and has so far reaped the rewards.
Of course, the main test is the World Cup. Klinsmann and the U.S. built unprecedented momentum thanks to a brilliant summer, and the spotlight now promises to be even brighter a year from now. Whether the U.S. can withstand that heat is the true test of the Klinsmann era.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in '96. Matt Anderson is Began in '96's Richmond correspondent. Find more of his writing at First and Den.
A disastrous summer and disappointing start to the season have Arsenal at odds with its fans already.
The Premier League started this past weekend, and like a kid on Christmas eve, I was giddy for days leading up to the morning kickoff here in the U.S.
When the moment finally did arrive, I wanted to shake all my roommates awake, jump around the room and yell, “It’s back! It’s back!” The last few weeks of a long summer are a time for unbridled optimism, and that first touch at midfield is your club’s opportunity to turn that pent-up anticipation into concrete results. Anything seems possible at that point.
For Arsenal fans, that glorious feeling lasted all of an hour. The time since then has been consumed by one massive existential crisis. It’s difficult to put into words just how catastrophic it was to watch Arsenal’s opening defeat to Aston Villa. The entire stadium turned on the manager and club almost instantly, alternating chants of “spend some f***ing money” with the ever-popular “you don’t know what you’re doing.” If Arsenal were not prepared for the season’s start, at least its fans were.
Then again, the squad’s supporters have had a full summer of disappointment to prime themselves. Despite holding onto all of their key players, Arsenal nevertheless failed to strengthen an already-solid unit. The club missed out on ideal targets, lost bidding wars and squandered what could have been a revolutionary few months.
The missteps started early, with CEO Ivan Gazidis declaring that Arsenal were entering a new era of financial firepower. The boast made for a good headline, but served no tactical purpose. By telling the whole world about Arsenal’s cash pile, Gazidis put enormous pressure on the club to make a major acquisition while, at the same time, effectively doubling the asking price for available players.
The club proceeded to lose out on Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain, who chose a higher bid placed by Serie A’s Napoli. But that loss was just a warmup for the summer’s most painful saga: the failed courtship of Luis Suarez.
The Uruguyan footballer became Arsenal’s top target, and arguably for good reason. Suarez is a fantastic player and the runner-up for 2013 PFA Players’ Player of the Year. But throughout its pursuit, the club showed a startlingly amateur knowledge of just exactly how transfers work.
Suarez’ contract included a clause requiring his current club, Liverpool, to enter good faith negotiations with him if another team bid more than £40 million. However, that clause was open-ended; Liverpool were not obligated to do much more than reject Arsenal’s low-ball bids. And that’s just what they did, batting away a too-clever-by-half offer of £40 million and one pound. Manager Arsene Wenger later admitted that the club had “no chance” of signing Suarez before the transfer window closed.
The whole episode was as puzzling as it was embarrassing. If Arsenal really wanted Suarez, they should have gone straight to his agents and convinced them that holding out was the only option if the striker wanted to escape Liverpool. It would be ugly and controversial, but necessary to give Arsenal leverage over the incumbent club. Instead, Wenger insisted on playing it straight, and never gave himself much of a chance. In the process, Arsenal also alienated a faction of fans who believed that, after suspensions for both biting and racial abuse, Suarez should have never been the club’s main target in the first place.
The hapless offseason exposed Arsenal’s structural problems in navigating the transfer market. Wenger is supposedly in charge of transfers and responsible for shaping the club’s long-term vision, yet is prone to miscalculations. Gazidis is a part of that process as well, but appears to lack the necessary technical knowledge. Compare that to a club like Tottenham, where a technical director and manager in sync with one another revitalized them through shrewd offseason moves.
It might have seemed like impromptu bombs raining down on the Emirates last weekend. But against that offseason backdrop, it is clear the ground beneath Arsenal has been cracking for a long time. Club morale has sunk to toxic levels. Fans are furious that ticket prices remain among the most expensive in the country, even as Arsenal spend the least in the entire league on transfers. As the transfer window nears its close, the summer’s early ambition is fading away.
“In life, you get what you pay for, unless you’re an Arsenal fan,” one spectator said outside Emirates this past weekend. So far, it’s a point that’s hard to argue.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in ‘96.
The U.S. demonstrated just how deep this squad is during their run to the Gold Cup title.
The Gold Cup played out just about how everyone expected.
The U.S. beat a talented, well-organized Panama side 1-0 in the final, confirming that the Americans remain the best of the group, but that the group nevertheless still lacks in quality. Fans got an entertaining diversion during a period otherwise devoid of important soccer. And manager Jurgen Klinsmann seized on the opportunity to demonstrate just how far the national program has come under his tutelage.
The reaction to the U.S. squad’s showing, though, seemed a bit more unsettled. Some saw brilliance during the three-week tourney, praising Klinsmann’s tactics, player selection and prescient substitutions (both Eddie Johnson and Brek Shea netted goals with their first touch). Others came off a bit more skeptical, reserving judgment for when the Americans face stiffer competition. More likely, as it often is, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
To his credit, Klinsmann navigated the U.S. “B” squad through the Gold Cup. The June World Cup qualifiers deprived him of a handful of key players, forcing the coach to plug those holes without much disruption. But calling this particular team the “B” squad is perhaps an insult to the talent assembled.
The U.S. fielded several players who make their living in European and Mexican leagues. All-time goals and assists leader Landon Donovan also made the trip, instantly elevating the national team above the likes of Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras. Klinsmann’s main challenge here was not squeezing a great performance out of mediocre players, but selling all those players on his tactics and strategies well enough that he could throw them out on the pitch together and produce 90 minutes of cohesive play.
That interchangeability has quietly been months in the making. Klinsmann faced criticism early in his tenure for using a different squad in nearly 23 straight matches. Those teams were sloppy and inconsistent, often featuring players simply because they happened to be on the right continent at the right time.
Yet while those matches might have been frustrating to watch, they accomplished a larger goal of providing Klinsmann with perhaps the largest player pool in national team history. Now when the U.S. team trots out for tourneys, they benefit from the experience given early on to a wide range of then-unproven players.
There was Kyle Beckerman’s steady play as a pivot in the midfield, a testament to Klinsmann’s faith in him during a string of European friendlies. Brek Shea assimilated right back into the flow despite missing several first-team matches due to injury. Stuart Holden and DaMarcus Beasley turned in strong showings, and Landon Donovan used the Gold Cup to demonstrate why he could become the national team’s star. Even so, the U.S.’s vast roster means Donovan might find himself on the bench when the squad kicks off in Rio.
Thanks to the Gold Cup and Klinsmann’s long-term strategy, there will be serious competition in the defense, midfield and attacking positions when the “A” and “B” squads merge and vie for 23 final spots. Its the sort of dilemma every coach loves, and a luxury few American squads have enjoyed until now.
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Zach Ricchiuti is a contributor and resident soccer expert for Began in ‘96.
