In the wake of Jurgen Klinsmann‘s cavalier treatment of Landon Donovan, I have arrived at a crisis point.
Do I support the team Klinsmann will coach at Brazil 2014?
Or do I withhold my love until he is gone?
I am leaning towards the latter.
Landon, not surprisingly, has taken the high ground. He said he wishes only the best for the team coached by the man crushed his dream of a fourth World Cup.
I am not feeling as generous.
I have trouble separating those in charge of a sports team from those who play for it. Call it a personal quirk; call it a logical analysis of how Klinsmann’s career will progress.
If the Americans do well under Klinsmann, at Brazil 2014, it will only further empower him. It will all but assure that he will be around through the 2018 World Cup, wreaking goodness knows how much damage on U.S. soccer.
Given another four years, surely he will find another half-dozen German Americans and reach what seems to be his goal of an entire U.S. side whose first language is German and played in the Bundesliga.
I encountered a problem along these lines during the second half of the benighted years that Frank and Jamie McCourtowned and operated the Dodgers.
I could not separate my team of 50 years from the grasping duo who bled the franchise for their own enrichment. That moment came with a post on this blog entitled: Done Bleeding Dodger Blue. In  which I promised not to support the team until the McCourts were gone.
(This came as court documents showed how much money the McCourts were taking from the team, how little they were spending on players, how Jamie McCourt insisted she needed $900,000 a month in support, and the houses and the cars and all the rest. They were thoroughly contemptible, and I could not separate them from the guys on the field. I did not buy a ticket for more than two years, or until after the team had been sold.)
I fear the same will apply to the U.S. national team as long as Klinsmann is running things.
This is the guy who could leave behind the greatest player in U.S. soccer history for reasons almost entirely personal (and apparently irrational). And if we had any doubt about how it was personal, that doubt was erased when Klinsmann’s son tweeted out a mocking message, after Landon was dismissed. Where did the kid get that opinion … other than from his father, the coach? The coach who said it was purely about soccer.
At one point today, I announced to my coworkers in sports, at The National, that the U.S. national team “is dead to me while Klinsmann is the coach”.
That is how I feel.
Maybe, when the games begin, I will be swayed by the sight of Dempsey and Bradley and Howard on the pitch and add my tiny bit of psychological/cosmic support to the cause.
But, more likely … the camera will flash to Klinsmann on the sideline, or to the several German Americans he has foisted on the U.S. soccer nation … and I will find myself saying, “Let Ghana win 3-0.”
I want Klinsmann gone. That doesn’t happen without his team stumbling. Just as I could not go back to following the Dodgers until the McCourts had left Dodger Stadium.
12 responses so far ↓
1 YanksAreComing // May 27, 2014 at 9:52 AM
Good riddance, don’t get hurt falling off the bandwagon. Clearly you aren’t a true fan if you can support the name on the front more than the name on the back.
2 murphy // May 27, 2014 at 9:55 AM
” and I will find myself saying, “Let Ghana win 3-0.—
You are the worst kind of fan (if you can even be called that). Please don’t watch.
3 Andrew // May 27, 2014 at 10:22 AM
The USMNT doesn’t need fans like you who think they have a right to choose which Americans are true Americans.
4 FootySF // May 27, 2014 at 10:28 AM
Very troubling is your attitude about our German-born players. Are our Norwegian and Icelandic born players any less worthy to represent the USA because they weren’t born here? What about Mexican Americans who’ve played for the USMNT in the past?
5 James // May 27, 2014 at 11:09 AM
I have been toying with this same idea since The Cut was announced. After four years of counting down the days until this World Cup, of counting down the days to see Donovan in his final major tournament and looking forward to seeing him put a final stamp on his legacy in international soccer, I was enormously distraught over The Cut.
Like Arena said, ‘If we have 23 players that are better than Landon Donovan, we have a chance to win the World Cup.’
I have the feeling (echoed by others), that Klinsmann has written off the 2014 WC and is considering it a ‘rebuilding year’ because our group is too hard and we have no chance of getting out of it. I don’t see how that can be possible, and if it is the case, JK should have his head mounted outside the Stub Hub center on his own petard.
I will watch the games. I will cheer on the team. But my enthusiasm for the whole thing wilted once Donovan’s name was off the roster.
6 Nell // May 27, 2014 at 11:41 AM
My joy for the World Cup is absolutely destroyed.
My fandom is taking a severe beating, as well.
I feel for the 23 players going to Brazil, but I have nothing but contempt for the coach and what he has done and is doing to this team. He is creating Germany Light.
I will proudly wear my World Cup Landon Donovan jersey throughout the World Cup and beyond.
Oh, what might have been.
7 Johanna // May 27, 2014 at 11:58 AM
Me too, me too. *sniff*
8 David // May 27, 2014 at 12:02 PM
What the hell? I’m not happy either but unless you plan on moving to a new country and renouncing your citizenship officially then pull your head out of your ass and support the team!
9 David // May 27, 2014 at 12:04 PM
By the way, I’m a Dodgers fan too and these are two totally different situations.
10 Bob Dole // May 27, 2014 at 9:35 PM
MOVE ON!
11 Derek // May 28, 2014 at 6:57 AM
I as well am devastated by Landon not making the team, and do not understand Jurgen’s logic. I am sick of the talk of German-Americans “taking over the team.” Several of these players were recruited by Bob Bradley before Klinsmann arrived. Klinsmann played Polish-German stars Klose and Podolski in 2006. I think he is a little too focused on the recent form aspect of the team selection and that is why LD was left off and more or less replaced by Wondolowski and Johannson (JK sees LD as a forward only). The reason why the form argument doesn’t hold up for Altidore and others is because of the unique role they fill which limits Klinsmann’s options. Also, even if this is for completely illogical personal reasons, there is no way you can say JK is running this team into the ground. Last year was objectively our most successful year ever. Finishing first in the hex, with road wins against Mexico and Italy, and a home win against Germany. The team has played its best attacking soccer ever under Klinsmann. We have the potential to be much more than the defend and counter side we have been under Arena and Bradley. This team actually holds possession and passes dangerously. Now, just to add consistency…
Regardless, this is the World Cup and this is our country’s team. It is not the LA Dodgers… How much about this response is about the author wanting attention for his “bold” move…
12 Jeremy // May 28, 2014 at 10:33 AM
What on Earth??? HALF the roster are MLS players. There are a grand total of 3 Germans and 4 total players that play in Bundesliga, of those one is 34. How, on Earth, is Klinsmann making the program so over ridingly German?
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