US Soccer Road to Brazil . . . and Beyond

By Alex Ortiz on May 25, 2014

Photo via https://www.flickr.com/photos/clintw/

To be honest, as a sports fan, the middle of the summer has almost always lacked some real flare and excitement. Once the NBA finals are done, it is really hard to become excited for much else besides, well, I don’t know, NFL mini-camps starting…or hey, the Cubs may come within ten games of first place. But really, it’s a relative dry season for sporting excitement – unless, that is, you are a soccer fan.

Now I’m obviously not talking about MLS, although there has been some improvement on that front lately. But international competitions pretty much dominate the summertime for soccer viewership and we all get the benefit of quality talent playing for their respective countries. Obviously the big one of them all is the World Cup, which will be held in Brazil in 2014 beginning June 12.

Even though the US Men’s National Team won’t be considered a real threat to hoist its first-ever trophy by any stretch of the imagination, there are still some fascinating storylines for 2014.

We begin with the headman, Jürgen Klinsmann, who took over pretty much the whole operation in 2011 and has really tried to put his mark on not just the national team, but on American soccer as a whole. It’s really a testament to just how different the American soccer culture is from that of soccer globally. And while it has forced some pretty controversial decisions to say the least (and I’ll get to the obvious one soon), I can appreciate his effort in trying to do his job and bring US soccer to a position of unprecedented respectability.

It begins with him publicly challenging his players to compete at the highest level with their respective clubs to best prepare themselves for the World Cup. While the move of big stars like midfielders Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey to MLS has helped the league grow and become more exciting, one can understand Klinsmann’s point. MLS is not where soccer superstars go to play in their prime. Now I’m confident that those two players in particular won’t disappoint this summer, especially Bradley, who will be the key player for the U.S. in Brazil. But I can’t help but feel that even the top league in Belgium (yes, Belgium!) has to be more respected than MLS at this point.

So I guess that brings us to the elephant in the room. Landon Donovan’s reputation as THE best player in American soccer history is not to be doubted or even really argued against, but if I may, I feel like I need to justify Klinsmann’s widely criticized decision to omit Donovan’s name from the final World Cup roster. Just to make it clear, I respect the hell out of Donovan as both a player and a professional. Just his simple statement on his Facebook page really tells you something about the man.

“I was looking forward to playing in Brazil and, as you can imagine, I am very disappointed with today’s decision,” he wrote. “Regardless, I will be cheering on my friends and teammates this summer, and I remain committed to helping grow soccer in the US in the years to come.”

Still, it’s time to face the facts. Yes, while Landon Donovan is only 32-years-old, his is an old 32. Hell, 32 is old in soccer years for anyone. Years of pushing his body to the limits have taken their toll and even he has admitted that a full week and a half of practice going 100% just is not possible for him anymore. His body begins to break down. He does not have the athleticism that was the key to his success in earlier years. Now I’m not saying that a veteran of his status doesn’t deserve to take it a bit easier in the latter part of his career when it comes to practice (Brett Favre anyone?), but it was pretty obvious that Klinsmann was not looking for players who could only contribute so much.

This brings us back to Klinsmann’s goal of furthering the quality of American soccer. He’s looking towards the future and not even the greatest American player ever is exempt from new expectations. Now I’m not saying that the promising Julian Green is going to be able to step into Donovan’s boots and make everyone forget about him, but I understand the decision and Klinsmann’s perspective.

The decision really marks the change in the direction of US soccer as a whole. You will be seeing a lot of players who have ties to other countries in some form or fashion, whether it is the likes of midfielder Jermaine Jones or Green who both play in Germany, or goalkeeper Tim Howard and forward Jozy Altidore who play in England. These are the standards that Klinsmann wants to hold all of his players to. That is what a top soccer nation needs to do across the board.

As for the immediate future, the “Group of Death” that the U.S. was placed in with Ghana (June 16), Portugal (June 22) and the group favorite Germany (June 26) will most certainly make advancing to the knockout stages an almost universal surprise. Although it would not come as THAT big of a shock considering the last World Cup in 2010 when a memorable group stage performance advanced the red, white and blue to the round of 16. I don’t suppose Ghana will pose that much of a threat this time around and is undoubtedly the easiest opponent of the group. Portugal will pretty much (unless someone else comes out of nowhere) go by how Cristiano Ronaldo goes so if they can find a way to stop him, it could be interesting. And as for Germany, I’ll count even a tie as a win for the US, but I wouldn’t be too excited for that.

But honestly, a quarterfinal exit for the second World Cup in a row would be an optimistic result at best … though Algeria will tell you to never assume anything.

 

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