Donovan questionable for England match

The U.S. national team's attack could be without one of its most dangerous players on Wednesday against England if Landon Donovan can't recover from tightness in his groin which first become a problem during the LA Galaxy's 3-1 win against Kansas City on Saturday.

If Donovan can't go that will leave the U.S. attack thin and will pretty much guarantee that we'll see the Clint Dempsey-Eddie Johnson forward tandem. Who replaces Donovan in the lineup? I know Freddy Adu is the popular pick, but it wouldn't shock me if Bradley went with Josh Wolff.

Who do you think should get the nod? Share your thoughts on Donovan's injury status and his potential replacement below.

Comments

[John]

If this were a game that we were playing for something more than pride my thoughts on Donovan's injury status would be: crap

As it is, I would rather see Bradley through Adu into the fire and see what comes of it than see Landon trotted out with a bum groin...those injuries do not go away.

[Soccer_Yank]

Ives,

I gotta disagree with you on this one. Josh Wolff has had success in the past, but he won't be the attacking finisher that we need up in the forward spot. freddy is not only the popular pick, it is the obvious/correct pick because he has shown both in international duty and at benfica (when he gets to play) that he can deliver the goals that the US team so desperately needs to win games (especially goals not delivered from set pieces).

[FTK]

Addition by subtracton. This is a blessing in disguise.

--------Howard--------
Dolo-Gooch-Boca-Pearce
---Clark---Bradley----
Dempsey--Adu--Beasley
------Johnson---------

Adu takes all the free kicks. If Johnson brings anything to the table there is a slight chance of stealing a point. Hope Altedor's toenail heals - you can slide him in for Johnson and use this same lineup for Spain.

[camjam]

True, Lando is basic to any "important" game, but we could easily look at younger talent for this friendly. I personally want to see adu, and prefer to see no EJ, but rather a Jaqua, Cooper, or Wolff.

[FTK]

Bradley should use this injury as an excuse to get Jozy on the 5 hr NYC-London flight right now.

[Dr. Rockzo, The Rock N' Roll Clown]

Let's see;

A. Blood a young, dynamic player who could be in the starting lineup for the 2010 World Cup.

B. Start a 31 year old forward who's realistically probably sixth on our forward depth chart who's scored twice in thirty-four matches for a Bundesliga II team.

I bet Bradley goes for B. :(

[Hincha Tim]

Too bad Cooper was not named to the squad. I'd like to see him given a chance.

[Eugene]

Its not like Donovan was going to add much to this game, so I'm hitting snooze...

[Nic]

I, like most everyone else who has posted so far, would much prefer Adu to Wolff in the slot behind the striker(s). Let's put him in the store window so he can make a move during the summer to get more playing time.

Young players need to play at the highest level to improve. Just look at France today: Ben Arfa, Nasri, and Benzema all played. We need more of the same.

[Dr. Rockzo, The Rock N' Roll Clown]

Btw, FTK's lineup FTW.

[wally]

I still like Adu in the super sub role. He's never started for USMNT or Benfica and needs to earn the right to start. Throwing him into the fire is one thing, having little man Adu start against England, eye to eye with Terry and and Ferdinand, is another.

Start with the more tested Lewis in midfield or Wolff at forward, and sub them out at the half for Adu.

[matt]

if the recent chatter regarding landon moving to europe has any truth to it, these games could be a big showcase for him, so the injury has to be a big disappointment

[DeLarge]

Wally, I think Adu started against S. Africa.

That said, without Lando, we're not scoring on the break. Beasley probably will not start either because he's coming back -- so we lose a lot of speed.

Looks like we're gonna play like we did against the Swiss. Game Killers, let's go!

0-0

[Josh]

Im going to the game and really want to see Lando play. I think this is a huge game for him.I believe England is an ideal league for Donovan to progress and establish himself on the footballing map. I realize that after this the USA play Spain, but in all seriousness Donovan must realize that the Premier League is his more likely destination should he choose to move to Europe. I firmly believe that Donovan will not miss this game, Bradley will hopefull give Donovan the choice to play or not.

[DeLarge]

Wally, I think Adu started against S. Africa.

That said, without Lando, we're not scoring on the break. Beasley probably will not start either because he's coming back -- so we lose a lot of speed.

Looks like we're gonna play like we did against the Swiss. Game Killers, let's go!

0-0

[Blake]

I doubt Donovan misses this game. He's something of a symbol of our national team, and this is pretty big as far as world respect goes.

I could see Adu in for him at the half though. He could use a good performance to quiet the haters who call him a flop.

If neither Adu nor Donovan plays, we have no offensive spark outside of Beas and basically would have to pray for a nil-nil.

[Mark]

Could this be Bob Bradley employing a little gamesmanship to put the Brits off track? That would be sweet

[piscinarum]

I hate to say it and I love Donovan BUT WHY DOES HE ALWAYS MISS THE BIG FRIENDLIES?

[wally]

My bad. Adu started the S. Africa game. I want to see the guy get some quality pt in these friendlies, particularly since he's had so little at Benfica. I just like him in the Manu Ginobli spark off the bench role, and think we should ease him into a more significant role given his lack of playing time and past ego related issues.

[Adam M.]

This is disappointing because it could have been a showcase game for Donovan, who is looking to Europe. Adu pretty much has to get his spot. Playing top countries is only helpful if the matches are used as a test for players who will actually play when it counts.

[aristotle]

I doubt Donovan will miss this game. This is probably just another pre-game excuse as to why he's going to stink in this game. Even if Donovan does show up for the game, he probably won't show up for the game. I think Donovan would do well to see a sports psychologist. I think he has a fear of success and a fear of failure. I think that would account for how he plays. When he plays really well he seems afraid his excellent play will be expected all of the time and can't handle the pressure, so he self sabotages. On the other hand he has a fear of failure, and knows that anything short of an excellent performance will label him as a failure.

Ya, dis ees hees prob-lem.

[Tony in Quakeland]

Good god, more garbage is opined about Landon Donovan than any other person in American sports. Incredible...

[hoyanick]

The problem with the argument that Donovan never shows up for big games is that he is a Mexico-killer and Mexico is truly our most important rival. Really, in what tournament besides World Cup 2006 has Donovan been underwhelming?

He should have done better in Germany, of course. And he should be playing in Europe. But the guy is our best player and normally performs like it too.

[JB]

If Donovan misses the game I don't think they replace him directly, instead they start all of Bradley, Clark and Edu and only go with 3 attackers while Pearce and Cherundolo push forward a great deal.

[Tony in Quakeland]

hoyanick

Not to mention that he had his best game in 2006 against Italy.

What a bunch of pyschobabble bs...

[michael]

I think Donovan shows up for this, his 100th cap, at Wembley no less. If you can't get up for this one, there is no reason to play regardless of injury.

I think Adu is more than capable in playing a role that is much like Landon's. I do agree with Ives that Bradley will change his strategy if he can't go. I would put Jaqua and Wolff up top. Johnson is damaged goods mentally.

[Bob]

Adu should get the opportunity if Donovan is not fit. And I too wonder why Kenny Cooper is not in the side. I would rather see him than Johnson at this point.

[Anon]

I obviously missed the memo, where is Altidore?

[Aquaman]

I'm torn as to whether Bradley would put in youth or a veteran against England. If Donovan can't go, I have a painful feeling that he'd put Lewis on the left and Beasley on the right with Johnson and Dempsey up top. Hopefully, Johnson paired with someone that he's close to up top will get him excited. I know Dempsey likes to show off, I hope that rubs off on Johnson in a friendly competition sort of way. I also hope that some day I find a job that pays me for being so awesome...but I don't know if either will happen.

[Seisco]

Altidore didn't get called in for this game. He's still back in the States.

[Thom]

Let's just hope his health improves. The alternatives are not good no matter how you slice it.

Love him or hate him- I go back and forth-he is the best that we have.

[Kartik]

As I have said before I believe the top of our player pool is at its worst point since the early 1990s. While the overall pool is deeper than ever before the top worries me. If Donovan is injured for any portion of qualifying things may be more interesting than all of us would like.

[Andrew]

Did anyone see the Galaxy Wizards game that suggested LD had an injury? I did not, but I find it interesting that there is NO mention of this injury anywhere on the internet related to that game. Is LD really hurt or is this just media attention??????

[Freddie Footballer]

I agree with the sentiments that Donovan will not miss this game. He WILL get his 100th cap in this important friendly even if it's for a half, unless of course his injury is very serious but it sounds like it's of the nagging, not serious variety. I think we will see Wolff in case Donovan doesn't go, but probably for a half before Adu comes in.

[combo breaker karma]

andrew, i watched the galaxy - kansas city game.

he came off for carlos ruiz in something like the 70's minute mark. The first thing he did when he came off was find the bench and put an ice pack on his right inner groin area.

the expression on his face seemed like it was really bothering him.

i kind of knew it when i saw it exactly what it was, ive had the exact same problem with my groin from soccer, in a reccuring fashion at that. Its not disabling, but nobody wants to play with that thing so tight in your leg.

hopefully we will at least see him come on as a second half impact sub, i think donovans a player that can analyze the game well from the bench and know exactly how to play as soon as he gets out there.

[doug]

I think this is both good and bad news for the US. Good, becuase we all know what Landon can do on the field for the US. To be honest, he is one of only a few locked in starters so in that sense he doesnt really NEED his game. It will be an opportunity to see an Adu or Dempsey get a full 90 as "tres-quartista". Bad, becuase we all know that the US is a much different without Landon and on a strictly fan level, I want to see a full strength US against England, to give a great showing at the hallowed grounds of Wembley.

[YankatOxford]

At the end of the last Galaxy match he was substituted (84') and immediately put ice on his right groin.

I was hoping it was a minor problem, but he will be a huge miss should be unable to start at Wembley. Flying 9 hours to Heathrow from LA probably didn't help.

[Rob]

Doug we won't get so see our full strength side anyways, because our most Dangerous striker was held back so he could come off the bench in an MLS match.

[Joamiq]

If Donovan can't go, we should ask them for one of their players.

But seriously, tightness in his groin?

[Thom]

"As I have said before I believe the top of our player pool is at its worst point since the early 1990s. While the overall pool is deeper than ever before the top worries me. If Donovan is injured for any portion of qualifying things may be more interesting than all of us would like."

Kartik-

Intersting opinion you have here - please explain what you mean with examples.

[Matt]

I'd like to see the USA finally go with its true lineup: 4-6-0. Since Brian McBride left, we still don't have an international-caliber target man, so why don't we just run with six midfielders? I'm fine with giving Freddy a shot. I think we shot. Josh Wolff is awful, and I can't see him getting a shot all night. Whenever we score, it seems to be from a rebound or a defensive breakdown or a ricochet, not a forward making a move, getting free, and putting the ball in the net. If that's true, let's just admit that we don't have forwards and use six midfielders. If we win like that, England will truly be embarrassed.

[Ted]

I don't understand the Donovan hate either. I'm tired of people saying he brings nothing good to the national squad.

The man is about to get his 100 cap, he is our national team's leading scorer, MLS's leading scorer, a team leader and captaincy option, rival killer, and locked starter. Oh yeah, this guy must be a scrub.

[aristotle]

First, let me apologize for my post that is listed four times in a row. Apparently I've stumbled on to a new way of duplicating a post.

I notice there were some responses from some people, especially Tony in Quakeland, indicating people were saying that Donovan never plays well in big games. I looked over most of the posts and only saw one post that really indicated this. I got the feeling that my post was the one that a few people were talking about. If so, I'm a little confused. I don't say that in my post. The post was also, to some extent, tongue in cheek. I know Tony in Quakeland is very sensitive to posts about Landon Donovan, as are some others. This makes for some interesting back and forth comments on Donovan because there is also a large group that is always ripping him.

I'd like to clear something up here. Not just on this post but on the subject of me and Landon Donovan in general. I would consider myself in the middle of the two aforementioned groups. I like Landon Donovan, but also at the same time find him very frustrating. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding regarding posts about him. The overly sensitive group cries every time someone says something negative about him, and acts like people are saying he is not a good player. The people who blast him go over the top, I think out of frustration over how inconsistent he can be, but I don't think they are really saying that he is not a very good player. I just think they are holding him to a high standard.

No one can say he never shows up for the big game. He has played some fantastic games that were of huge importance. However, you can't expect people to not get frustrated over a lot of the things that he does. Nobody's great all of the time, but relatively speaking, Donovan is remarkably inconsistent. He's great one minute and invisible the next; and no this is not in the same way that some players have bad games. There is something odd about how inconsistent Donovan is. Too much is expected of him and he should never have played in so many different positions. He may be the best scorer in history on our national team, and he does score a decent amount of goals, but he is NOT a striker. Sadly, since we don't really have any world class strikers we have to keep asking this of him. Amazingly a lot of people will argue this point, but how can he possibly be a great striker when he scores so little, for a striker, that is? Has he ever even come close to leading the MLS in scoring in all of these years? Why not? Is MLS such a tough league to be scoring champ in? I hardly think so. He's doing a lot of scoring as far as overall totals are concerned, from being around for such a long time from a young age.

The psychobabble, as it was called, was partially tongue in cheek, but it is not psychobabble to say that there is an important part of Donovan's game that just intermittently disappears and you never know what to expect.

[FIXXXER]

He'll play... I could care less about the Spain and Argentina matches, but this one means something.

[Tony in Quakeland]

Aristotle:

I agree with your last paragraph and with much (but not all) of what comes before it.

What I am "sensitive" about, however, is not Landon Donovan, but posts that assume all sorts of privileged psychological insight into people the posters never net, people who have reached incredibly high levels of achievement that most of us would kill to attain. Donovan gets the worst of it. If he misses a shot, it is never because he missed a shot. It's because he's a p***y-whipped basket case suffering from menstrual cramps.

Donovan, like every other player, has strengths and weaknesses. Sure, I saw the failure of nerve late in the game against Ghana when he passed in the box rather than shot. Or maybe he thought the other guy had a better angle. Whatever, it was a failure and he is justly criticized for it. But Demspey (who I love) disappears in games too, but since he scowls all the time, he's a 'real man' and a fiery competitor.

And if Dempsey had a muscle problem that kept him out of this game, I doubt anyone would prescribe a sports psychologist. It's a transparently stupid double standard.

[Tony in Quakeland]

Amendment: Just to be clear, I'm not calling you stupid, a mistake I can see you might make. I'm talking about the pattern where EVERYTHING about a Donovan failure is assumed to be psychological, while failures from others get ignored or understood as simply ...a failure to execute.

[Mark]

Donovan plays the first 45, Adu comes in for the second half. Donovan plays the entire Spain game, and Adu plays the entire argentina game. Done and done

[USMNT FAN]

As requested by Sir Ives himself...

"He'll play... I could care less about the Spain and Argentina matches, but this one means something." Posted by: FIXXXER | May 28, 2008 at 08:23 AM

Fixxxer, how can you not care about the Spain or Argentina game. Two of the world’s best teams, and you don’t care about the game vs. the US? My god man, what kind of USMNT fan are you…

You should be banned from posting on the Soccer by Ives blog.

Let the games begin...

[El Ma7ador]

Donovan will show up for the match and he will be so nervous he just might Pee at Wenbley before the match! then Mexico won't be the only country that hates him..lol!!!

[Jon]

Josh Wolff--what a waste. I'd rather give a chance to a 'could be' than a 'never was.'

He's a decent player, but not a national teamer anymore (if ever).

[aristotle]

Tony in Quakeland:

I really think your looking at Donovan with a bias. I haven't seen anywhere near the animosity towards Donovan that you describe. Yes, there is definitely some flak directed his way, but that is inevitable when your as big a player as he is. I also don't remember seeing much "psychoanalysis". Again, yes, there is some, but you are reading way too much into it.

One of the frustrations of making posts is that people read a post and give it a meaning that the poster never intended. Sometime this is done intentionally but a lot of the time it's because they are taking things too literally. For instance, you said you are tired of people who think they possess some psychological insight on a person they have never met. This seems kind of silly for several reasons. One, in my case, I'm not actually attempting to be a psychologist for Landon Donovan and I don't take myself that seriously that I would actually give someone a psychoanalysis. Two, as a sports fans isn't that kind of what we're doing all of the time? Making judgments and claiming we know certain things about sports figures personalities. I bet you don't get nearly as defensive when people rip Bruce Arena to shreds with their analysis of him being a whiner, a baby, arrogant, an egomaniac, the list goes on and on. Do we really have this kind of personal insight on Bruce Arena knowing him as a coach, that we cans say all of this about him as a person? Don't even get me started about Taylor Twellman. The things that are said about him are unbelievable and I have no idea where most of it comes from. For the most part, I don't take this stuff that seriously because most of the time it's nothing more than fans just being fans. Obviously a lot of fans can't be dead serious about what they are saying.

That having been said, I don't think it's a stretch, or me trying to act like a psychologist, to say that Donovan does have some kind of problem in the form of a mental block or something. I understand what people are talking about when they say something to that effect. I also don't see any harm in trying to take a stab at what that problem might be. I would put it in the category of what sports fans do. I have to disagree with you on your comparison with Clint Dempsey. I don't think Clint Dempsey is even worthy of comparison to Donovan at this point. What has he done in comparison with Donovan? Also, it's not the same to compare Dempsey and others by saying they have done the same things as Donovan but are not viewed the same way. At least not in terms of the psychological aspect of things. Donovan's situation IS NOT the same as other players. I could put together a series of clips of Donovan doing things that NO OTHER player on his level does on a regular basis. Sometimes it's almost like Jekyll and Hyde. You could put together a feature film on Donovan full of astonishing misses and misplays that you could never match with another player as good as Donovan. It's just not normal to miss so many easy chances when you are as good as he is. It's not nearly a case of "everyone misses easy chances".

You are definitely right that people seem to think Dempsey can do no wrong and, in my opinion, overrate him based on what he has done so far, but he really doesn't compare with Donovan at all. There does not seem to be anything unusual about his play, and I seriously doubt that you will see from him a career where he has astonishing misses and disappears from games on a regular basis.

Finally, everyone everywhere seems to be commenting on just what might be the problem with Donovan. We are hearing all kinds of things not just from sports fans but writers. Why did he go overseas and was not up to the task when he is such a good player? If he wasn't given a fair chance, why did he give up so quickly? Why are much lesser players able to accomplish what he cannot in Europe? Etc., etc. Donovan is not the same as most other players and people did not just decide to make something out of nothing. Also, I do not "hate" Donovan. I like Donovan. I don't understand why some people are referencing this "hate" for Donovan. If I've seen actual hate for anyone it's Bruce Arena and Taylor Twellman. If critiquing someone is a form of hate then we're all hated. One last thing, did everyone unjustly psychoanalyze Eddie Johnson?