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Kljestan and Shea replace Donovan, Torres and Chandler on USA roster

SachaKljestanAnderlecht (Getty)

Sacha Kljestan and Brek Shea have been called in as emergency replacements for the U.S. men's national team after a rash of injuries and illness hit the roster originally called in by Jurgen Klinsmann.

Landon Donovan (bronchitis), Timmy Chandler and Jose Torres (both injured) will miss Wednesday's friendly against Italy, and have been replaced by Kljestan and Shea. A few days earlier, Jermaine Jones was forced to withdraw with an injury as well.

Klinsmann is expected to make at least one more addition to the roster he will field against Italy in Genoa on Wednesday, but the roster is already suffering from injuries to the likes of Oguchi Onyewu and Zak Whitbread, though Whitbread's return to action for Norwich City this past weekend could lead to a call-up for the match.

What do you think of these developments? Disappointed we still won't see a Donovan and Dempsey pairing for the national team until May at the earliest? Excited to see Kljestan get the call? Who are you hoping also gets a call on Monday?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. i don’t believe that there is merit to the comment about brek being inconsistent because that is to be expected from a player in his position. he is a young attacker who has a certain flair to his game, and there is no way that he is going to be able to pull that off at this level for 90 minutes straight, several games in a row. that said, i would bet that he has created far more chances and been more dangerous than any other us player over the last year. even with his “inconsistency” he has produced a positive performance in just about every game he has played.

    who has been better than him in a us jersey since klinsmann took over? bocanegra – probably. chandler – close, but i don’t think so. torres – maybe, but limited opportunities due to injury. dempsey – maybe, but i think brek has been more dynamic.

    brek has been damn solid under klinsmann and shows GREAT promise for the future. labeling him as “inconsistent” and “ineffective” (you spelled both of those words wrong in your original post) does not seem like just criticism to me.

    when you use demonstrative phrases and tell people to “feel free to…” and “take a look at…” it seems defensive to me. i just think you could have been a little smoother in your rebuttals, that’s all — nothing personal.

    thanks for the pointers on the argumentative writing skills. i am sure those will come in handy somewhere down the line.

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  2. He just played against Manchester United and had an assist that game he is healthy and back andif Jurgen knows best he should add Whitbread to the team!

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  3. This team is quite different from what the US was sending out there in October of 2009.

    Davies has not played for the US in over two years.

    I see no reason to consider Davies as any kind of realistic option for the current team. The chances of him coming back as the player he was are pretty slim. If he does get good enough to be considered for the US it will be as a different player than what we saw in 2009.

    JK has said he is keeping an eye on him but Mr. Positive would say that.

    The team has moved on and I’m suggesting to ThaDuece he might want to do that as well.

    Injuries affect he US more than the big boys because we only have three outfield players Donovan,Dempsey and Dolo who have proven they can play consistently at the highest level.

    Rather than whining about all our injuries,and waiting for CD9 to show up and save our butts,we should be thankful that those three by and large have mostly avoided injury and get on with integrating the new guys (like Shea, Boyd, Johnson and Williams )with what is left of the old guard.

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  4. First…there was nothing defensive about my response. All I did was post an opinion on brek and sasha based on their time with the national team.

    Second, why would you not like to respond to someone responding to what you said originally; especially if they completely missed your point and at the same time, validated what you actually posted?

    With regards to brek being one of the best players for the…I disagree. Again, that’s your observation…I have mine.

    “not too much merit to what you say (especially about brek”)

    “…sure he has been a little inconsistent”

    back to my original point. Breks is inconsistent. What did I say that is off-base? I mean, you just made that same point.

    Last thing: It looks as if you lack argumentative writing skills. Here are some pointers. In order to effectively discredit the person’s points, you need to identify the position of weakness in the other person’s argument. Take that weakness and attack it. Most of the time an inexperienced person (as yourself) will most likely argue your point yet make it for you in their own post. With a little more practice and focus, you will be able to debate much more effectively.

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  5. i dont see boca being moved to the left, worst case scenario: spector at LB, who’s in good form at the moment…maybe fabian at LB but i have a feeling JK doesnt want to use him there…ive never seen sasha play out wide but if he has that might be the right move…im hoping for a 4-3-3 only to be more offensive minded…lets let the defense figure itout for themselves, y must we always protect them with 2+ DM’s??? this hurts the NATS in the long run

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  6. in a 4-4-2
    Altidore-Dempsey
    Shea-Bradley-Williams-Sasha
    Johnson-boca-goodson-dolo
    in a 4-3-3
    Shea-Altidore-Dempsey
    Johnson-Bradley-Sasha
    Boca-Goodson-Cameron-Dolo
    the 4-3-3 is more adventurous and risks loosing too many physical battles in the defensive end, but the 4-4-21 is not much better in that regard. I expect it will be the performance of the USA’s back 4 that will determine how well we do.

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  7. Agreed, a long flight would take quite a bit of one’s legs, but at least as far as jet lag goes, it would be like playing a game in the early afternoon on the East Coast of the US. It is just the long sit and lost sleep which most of these young guys can recover from quickly. Still expect to see Whitbread, Williams, or some random euro-based player.

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  8. We just don’t play well in the 4-2-3-1. Look at the Slovenia game as an example of why we need to play a 4-4-2.

    Also, if we were playing what you suggested, you should switch Johnson and Williams.

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  9. Honestly, I have to give him credit. He used to look weird/sloppy/creepy, but I think he’s refined his look to the point where he actually looks kind of suave now.

    Reply

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