photo by John Dorton/ISIphotos.com
There was yet another turn in the Timmy Chandler-U.S. men's national team saga on Monday, but it is not one unfamiliar to American soccer fans.
According to a German report, Chandler was called up for the United States' Wednesday friendly against Mexico at Azteca Stadium but he passed on the opportunity due to the scheduling and 'strenous' travel that would have been required. Chandler reportedly was not keen on joining the U.S. team as he would have returned to FC Nurnberg from international duty on Saturday, a day before the club's DFB Pokal first round game against TSV Havelse.
U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who said Chandler was not committed to the U.S. team on Sunday, was reportedly not pleased with the 22-year-old's latest snub but he accepted it nonetheless. Nurnberg sporting director Martin Bader also reportedly had a conversation with Klinsmann to help smooth things over.
What do you think of this latest development? Starting to give up hope on Chandler? Do you still envision him playing for the United States in the near future? Do you even want him to?
Share your thoughts below.
Let him be klinsman. He is useless in the cause, true he is great footballer, but, he want ‘s a German call up! It obvious . Call up someone who wants to wear the RED WHITE AND BLUE F’em! We don’t need him!
One last thing, since Jones is a starter on a champions league team I guess his coach sees him the same way many of us do, but you know better, right home slice….
Already losing the lockeroom, please enlighten us? Also, Timmy said he had a bad occurrence within the German u-15’s. I believe he said he felt they were biased against him, his skin color, or his maybe something else I don’t remember. Wasn’t Jurgen Klinsman the Germans’ coach at the time?
and now after reading the comments, wow. lol i get the frustration, but WOW. he has until jamaica…and frankly i don’t blame him. although he should have never said he was committed 100%. that was a lie.
also, everyone saying, “well lichaj is better.” or “i’ve always rated lichaj higher”…you are guys are ridiculous. is lichaj an awesome prospect? yup. does he play regular first team ball? nope. given we’ve seen Chandler MUCH more (club wise) it’s easy to see that Chandler is the better player. unless people are watching AV reserve matches, i’m not sure what info they have to “rate him higher” aside from a handful of appearances as opposed to entire seasons.
again, i’m a big lichaj fan, but i think some of the comments are ridiculous in that regard.
” AND he is already losing the locker room.” – what BS comment.
and reading the rest of your trash comments below, it does not surprise me you wrote that nonsense above.
hahaha!!! well played Ben…touche’
not really honestly. any cycle will have a longer camp than what we have for this friendly. further, the games that are further west (like this one) tend to be scheduled when players have more time.
Boca in the center is fine where experience is highly valuable, but on the wing you need some wheels and that’s never been Boca’s strong suit
positional, decison making, leadership and toughness he still has in spades…no problem with Boca in the center. Center backs typically get better with experience as long as their bodies hold out
like many, I prefer center backs with experience
probably because he hasn’t played regular first team ball with AV.
agreed
i don’t normally agree with you, but i agree 100% with you on this one.
you guys have to stop with the lichaj stuff. i’m the first one to say i love the kid. but i have not, and no one has, seen enough from him on a consistent basis to know where he stands in comparison to Dolo, Chandler, or Johnson. do i think he’ll end up being as good? yup, i certainly do. but he needs to get playing time with AV week in and week out. he needs to be on the USMNT rosters on a regular basis. we’ve hardly seen lichaj play. why is it so bad to have both? i understand people are annoyed with chandler, but keep it on topic rather than making it one vs. the other.
dude, no one said he was world class, so the only hyperbole is coming from you.
further, lichaj has not proven anything. i love the kid, but he needs to starting getting regular time at AV and with the USMNT before we can say he has proven anything.
also, i think RB and LB have been equally troubling for the USMNT.
um, he’s been playing preseason games for awhile now. further, the word “strenuous” was used in regards to the travel of flying from Germany to NY then down to Mexico City. and then playing a game and flying back from Mexico City to Germany for a game on Sunday.
i’m not trying to defend chandler for what appears to be a lack of commitment, but i actually think this response from him makes sense.
before i read any comments, ill just say im glad he’s even taking time to back up his comments that he remains committed. i wasn’t expecting him to say anything.
Oh and the German team doesn’t use Polish-Germans or Ghanaian-Germans?
Thing to me is this is not changing, Dempsey et al have to take the same type of flight to compete in the Americas. Price of admission.
And it’s further complicated because he took the summer off to rest, when the flight could no longer be such an issue.
He just seems to have an excuse on hand, and I’m discounting the specifics. He’s simply not here and over time that should have consequences. He can’t just show off the wares a handful of games and then lay out and perhaps wait for a 2014 callin at the World Cup itself. I get the idea he has that type of concept, “I’m not wearing myself out for Antigua,” but that is US qualifying reality, if he’s not up for it move on down the depth chart, and at some point it’s permanent whether he becomes motivated or not.
Amazing and ignorant. You kids don’t have a clue.
If Timmy Chandler thinks he can play for Germany…the 2nd ranked team in the world…why on earth would he commit to playing for 36th ranked team in world?
A team and country so thin on domestic talent that it continues to rely (and now heavily) on German/Americans and Mexican/Americans.
The gist I get to date is we’ve politely refrained from openly calling him up and putting the question. Is it possible we’d call him up “involuntarily,” ie, put him on a qualifying callup roster, and basically demand he show up? If so, does the player have to come? I know technically the team has to let him go but can we force a showdown?
I’m concerned about Boca and Dolo playing any prominent role pointed to 2014, that starts to sound like the 2006 team with Reyna and other old farts getting too much time.
That doesn’t suggest Chandler gets a pass but the defense is a problem area and merely invoking the Lichaj name solves just one spot.
Oh you mean against the fourth division side coming up? “Important?” I’d be interested if he plays. Those kind of games are usually high turnover, you run out the kids.
Or maybe it’s good cop bad cop, the player routinely disses us but his coach tries to smooth things over in case he ever needs a favor.
Lichaj has barely played for the US in a year and some nights Dolo looks like he’s lost a step. He’s well O-30. There is a reason Chandler was heralded like he was.
Also, the “but we got it covered” camp must not have watched the same qualifiers I did, the defense was a weak link and it’s not like we’re even to the Hex level of sides yet. I mean, Byers? From our minors?
I agree except with two years until the Cup we shouldn’t wring our hands about any depth issues this poses, we should be pro-actively filling the spot with someone up to the task, including converting players if necessary. Please do not approach this like the U23 defense or the US Left Back Hole where you see the train wreck coming but little is done to change the track we’re running on. If you need to make one of the young talents or Germans (Jones?) into a right or left back to fill holes in the lineup do it now where the player can get over growing pains now against middling opposition and thrive as we progress.
as well as friendlies I meant.
There have from time to time been marquee players who got to take off certain games, particularly in early qualifying rounds, ho-hum, but this is trending towards taking at least the round off as well as all qualifiers, at which point it also becomes an integration issue.
Except hmmmm he ditched us for the first set of games with potential for what you outlined, minus “meaningless.”
At what point is this indistinguishable to the naked eye from Brad Friedel’s international retirement or Subotic’s outright switch? I mean, when was the last time he played for us, November 2011?
Also, international scheduling and travel are not changing, his burden reflects his choice.
ha-ha. Love it. Best post yet.
Yes. I have one. I actually wore it to the US vs. Scotland friendly in Jacksonville.
He will be there for the September qualifiers. No worries, folks. He’s still with us.
Hey Timmy, please stop making excuses. This is 2012 and it does not take 2 days to get back to Germany. There are nonstop flights from Mexico City to Frankfurt, and you would be home by Friday morning if you leave anytime during Thursday. I know you will be in first class so stop complaining.
If you are not committed, then just be real and say so rather than make excuses.
Where am I questioning Jozy or Bradley? My point was other players declined this call up.
I wasn’t in Cowtown but I have been to Azteca for a qualy. It is not the place to send a half assed squad. Mex will rip that squad apart.
USSF should have never scheduled this if they weren’t going to bring the A team.
Yeah I’m sure the USMNT wouldn’t want you to go either Weaksauce, so thanks for making it easy on them not calling you up. Name says it all “WEAK”.
Whatever. If you think Jones is a good player that is fine. Tells me a lot about how you see the game.
You still are avoiding my question in the last paragraph.
Dude stop calling him up, will he really make that much of a difference, I don’t think so. Let him join the German National team and let’s see how long or how many times they call him up. He has ever right to play for Germany, what I don’t like is us calling him up when we know is not truly committed.
Dont care anymore about him, if he commits to us in the
sept qualifiers then great if not then whatever.
Absolutely correct, marden08. This is the big danger and Klinsmann needs to be careful as there is no better way to lose the locker room than a coach fawning over a prima donna player who thinks he is special and therefore is not liked by his teammates. It is disappointing that Klinsmann in his press conference Sunday appeared to try to make it sound as if he had not actually invited Chandler, who obviously now is doing a press offensive in an effort to catch Jogi Low’s attention before Germany’s first WC qualifer September 7 against the–ahem–Faroe Islands.
It is surprising that Chandler would reveal a private conversation with Klinsmann to a news reporter, even naming him by name and telling of Klinsmann’s disappointment. And even more interesting is the fact that Klinsmann spoke with Nurnberg Sport Director Martin Bader. This suggests that Klinsmann was not as accepting of Chandler’s refusal as he implied in the press conference Sunday, but instead complained to Bader about it.
I have no doubt that certain soccer big-shots in Germany are giggling with glee at this snub to Klinsmann, and Chandler is happily using it to his advantage to get press coverage and a call-up from the Mannschaft. Even the headline of the news story is provocative: “Chandler: Lieber Club als Klinsmann,” which could be translated as “Chandler prefers Nurnberg FC to Klinsmann” or “Chandler: Rather Nurnberg FC than Klinsmann.” Klinsmann would be wise to end the Chandler saga unequivocally as soon as possible–like with a strong statement today!
Stop calling him up.
Yeah I assume he’s referring to Rossi there
One should never question Bradley’s commitment to the national team. If you were in columbus in 09 you would know this. Straight up went after Marquez after a foul on a teammate. Lucky for Marquez, boca stopped him. Oh yeah, Bradley scored both goals that game. You’re stupid for saying Bradley is uncommitted as he is the antithesis of that.
Rossi never played in a USA kit nor did he ever intend to. His heart and dreams were always with Italy no matter if he would get 50+ caps with them or not.
I’m sure can go to the Berlin zoo and get the same reaction.
Fu*k it timmy…your talent is wasted at RB/LB anyways….see you when your ready to accept a wingback career with the U.S.
“Jones is a hack” is a response I hear on blogs from people who don’t watch matches and instead allow fellow bloggers to form their own opinion.
Wouldn’t it be funny if Alan Gordon scores in Azteca? 😉
Really old school? Explain how you came to the conclusion that his post doesn’t matter, because I”m not seeing a logical follow up there.
Yawn.
I sympathize with this, I really do. If we hadn’t gotten two summers of stuff like this from him, when games have actually mattered, then i’d give him benefit of the doubt.
He gets none from me right now.
I know World Soccer Shop and other places were selling Chandler US jerseys for awhile. Did anybody buy one?
the Flight is 10 hours and 43 minutes
I wouldnt want to go either…… Hmm lets fly that long to a meaningless game in a #@$% country where fans throw piss and $hit at you