Photo by ISIPhotos.com
To say there's a German influence on the current U.S. national team is a bit of an understatement these days.
Along with Bundesliga veterans Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan, the national team has also welcomed German-born players Jermaine Jones, Timmy Chandler and David Yelldell into the fray in recent months. The result has been a current U.S. camp where German can be heard being spoken on the field on a regular basis.
"It's like being on the German national team," Donovan joked before Monday's training session in Nashville. Having honed his mastery of the German language during stints with Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, Donovan said it was good to get practice speaking the language with his new teammates.
Apparently he was getting too much practice speaking German, which led Jermaine Jones to complain recently.
"Why don't you speak English anymore," Jones told Donovan at a recent practice. "I'm trying to learn."
Guys guys guys, hold on. We must bow down to this man, for he is a living legend in the Guam premier division, or the BGMSL. I’ve been a long time follower of the BGMSL and I must say that I’m humbled to be in the presence of one of the few greats who have made it to such lofty heights in the footballing world. Respect, gentlemen. Show it.
My sister was at Ramstein until 2005 and I got to visit her twice and went to two Kaiserslautern games at the Fritz Walter. Unfortunately she was reassigned before 2006 so no free bed for me during the Cup but K-town was amazing for the US-Italy game. Best rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that I’ve ever heard at a sporting event. I still get goosebumps thinking about that game and that crowd!
Frankfurt American High School Class of ’94!! Good to see another Eagle on here.
I’ve put some of the comments from this youtube video of ‘Dolo speaking German through google translate. Ze Germans think he sounds like he was born there, and apparently his accent is near perfection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56UavmW9nOQ
I agree but if you cover up his hairline with your hand and imagine his skin a few shades lighter, he looks very German. strange.
but to answer your question, we have bases in some 130 countries
I have to say this is one of the most interesting threads I’ve read on SBI in a long time. A real credit to the internet, and much better than the old Jozy vs. Chicharito nonsense.
Yeah buddy! I was stationed there from 2005-06. I played for the Anderson AFB soccer team in the “Budweiser Guam Men’s Soccer League”, Division I sucka’s! For those that don’t know, that is the top flight league in Guam, kinda like the EPL, or La Liga, just sayin’. Guam’s national team is currently ranked 188, just ahead of Mauritius, and Djibouti at the dead bottom of the world! But how many of you posters can say you played top flight football? LOL!
Sadly, it seems the AFB no longer has a team in the league. We were pretty good when I was there. Except Shipyard used to kick our butts. Those locals would schedule games at noon on the freaking equator and show up with hoody’s and warm-ups! We had to line up water bottles around the pitch, yet I never saw them drink one sip.
Same with my sister, including the verdict on Bradley’s hair (“but he was so CUTE when he was with the MetroStars”). Also, Holden. Dude looks like a 15 year old to me, but something about that hair. (Alright, brotherly guilt kicking in for knocking her. My sister actually knows just as much about soccer as I do.)
my last name is “pickle” in German, so i’m loving this! I have Germans in the USMNT team, I have Germans on Madrid. I’m loving it. USA, Germany, Spain for me.
if my sister had her way, Beckermann, Lichaj, Kljestan, Donovan, Bradley (when he had hair),Feilhaber and Bocanegra would all be in the starting XI. Players like Chandler, Adu and Bornstein wouldnt even sniff the bench. Yes, her assessment was 75% based on looks and 25% skill
yeah, he spent a lot of time in DC.
i think GolTV has the rights to to the Bundesliga right now.
Guam?! i lived there for 2 years when my dad was stationed at Andersen AFB.
The reasons behind all of that hair gel are suddenly crystal clear.
Germanay has also touched my family, my sister is married to a german, my son is married to a german.
But Germany is not in my pecking order of favorite teams during the WC, First USA second Spain third my natal Peru but has been years since they qualified.
THE BUND!
Germany is an excellent role model for us to have when it comes to soccer!
http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/unc/sports/m-soccer/auto_headshot/573906.jpeg
Too sexy 😉
That’s one of the benefits of having public high schools field teams for basically free. The idea of team and the importance of chemistry is lost in Europe unless you are an academy kid, and even then the real motivation is money.
Euroyouths have to pay REAL GOOD money for valuable club experience… significantly more than travel ball in the US. Here kids can try out at school, play at an ok level of play, them move on to higher levels after they learn the importance of “team.”
It’s not producing the BEST talent…but we’re getting better.
Yeas, I think it’s a pretty cool natural progression to think we might have a german coach sometime in the near future.
Of course, Jurgen Klinsmann comes to mind. But I think Thomas Dooley is coaching in Germany, as well as now, Joe Enochs.
Although no matter who we bring in from Europe/South America., etc in the future, I think our style is, and always will be, American. And while we may borrow a lot of the good strategy and tactic as well as techniques, and even some of the bad ones, what we develop on the field will be a blend of African, South and Central American, English as well as German and European soccer styles and, like our country itself, will be uniquely American!
The Bundesliga passed Italy to move from 4th to 3rd this year, and it should pass Spain next year or the year after. I think that would be the correct hierarchy for now: England, Germany, Spain, Italy. But yeah they could eventually pass even the Premier League in a decade or so.
The more yanks we can sock away in the Bundesliga the better. It is on the rise and well positioned financially for fairplay restrictions. Would not be surprised at all if it was the top league in the world within 5-10 yrs.
This is coming from a girl. If looks had anything to do with it, Lichaj would have started.
It’s hard to complain after rewatching some of those crosses Chandler had into the box, though. I don’t care how he looks or what language he speaks–if he can do that, I am happy to have him on the team.
“He is married to Chinese-American Debbie Chin, a former model. The couple have two children, Jonathan (born 1997) and Laila (born 2001).”-wiki- Jurgen has a 14 year old boy!
But we gotta beat the Chinese and the Germans to him! LOL!
It is like there is some kind of international espionage stuff going on involving soccer DNA. Would it be abuse of power if President Obama authorized the CIA to help the USMNT’s cause? I would give him a pass on that one anyway.
So do Xavi or Iniesta have any sisters that we can put an Army base next to?
That’s a typical German reaction to a Yank who ruins the perfekt language..lol.
I read an interview with Jones on the Yanks Abroad website a few weeks ago. His English has drastically improved.
Yeah, I remember when Chappelle used to hang out there. Not sure if many people know about that. Didn’t he used to go back and forth between YS and D.C.? And if anyone is wondering about his politics and comedy, Yellow Springs and Antioch college pretty much sum it up. LOL.
Yellow Springs: Highest concentration of white boys with dreads in the US. Bank on that. I’m talking back in the day too, before it was mainstream.
As for our soccer team, it was ok in the mid-late 90’s. Kettering was tearing it up though. Oh yeah, cuz guys like freaking Chris Rolfe played there around 2000, and that school had like 3000 kids there. Damn him.
ELAC is a Chivas USA fan…so I’m guessing he’s of Mexican heritage
Hah, I don’t think that the ladies that Ashley Cole and his teammates seem to hang around these days care what you look like as long as you can pay (sorry, crass…moving on).
However, looks have absolutely nothing to do with soccer skills, otherwise the general consensus amongst the lady fans I know is that Eric Lichaj would have RB locked up over Timmy (that is not to say that Lichaj doesn’t have a lot of skill and potential either).
Sweet!!!! I was friends with Dave Chappelle before he was famous. 🙂 I used to play you guys in soccer in the early 90’s. You guys used to be good, I have no idea now. I went on to play at Ohio State for a little bit.
YS is still my fav. place in the U.S., even though there are no mountains or ocean. It’s just a really cool place, with some good soccer/football for it’s size. We even had a kid from Germany on our team for a while.
We tried, remember Jurgi? xD
I totally forgot Jurgen Klinsmann is married to an American woman. How many kids to they have?
Also, Franz Beckenbauer spent five years with the New York Cosmos, surely he knocked up a few American broads in that time….
Dude I went to Freaking Fairborn High School 95-97! I went to three high schools in case people are wondering. Military brat. Yellow Springs is one of my favorite small towns in America hands down. Used to ride my bike on the bike trail there and go to John Bryan State Park to chill and de-stress. My dad almost bought a house in Yellow Springs when we were stationed there. I love SBI, such a small world.
Yeah, my bad, I thought you were replying to my post. I agree, invading and occupying territories is not good humor.
I like Jones comment to Donovan about wanting to learn English. Making the 2014 team would be a huge career highlight for him and I wonder how much influence he had in pushing for the loan to an EPL team so he could get to work on learning and possibly integrate into the USMNT faster.
yes?
Landon Donovan, Bundesliga veteran? C’mon, Ives. Veteran, obviously. When compounded with Bundesliga…false. How many matches did he play in the German top flight? Exactly. And the Munchen matches don’t count. Joe Ngwenya played in more competitive matches for Bayern than LD did.
(SBI-The literal definition of veteran is having experienced something. Donovan DID play in Germany, so he’s a veteran. Nobody said you had to be a ten-year vet with 400 games played to be called a veteran.)
Sadly, no. I left in 2001, and haven’t been back since 🙁 I joined the USAF and got stuck on a beautiful island in the Pacific. LOL! But I need to go back. I have family in Heppenheim, between Darmstadt and Heidelberg.
Dooley runs an academy in Stuttgart with several jugend Yanks under his stead.
Wasn’t anything about historical accuracy, more the invading and setting up bases part.
Nice. I used to hang out at my friends house in Hanau Army Base. We would catch the train to downtown Frankfurt to skateboard, without cops harassing us! I LOVE Frankfurt! Used to go there and Heidelberg a lot.
Dooley runs an academy in Stuttgart, and many of the jugends in his camp have US connections.
My bad, I thought you had replied to me. Confused moment over.
+1
Yes, that’s why he’s there! Perfect…
I just left Heidelberg last summer, miss it and my club very much. Were you at that Bayern-Lautern friendly 2 winters ago when Donovan struck the back of the net? That was an awesome match! Auf gehts Bayern!
Nice!!!! I’m from Yellow Springs! Ever go there K-Town?
Homeboy is no Cristiano Ronaldo, but he has skillz. Less time with the ladies, more time to focus on football. Cuz we have all seen the problems ladies have caused for people like Ashley Cole! Oh! We don’t need pretty boys with distractions.
K-Town. I’m class of ’87 from Frankfurt High School. My mother is English, my father was in the Army and then went DOD.