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Wondolowski added to USMNT roster for Ecuador friendly

Chris Wondolowski USMNT 18

Photo by Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports
 

By FRANCO PANIZO

So much for leaving MLS veterans behind during this leg of the U.S. Men’s National Team camp.

U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann has added Chris Wondolowski to the squad preparing to take on Ecuador in Friday’s friendly at Rentschler Field in New Haven, Connecticut. Wondolowski is expected to arrive in the Boston area, where the Americans are training, on Tuesday night.

The addition of Wondolowski, 31, brings the total amount of players available for the match to 22. It also means the striker will miss the San Jose Earthquakes’ away game against the Portland Timbers, and likely Saturday’s tilt at Real Salt Lake.

Wondolowski last appeared for the U.S. in a Round of 16 match at the World Cup against Belgium. He missed a golden chance late in that match that could have put the Americans ahead, and the U.S. ultimately fell 2-1 in extra time.

Wondolowski has scored nine goals in 23 appearances for the U.S., with his most recent tally coming in April’s 2-2 draw against Mexico.

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What do you think of Wondolowski being added to the roster? Expect him to see significant minutes against Ecuador? Wishing someone else would have been called in instead?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. All you people who apparently have some issues about certain players, please, keep those uninformed opinions to yourselves. Wondo is and will remain a great player. Do any of you get paid to malign people? The types of criticism I see show a lot of ignorance of the game and even less actual experience how Wondo plays. Klinsmann likes Wondo for the same reason I like him. He plays with passion and he scores goals. Wondo is a great example of the person Klinsmann wants on the team. That doesn’t mean that Wondo is going to be part of the team for the next World Cup. But, who knows, maybe Wondo will coach some of the younger players some day.

    Get with it. Klinsmann likes players who really put their all into it.

    Reply
  2. Kilnsman has picked people who might otherwise thought they were out of the picture. First a college player, then an NASL player. Now an old guy. He wants too foster competition among his players.

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  3. If you have to pick a guy out of the playoff race I’d rather see Jack Mac then Wondo at this point. It’s time to give some other guys there chance.

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    • How is Jack Mac doing? Is he playing better and scoring more than Wondo right now?

      Because if he isn’t then he has not earned a call up over Wondo.

      Reply
      • This roster has so little to do with who has or hasn’t earned a spot to start with. I just don’t see Wondo being a factor going forward. There’s little chance of him going another World Cup at 35.

    • Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute. No huge issue here with your objections to Wondo being in this roster. But of ALL the uncalled or uncapped US forwards out there that JK could have called up, you picked JackMack?! 2014 is calling, and it’s saying come home.

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      • Well your season already being over is part of the equation as that’s the only reason Wondo is there. It kind of limits things.

  4. Wow you guys really took that miss to heart huh? I mean I was bummed but it could’ve been any player. Wondoloski only got called up because were super thin at striker andSan Jose aren’t gonna be in the playoffs.

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    • Thank you, Joe. It amazes me the negativity that follows Wondo now. Let’s let these “fans” get back to their playststions.

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  5. Calm down, people. Wondo’s there because he’s the work-ethic guy who’ll show the young guys how to work your butt off in camp. Nothing unusual about his being there at the beginning of a new cycle.

    Also pretty tired of everyone making him the scapegoat for Belgium. I remind you Wondo was the one who delivered the perfect pass that Dempsey ended up blowing from point-blank range in extra time.

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    • My problem with Wondo isn’t the missed goal in the World Cup, I never held that against him too harshly. People forget some of Landon’s misses, like against Canada at the Gold Cup, when he missed the ball completely on an open net. I just feel it’s a wasted selection if he gets on the field before other players.

      Reply
    • Cal, in Dempsey’s miss, the gk had the angle on him. in Wondo’s case, the GK was slightly to one side. there are two main replays that dont give the best angle but a rare third angle that shows how wide open the entire right side of the goal was. if it was on target to the right half of the goal it would have gone in. dempsey was so close that the gk covered his angles and dempsey flubbered trying to get by and score.

      Brian i agree about him being a wasted selection, i guess what makes me so mad is that ON TOP of that he missed. like his should-have-been replacement would have scored imho

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  6. I’m kinda surprised at the call-up, too, but face it…Wondo has been “on fire” since coming back from WC duty…on a team where’s there is little help…and everyone is supposed to be marking him up like crazy, no less.
    For all of the “haters” on how he scores his goals, one things is clear: more than a third of his goals are game-winners.
    Check Wondo’s career stats. His total of 34 game winning goals (36% of his 94 total goals) in MLS are #3 all-time. LD is 1st on the list with 41 game winners, 29% of his grand total of 141.
    Then factor in that that LD has logged TWICE as many minutes in MLS than Wondo (28.3k to 14.4k)
    He may not be your cup of tea, but the stats don’t lie.

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  7. So what are the bets that Donovan is subbed out for Wondo at whatever predertimed point it is, just to say he look heres Donovans replacement as said by the coach paraded in front of everyone

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  8. You guys are underestimating the amount of skill required to keep that ball (against Belgium) out of the net. It was pure magic.

    Wondo is the worst national team regular since J. Bornstein. Before him it was J. Agoos.

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  9. The real reason Klinsy called him in is that Wondo called him up and begged to get as far away from the stinking pile that is the Earthquakes season.

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  10. I feel like the Ireland friendly in November will be the closest thing we see to the actual squad JK wants to call up as of right now, so I am not going to get too worked up over call-ups in these two matches. I agree with most that Wondo has no real place in this upcoming cycle, but there are enough interesting players in the squad for this friendly to keep me mildly engaged.

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  11. given the situation with long flights for European players and the MLS playoffs, it makes sense that Wondo got the call. but my reaction is, “meh.”

    if anything, now i’m worried he’ll take playing time from someone I would rather see.

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  12. Vell, yoo know yoo haf to brink in vun ov Klini’s Shtormtrooperz to keep der Landycakes in lein, nicht wahr? 😉

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  13. Hmmm, I’m torn: I agree that this is a wasted call-up when someone else (i.e., with a future) could go instead, but I do appreciate seeing rabid fans get trolled.

    Oh well, wasted call-up for Wondo, wasted call-up for Donovan.

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  14. Absolutely mystifying. This is sure to pour gasoline on the ever-smoldering Klinsmann-Donovan “debate”. If JK symbolically brings Wondo on as a substitutue for Donovan, I think the Internet will explode.

    How about a PK contest between Wondo and Donovan at halftime to settle the debate once and for all? ; D

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      • Unfortunately, Houston is still on the edge if the playoff race, or that would have been an interesting scenario to imagine.

        How’s this? JK starts Donovan, but plays him completely out of position – say holding mid at the bottom of a diamond. Call it a “reverse Bradley”.

      • yea cuz Houston’s playoff hopes are the reason Brad Davis didnt get the call up for Ecuador………. smh…….

    • people on this blog are REALLY annoying! You think PERHAPS he has meaningful games and LA is already with LD and Gonzalez. Makes me want to go Wayne Brady and “Smack a B*tch”

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      • Heh, yeah this. I think Zardes deserves a call-up, but not for this one. The timing is crap and it’s bad enough losing Keane, LD and Omar.

      • Your argument might prove too much, for it would also call for Klinsmann to let Gonzalez stay with the Galaxy.

  15. Wondo: a failure at the World Cup, has no future with USNT, already 31, and a waste call-up instead going younger player.

    Klinsmann already made us unhappy with crappy World Cup, but this call-up is really insulting.

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    • Again…wow, the guy missed a shot in a game that no one can really say we deserved to win. It happens, no need to insult the man.

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      • I don’t care if he scores on some random Caribbean island, knocking in that Belgium shot is the whole point of the exercise. I agree, it’s pointless, because we know very well he won’t score in the big games. You’re better off finding if some 20 year old kid can.

    • 2019. That’s the year I predict people will stop finding a Landon Donovan conspiracy theory behind every Klinsmann decision.

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      • 2019?

        Hmmm, that looks like 2 X 19, which = 38…

        And Landon Donovan will be only 37-yrs old during the year 2019, which is 1 away from 38.

        So who is the 1 standing in the way of LD being 38 in 2019?

        I’ll have to dig deeper, but I see Klinsmann’s hand in this.

    • it has become a slang term now. if some one misses a sitter in front of goal you yell ” Wondo!!” “Wondolowskiiiiiiii!!!!” or “he just Wondoed that…” haha.

      this call-up surprises me a lot.

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      • i can recall three big Wondo chokes off the top of my head- vs. Panama in the Gold Cup, vs. the Galaxy in the playoffs, vs. Belgium in the World Cup. all three over the bar.
        Wondo has no place on this National Team. now watch Klinsmann starts Wondo and brings Donovan off the bench lol…

      • +100000000000000000000000

        Then again scoring in inferior competition in meaningless games is his forte so he may get a hat trick

      • What makes the Panama one even worse is he jumps in Dempsey’s way to knock it over the bar from point blank range.

      • somewhat, but the ball was bending away from Dempsey, but from certain angles, yes, it does look like wondo jumps in the way. either way its another miss. interestingly, Dempsey was right next to him vs Belgium too, where he actually could have tapped it to Dempsey

      • Strikers like Wondo have lots of “chokes”. I saw Clint miss almost that many sitters in USMNT one game vs Guadelope.

      • firstly, relax, dont get butt hurt, guy.

        secondly, where’s the irony? i mention nothing about his club career, just a joke about his current pop culture status. the avg american doesnt know anything about him except his miss in the world cup and perhaps thinking that he “took landon’s spot”; thus in a casual pick up games people may say it and chuckle, etc…..

        personally ive watched his career and yes he has scored a lot of goals, especially similar to the chance he had vs Belgium (“right place, right time”). the only IRONY is that Wondo has made a career of scoring that way (“poaching” some would say) yet he MISSED his best chance in a huge game…… misses happen, sure, but not only did he miss, he had the option to just tap it to open dempsey who was onside….. just sayin……

        congrats wondo on a great MLS career…. you should have scored that, and since you didnt, i dont think as highly of u as i would if you’d have made it…………………………………..

        on a random side note, I’m curious, do you think Wondo is a better player than Jozy perhaps? i just get the feeling you’re one of THOSE people… cheers

      • I agree that Wondo shouldn’t be in the national team plans for much longer, BUT unfortunately misses and chokes happen like that for the best players in the world, and they happen often. The only thing is that Ronaldo, Falcao, Neymar have teams that will give them more chances to redeem themselves in a match. Ronaldo skied identical shot a few years ago in qualifying and Portugal tied the match, for the life of me I can’t remember which one. What i mean to say is fine if you don’t think the guy should play, but if we are honest with ourselves we know that it could happen to any player, and probably more then once.

      • i agree, just for pop culture comedy i like to jest about his miss. and further, i like to lament his being on the team, haha

      • Know one cares about the stinkin San Jose stupid names. That miss against Belgium will forever be stuck on him.

      • He scores sweats for San Jose, who cares? He didn’t score a poachers goal when he needed too. He provided zero other than that miss vs Belgium.

    • You need to rewatch that video… I would expect Wondo to make it based off of what I’ve seen him do in MLS, but a full volley with that angle and one of the best keepers in the world right in front of you is hardly a “sitter.” Pretty far from it, in fact.

      The miss is only so memorable because, 1) Wondo has found himself in a place to score a crucial goal before and flubbed it, and 2) the US didn’t generate that many chances for 85+ minutes, so it’s one of the only positive highlights from the match.

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      • bro….. really?……… that was the definition of a sitter. ive watched too many times and cried 98% of the times (joking…. more or less). it was coming from a soft flick from a header that was falling to his feet. no need to even swing his foot, just deflect it in the goal. simple. he just flat out mishit it.

        now for an unjustly deemed sitter, see jozy on Sund vs Cardiff last season ( http://cdn1.sbnation.com/assets/3777501/altidore.gif ). in that case, the ball was deflected at a high speed while bending away from him yet he tried and missed….. not a sitter

    • This. He was a very poor international striker at his height, he’ll be worse as the years go on. Saying that, beyond the ones he brought and the ones in Brazil, he’s a little stretched thin.

      I would have preferred to see Boyd.

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      • Okay, seriously: Didn’t Boyd just get fit? I’m happy for him to settle into his club team. Lots of MLS players would be fun to see, but they have important matches right now (e.g., Zardes, who is mentioned below). Basically, there are a lot of reasons why the timing of this friendly doesn’t work well for players we’d all like to see.

      • Perhaps he’s there to coach the youngsters on their movement. He has always been great off the ball.

      • I would like to offer a counterpoint.

        I think Wondo’s only weakness as an international is mental. He’s shown time and again that he can make difficult shots in MLS.

        Think of all of Wondo’s big misses on the international stage…the two biggest that stand out are in the WC against Belgium (admittedly a tough shot) and the sitter against Panama in the 2011 Gold Cup. If it were an MLS match, Wondo makes those shots.

        My point… The fact is, Wondo on the international stage still manages to get in great scoring spots, but he misses goals that we know he can make.

        I submit that Wondo could have been a great striker for the US if he had international level focus. He just finds the right places to be. Look at Luis Suarez…he’s not exactly a shining physical specimen (or a stand up dude), but he’s one of the best in the world. Not saying Wondo’s is anywhere near that level, but physicality isn’t the be all end all.

        Let’s not forget that…had Wondo made that goal against Panama in 2011, he likely wouldn’t have sat in limbo for the US so long, and the last 4 years could have been drastically different in terms of his caps (if not our overall results).

      • Mr. troge,

        Wondo has 23 caps and 9 goals. He can score for the US but obviously, the label is he “cannot score in big games against tough opponents.”

        The thing is he really doesn’t get a lot of chances to do that. No one does, especially Americans. Wondo has had one scoring chance in a big World Cup game and he blew it.

        That is a sample size that tells you basically nothing. Julian Green had his one chance and made it .

        That was a good thing but it does not mean he is a guaranteed, proven big time striker anymore than Wondo’s miss means he is not a international level striker.

        I’ve seen many better players miss chances that were just as easy in big games. But that is also the big problem with national teams; managers can rarely afford to give you a long run if you can’t produce instantly

        Wondo’s appearance here is hardly a waste because he is one of those guys who should he score vs. Ecuador just might suddenly go on a tear for the USMNT and get that confidence you say he is missing.

      • The comparison of Green’s goal Vs. Wondo’s miss is fine….but what is missing in the comparison is that Wondo @ 31 has limited return on investment where as Green @ 19 potentially has 10 years of contribution.
        Bringing in an average player at 31 over a younger option of nearly the same current level of ability is the issue. Zardes, Bunbury, Sapong, Bruin, would all have been acceptable options over Wondo.

      • Potential means you haven’t done it yet and may never do it.

        To say it would have been more acceptable if Teal Bunbury had missed that shot instead of Wondo is ridiculous.

        It is always going to be a balance between the need to produce now and the need to develop players, which by the way, national teams do not do well since they have no time to do so.

    • I don’t get it, he’s 31, not good for the next cycle, and with the exception of That Game, generally a frustrating international player, punctuated by the Belgium miss. He should now better by now, and with his age, what’s the point.

      Becoming like Sacha (or Bornstein, though he was more hit and miss) for Bradley. Serious blind spot.

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      • Proven goal scorer from age 20 through his 30’s in major tournaments Vs a player who’s had a single good tournament against weak opposition.
        Great way to compare apples to oranges.

      • Belguim miss, WHAT A MISS!!!! A poacher who can not score a poacher’s goal when it counted the most. He had all the time in the world with the goalkeeper leaning the wrong way.

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