By AARON CRANFORD
Jurgen Klinsmann will have a few less players to choose from for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s final match of 2014.
Klinsmann released Jermaine Jones, DaMarcus Beasley, DeAndre Yedlin and Lee Nguyen on Saturday ahead of the U.S. Men’s National Team’s Tuesday friendly against the Republic of Ireland. No additional players will be added to the team, leaving the roster at 21 players.
Three out of the four players released feature in upcoming MLS playoff fixtures. Beasley is the lone exception, as his season with the Houston Dynamo is already over.
The announcement comes on the heels of the Republic of Ireland releasing captain Robbie Keane before the LA Galaxy star plays in the MLS Western Conference Championship next weekend.
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What do you make of the releases? Are you disappointed not to see more from these MLS players or are you happy they will avoid the risk of injury and fatigue?
Share your thoughts below.
I have been looking around, trying to find any quote from JK on his impressions of Lee after a mini camp and his cameo appearance. I haven’t found anything where he comments on Lee. Has anybody else seen or heard anything?
Dang. I was hoping for Nguyen and Jones to be exhausted for the first leg against RBNY.
Pffff even if Lee played on Tuesday, lots of time to recover before that game
I know. But if you throw in a trans-Atlantic flight on Wednesday . . .
Anyway, it’s moot now.
All the JK-hates-MLS apologists are going to throw their collective back out trying to doin this one to support their views.
Solid moves to limit Lee’s minutes and release all players with upcoming matches–all injury free mind you.
JK says you’re welcome, MLS.
Ether that or Garber laid down the law to Klinsmann. Do it or you’re gone.
Garber has zero power over Klinsmann. Perhaps you meant Gulati?
He probably meant Gulati, but Garber is on the board of the USSF so he has some influence.
In addition to shedding the poor performance on Friday, Mix needs to lose the mustache.
My guess is that’ll happen on December 1
Hopefully, that was a send off game for beckerman and Beasley. I don’t know what Garza needs to learn from dmb. He has great instincts already
DMB looked sharp out there, Beckerman was strong in the first half, why not keep them sharp and keep the pool deep? you may need their experience in qualifiers….
Beasley was the starter as recently as the summer, and the coach probably rates him well. Unlike say Boca or Gooch, he hasn’t broken down, and he will be useful til he does.
So Garza took advantage of his opening, but as long as he is healthy and fast, Beasley should be #2 ahead of weaker defenders like Chandler or FJ on the left. Because he is starter means we ignore the subs??????
Should we be looking at other options? Maybe. But Chandler and FJ are already in camp. They could easily be re-tasked.
Too bad. Wanted to see more Nguyen. Should have four – six more friendlies before the GC
Best of luck with playoffs
Lee only getting 15 minutes smells bad at this point
I disagree.. For JK to call him up for his 1st time in the middle of the mls playoffs is a promising sign. If he would have waited till January everyone would have crucified him. I was expecting him to say since he’s in the middle of playoffs we didn’t want to do too much with him and well see him in January.
The fact that he went with Mix- who has played very well recently- and Beckerman, a seasoned vet as the defensive midfielder vs. the no. 3 team in the world makes sense
JK gave 80 freaking minutes to Mix to run around like a chicken with his head cut-off. LeeN should have subbed in at half time.
I don’t disagree, would have liked him to get a full half also.. would have been awesome…. but my point was that I didn’t see his 15 minutes as a negative… It speaks volumes that he got his first call up when he did, in the middle of the playoffs. Whether he got 15 or 45 minutes is irrelevant in the big picture.
Besides, it’s a friendly and we don’t know if that was the plan all along or what….
Lee is in a great place now….
Looking back that is certainly fair but Mix has been much better then that at other times.
Two guys…Mix and Lee, running at the same defense. One sank, the other excelled. The only question is will JK actually start to make a change? Once he has locked in on certain players, it takes a miracle for him to go a different direction and I will never understand it. He needs to start building for the future. How can he justify calling in Beasley? There is no way he will be there in 4 years. Could say the same about Beckerman. As for Lee, JK was too slow to find him. He was in great form pre WC but it was too late in the cycle. Too bad, he could have been a factor
No, he did what he always does, the people nominally higher on the pecking order — Mixx, Beckerman, Bedoya, and FJ started, he got into camp and came on as a sub to make his impression. I think in the absence of playoff games this weekend he thought it was OK to reward Nguyen now, but he gave him standard new player treatment.
I kind of agree that Mixx specifically doesn’t play like a starter — more like a supersub — but the whole point was for him to play starter time and show whether he’s earning the role. The people who are like, why not at half don’t get it. He is trialing him for the 70-80 minute role of his spot. When the games next year come, Nguyen may get more tries considering Mixx hasn’t seized his position like, say, Jones.
The whole point to the exercise is putting players out there in a tough game and seeing how they show. Mixx was the incumbent. He got played like one — like Bradley kept playing in Brazil even when he stunk. Change if any will come in future games,
It’s a catch 22 for Nguyen, his play helped his club go so far but it also rules him out for game 2 of the set where he’d have played more. So stay healthy and he’ll have his shot next year.
Apparently there is too much logic in our comments IV….
I think people are trying to make too much out of this. It’s a couple of meaningless friendlies in the middle of the MLS playoffs. Nothing matters till the Gold Cup and he has plenty of time to evaluate players before the GC. Let’s see what JK does in the January camp and future friendlies before making a judgment.
If Klinsmann really cared about MLS he wouldn’t have taken them to either match.
(and you can’t tell whether this is serious or not)
Pretty obvious by now he is acting in favor of his own interests and not the league’s. Calling up players, giving advice, talking smack.
I said a few months back he is probably a hardcore Ayn Rand type conservative. To be a great striker it helps to be a ruthless twerp willing to do anything to exploit an opening. Suarez, for example. So it’s a dialectical thing where he pushes MLS to do what he wants, if MLS doesn’t follow he dominates, if MLS reacts, they mutually push each other to better things.
The current MLS response is to whine while he calls their players whom they must release.
I don’t buy the philosophy but the premise is he doesn’t care what MLS thinks, and if they have a problem it’s their job to pushback.
I see what you’ve saying, but the Ayn Rand example is quite humorous, especially with the “ruthless twerp” comment. It truly shows you missed her point. Would you volunteer to be James Taggart in your thin example?
Would have liked to see a lot more of Nguyen. Good for their club teams that they get home and recoup. Beas needs time to decompress also.
You will.
really wanted to see what Nguyen could do with more minutes on the field
DMB released because he’s had a very long year? That would make sense.