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Eintracht Frankfurt coach calls for Chandler to reconsider USMNT participation

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Photo by Peter G. Aiken/USA TODAY Sports

By RYAN TOLMICH

Timmy Chandler spent his summer as a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team’s Gold Cup roster in a move that has appeared to cause ripples on the club level.

Eintracht Frankfurt manager Armin Veh says that the fullback should reconsider his participation on the international level, as he believes that Chandler’s USMNT responsibilities are impacting his abilities on the club level.

“I understand that he wants to play there, but it doesn’t help me and Eintracht,” Veh told Bild. “He needs to ask himself what he wants.”

Veh went on to say that Chandler will have to “wait in line first” before rejoining the team for in-game action. Chandler is set to return to the team on Thursday, and is the last of the team’s players to return to the squad ahead of the Bundesliga season.

Last season under coach Thomas Schaaf, Chandler started 25 games and made four further appearances off the bench.

The incident isn’t Chandler’s first that has pitted his club responsibilities against his international desires, as the fullback previously rejected a series of USMNT call-ups to focus on the club level during his time with Nurnberg.

Chandler most recently started three of the USMNT six games at the Gold Cup, but did not play in the team’s semifinal loss to Jamaica.

What do you make of Veh’s comments? What do you expect from Chandler this season? Is it fair to ask Chandler to refrain from international duty?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Considering how committed Chandler has always been to the US national team, and especially how he has always been looking forward to playing away games in CONCACAF qualifiers, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he knew very well what Veh was going to say and wasn’t at all displeased by that. It will also give Klinsmann a good out to bring Chandler back when the qualifiers are over (after all, it wasn’t Timmy’s fault).

    It’s a win-win-win situation for all three Germans involved.

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  2. As long at he holds the Geman nats to the same standard …oh wait Veh’s team sux so it’s unlikely he has any German Nats

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  3. Did he say the same to any other internationals in his squad? Did he say the same to Seferović, Hasebe or Hradecky? I bet he would not dare say that to a German who had been called up to their national side.

    If Chandler is better than the other guy for his position and Veh chooses the other player because Chadler dared to go on international duty…then that says more about Veh.

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  4. That is unprofessional of the coach to even think about that. I understand competition, but representing a player’s national team is honorable and goal most soccer players have. Does Luis Enrique say that to Messi, given his injuries with Barcelona and performance for Argentina?

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    • No, it’s almost the exact opposite, where Argentina’s manager actually came out and said he would blame Messi if stop playing internationally. However that’s more on the kind of scrutiny he’s faced from Argentina press then effects of his play.

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  5. that is ridiculous from the coach. get out of there Chandler. beside, we need him playing a role similar to what he plays for the US. because right now it’s not working.

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  6. I know everyone likes to bash Chandler, and he didn’t do anything to deserve otherwise (except that rip of a goal)

    But this is waaaaay out of line.

    Last year he starts 25 times, then this guy makes a public statement that he’s gotta wait in line first before rejoining the team?

    WTF

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  7. UGH

    Regardless of Chandler, I hate this type of attitude from managers.

    It’s what keeps some CONCACAF countries from having a good squad, like Curacao, Haiti or even Canada.

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  8. Come to MLS Chandler. Seriously.

    It is one thing to play on a team in 9th place. My Sounders are about there. It is another to play on a team finishing in 9th place that is 36, yes 36 points, aka 12 wins, in back of first place. Pretty exciting season, think you will make up that difference this year, or piss away another year of your career?

    Then add on top of that they don’t want you to fulfill every kids dream of playing for that national team.

    You can’t do better than that? Seriously?

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      • Not silly just because you don’t agree. I think parity is what will make the league successful. It has its problems, sure. But I prefer that to watching one or two dominant teams trade trophies back and forth each season.

      • Slow says: Parity isn’t all that is cracked up to be.

        Kaka agrees with OPMG and I. Or perhaps he couldn’t make the Frankfurt team. LOL

        Parity is all that it is cracked up to be.

        Jermaine Jones, a guy who played in Germany, agrees too.

        I could list so many others, like Villa and Dempsey, but THAT would start to get very silly.

        GW is right, probably very hard for TC to find that kind of salary here. Shame though, because he is trapped at a team offering him nothing but.

      • What kind of nonsense are you spewing? First of all players say anything for a paycheck or to the benefit of anyone who will pay them. For example, David Luiz saying something like mls might be a top 5 league in 5 years or so (all he is angling for is a big payday in 5 or 6 years and possibly a move to NY or Miami). If you are going to say list the names, give quotes and or times they said it.

        While parity is good, quality trumps. What you want is a league with parity and quality. If not, we would all be watching elite high school soccer or club teams which has a lot of parity.

        As far as TC is concerned, he is much better player (who starts) for a mid table club team in arguably the 2nd/3rd league in the world than he is for the USMNT (and I don’t know why). They don’t challenge for the Bundesliga title, but there is the Cup and, in a good year, Europe. He has something to play for. Why drop down from that level to arguably the 22nd best league in the world? This is coming from a guy who has been an ardent MLS supporter since ’96 and whose college team competed with or against 3 guys who played in the MLS. Maybe it’s just me, but as a former player, I would want to play at the highest level I can while making serious money. His coach is jerk, but he would not be the first jerk. His team finished in the upper half of the table, 3 points off from Europe. He’s ok.

      • Parity in MLS? I don’t know about that.

        MLS Cup winners and runners up since 2005:

        Season Winner Runners–up

        2005 Galaxy Revolution

        2006 Dynamo Revolution

        2007 Dynamo Revolution

        2008 Columbus Red Bulls

        2009 RSL Galaxy

        2010 Colorado FC Dallas

        2011 Galaxy Dynamo

        2012 Galaxy Dynamo

        2013 SKC RSL

        2014 Galaxy Revolution

        WINS

        Galaxy 4

        Dynamo 2

        Colorado, Columbus, SKC and RSL 1 each.

        RUNNER UP

        Revs 4

        Dynamo 2

        Galaxy, Dallas, RSL, Red Bull 1 each

        It looks to me like the Galaxy, winners of 3 out of the last 4, seriously dominate this league and is likely to continue doing that.

        It’s not Bayern Munich dominance but it isn’t far off.

        Who is Real Madrid to LA’s Barcelona (or vice versa if you prefer)? I don’t see one.

      • to take it further, check out this salary dashboard i built in Tableau. data is from MLSPU and is from 2007 through 7/15/2015.

        MLS Salary Overview

        within the salary distribution views, the graphs in the top left act as filters when clicked. you can select multiple teams by holding down “Ctrl”.

        it’s astonishing, really. one of my favorite views is going to the 2015 Salary Distribution tab and filtering for only Orlando.

    • Whining,

      The latest salary figure I could find for Chandler was 733,333 pounds or 1.14 million US..

      Are your Sounders willing to pay him that?

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  9. First, you had Stoke getting Cameron to ask out of the Gold Cup, now this. You’d never see these kind of comments if the player was on a European National team. I hope FIFA does whatever it can to fine Veh.

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    • Exactly, this manager is so unprofessional. You would never see a manager say this about a player leaving for Africa Cup of Nations of Copa America. Total BS. My take is he’s the new manager and doesn’t rate Chandler and is looking for an excuse not to play him.

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      • There always a little bit of tension because Cup of Nations is right in the middle of the European season. Still nothing that goes this far.

      • Joe Dirt ,

        “You would never see a manager say this about a player leaving for Africa Cup of Nations of Copa America.”

        Actually, many managers made that exact complaint. You just haven’t noticed because those complaints don’t involve Americans.

        Oh and if he didn’t rate Chandler why would he bother complaining about not having him around?

    • Google is your friend. It happens a helluva lot more than you think. it has nothing to do with Timmy playing for the US. Managers want what’s in the best interest of their teams. I can see where Veh is coming from. I don’t like that he did it publicly.This is a conversation that should be behind closed doors. Former Barcelona manager, Tino Martino, just the other day said Messi really needs to consider not playing for Argentina. It’s not the first time he’s said something on this topic. He made brief comments around the same lines while managing Messi at Barca.

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      • no, it’s pretty rare that a manager comes right out and says that their player should stop playing for the national team.

        martino’s comments about messi were always more directed at argentina fans who are overly critical of messi, and not really meant to be seriously suggesting that messi retire from international soccer.

      • It’d be in the best interest of the club managers to just do away with the international game all together. Is that what he is suggesting here? Why single out Chandler as it’s just his international career he should drop?

        How many other managers think the same, and don’t even look at players outside of Europe because of similar conflicts of interest?

      • US fans forget that the clubs not the national teams pay the players and the national teams are basically ” borrowing them and sometime return them broken.

        Frankfurt’s complaint is mostly a big deal only to Chandler whom most of you want to see get run over by a truck anyway so this is no big deal.

        The other reason US fans haven’t seen this much is that the US hasn’t had very many players that their Euro clubs would miss all that much. .

        MLS schedules are more forgiving than the Euro clubs when it comes to players playing for the USMNT.

        This conflict has been going on for years in Europe to the point where most managers just work around it now.

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2890605/How-Premier-League-affected-New-Year-exodus-Yaya-Toure-Papiss-Cisse-Mile-Jedinak-main-absentees.html

      • Then should we just get rid of the international game all together? It’s clearly a complete mess anyway.

      • Most of the top clubs in the World would probably agree with you.

        Look at how NHL clubs hate losing their stars for the Olympics or MLB teams hate having their players play in the World Baseball Classic.

        Playing for a top country like Germany , Brazil or Spain adds a certain value to a player and of course clubs love that. But that has to weighed against the wear and tear and risk of injury.

        This is easy to figure out, just follow the money.

        Players are assets and national teams wear them out.

        It’s like having your little brother “borrow” your 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 for the prom and then having him get in a fender bender or worse.

      • MMV…just to clarify, Martino never said Messi needs to consider playing with the national team. He said he would “understand” if he didn’t want to play again for the national team(because of all the criticism he gets back home) and that if it were him (martino) he definitely wouldn’t play for the NT. There’s a difference.

    • This kind of thing happens all the time. Ryan Giggs almost never played a friendly for Wales and often missed competitive games too because Sir Alex would rather he stayed at Old Trafford.

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      • That about sums it up. If you play for a top country, it’s fine but if it’s the US or Wales its seen as a waste of time.

  10. I know there is always a little struggle between international and club teams, but this feels a little anti-american…

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      • You got there before me. But to amplify I don’t think he would have said it if Chandler were from another European country or Latin America either. Lots of European managers just don’t take American soccer seriously. I’m not a big fan of Chandler but nevertheless my patriotic hackles have been raised.

      • If Chandler were playing for Germany the travel would be just a little bit less involved don’t you think?

      • This happens ALL THE TIME. Wenger and Ferguson threw his system fits whenever they lost players. Usually, they are so good enough, they have to play them or keep them in the rotation. Remember, the old AZ coach wasn’t a big fan of Jozy going to national team games.

        If a manager, can find another player of equal or better quality, who does not have national team commitments, they will get them. This happens more often than not with players from smaller nations.

        This just strikes me of a new coach who is a little peeved that one of his players missed all of preseason for a tournament that he doesn’t think matters. Simple Euro-Centric point of view. You should listen when coaches say the are reluctant to sign some African players because they will loose them during the middle of the season.

  11. Absolutely absurd comments for a manager to make. There is no greater honor than playing for your country, and any player with ambition would choose to represent their country when given the opportunity.

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    • Standard club v. country malarkey except with the proviso that this is a new coach who can judge him for taking an extended summer holiday for Gold Cup, whether it’s fair or not. The rules say he has to release him to country duty, don’t say he has to play him when he comes back.

      It is this very sort of explicit pressure to favor club over country that results in rules that you have to release players and do so x days ahead of time. I’m sure the underlying concern is he hasn’t been in training, but it’s par for the course with internationals. Next season the complaint would be about the Euros. They’ll want a vacation after the tournament too.

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      • Difference is managers might make comments about having to work the players in at the start of the season. However none, will say a player should rethink playing international football after the Euros.

    • The man is tired. How would like to work year round, with no vacation; working in the heat and traveling the distances he traveled this year.

      He needs a break…

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    • …and make 1/10th what he currently makes?????

      Chandler makes mistakes, but I think it’s funny when slam him for commitment when he has had pressures to make the 1st team coming from his managers. It wouldn’t be if he was the clear favorite, but he only slightly or even to his competition. Jose Villarreal did the same thing with the u23 team.

      Reply

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