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Video: Feilhaber reveals frustration with Klinsmann’s USMNT selection

Photo by Gary Rohman/MLS/USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Gary Rohman/MLS/USA TODAY Sports

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Comments

  1. everyones wants a competitive national team and a top league but the leadership has failed. Fire klinsman!!!!! What has he done? Any other country would of put him out!!! Benny just gave all journalist an idea of what a pundit ahould say!!!! Any other country would have fired him cause he can’t compete in concacaf!!!! Not fielding competitive teams and tactically outwitted by concacaf opposition!!!! We are past the point where the lack of talent argument can be used. It’s not the players, the level of play, it is the coach. Other coaches did more with less talent on the national team roster!!! As for MLS Garber need to be fired. Not growing the league, not paying players, but mls is ranking in money for the execs that do much about nothing!!!!

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  2. In the GOAL USA article, JK indicated that Jones/Bradley/Nagbe were ahead of BF on the depth chart.

    Feilhaber is not a ball winner like Jones or Bradley, and doesn’t run and take it to players like Nagbe. BF doesn’t have anything unique outside of those 3 ranked above him. That’s reality.

    BF is good with his vision and technique, but his style isn’t suited for the current way the NT team plays (with 2 defensive MFs: JJ and MB).

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  3. Alright I agree with some of that. Guys like Dax and Hedges did out perform Mix and Birnbaum on their club teams. But the national team coach is allowed to build a team of players that fit his vision rather than an all-star/who is hot right now team.. as long as the results are there!

    Bigger issue is that we have pool of player where there are really only a few automatic above and beyond players and then a lot of players that are at the same level. The upside of Dax vs Mix vs Kitchen vs Sasha vs etc is negligible in terms of overall quality it comes down to roles, specialities, personalities and coaches preferences. I don’t think the national team should be playing 50+ different players every year but I wouldn’t mind seeing some new players when some get a little stagnant.

    Real question was what is the context of this video? Do players often do off season rants in front of MLS cameras?

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    • MLS media day, top players (not involved in national team camp) and coaches were invited in to meet with the media to promote the up coming season.

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  4. I love that he brought up Eric LIchaj, I have absolutely NO IDEA why he chooses to never call him up. I think in the last 4 years he has only called him up like once and barely gave him minutes… Right back is a THIN, THIN position especially when Chandler is out, Beltran isn’t having a great streak of form and Johnson is much more needed at left mid…. Brad Evans has NOT done better than Lichaj ever did…. yeah he has some consistent minutes but Brad is very limited playing Right Back. I’m a supporter of Klinsmann but he he needs to stop doing some of the same old things like calling in guys who honestly should be phased out or who haven’t consistently played well for club, national team and sometimes both…

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  5. Benny is misguided. You don’t build a team by selecting the “best” players. You build a team by selecting a preferred starting 11 in the formation you think works, the most probable game subs, and role players who you think can contribute in different ways. That will leave out good players in certain positions– there are only so many spots, and cover in some places i(especially defense) is basically mandatory given the needs of the game. As for Dax McCarty, as much as I really admire his engine and fight, he simply isn’t good enough to play an international holding role. He turns the ball over far too much, and his best efforts are too often wasted cleaning up his own mistakes. The truth is there are no real American difference makers in MLS — there is no American Giovinco hiding out waiting his turn.

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    • No you build teams with more defensive midfielders than you can shake a stick at. and claim you are going to bring a more attractive attack

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    • I hear you. I don’t think Mix should be called in. But the real player that takes Benny’s “spot” is Lee Nguyen. Given the preference for youth, which makes sense with the schedule, a coach can only call in one guy like this and Klinsmann chose Nguyen.

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      • I agree with a lot of people, and think that Nguyen and Benny are pretty much the same type of player. I do think Nagbe is substantially different than those two, but I don’t want to get into that right now.

        Nguyen is the guy who takes Benny’s spot, no doubt.

        Mix is more of a box-to-box CM, although that seems like the type of player JK wants running that CAM role, for whatever reason (see: Bradley).

        Neither Benny nor Lee got much of a chance to prove themselves for the USMNT in the last few years. I’d like to see that change.

  6. —————————–C. Dempsey ————————

    F. Johnson—————B.Feilhaber—————E. Finlay

    —————D. McCarthy———S. Kljestan—————-

    J. Villafana—–O. Gonzalez—-M. Miazga—J. Cameron

    —————————–Howard——————————-

    Clint Dempsey:10 goals 10 assists
    Feilhaber: 10 goals, 15 assists
    Ethan Finlay: 12 goals 13 assists
    Sasha Kljestan: 8 goals 14 assist
    Dax McCarthy: 8 assists
    (Lee Nyugen: 7 goals 10 assists)
    (Mike Grella: 9 goals 7 assists)
    Just imagine a team that not only can score but can create chances ALL DAY for each other.

    BRING ON BRAZIL!!!! Lol, just kidding…

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    • Well I’m glad stats alone don’t determine a players ability to play for their national team. Otherwise Busquets (who has a total of 6 goals, and 15 assists in his entire club career) and Xavi (who outside of 2 seasons, has never put up those kinds of numbers).

      Hell don’t know why you included FabJo. Never came close to those kind of stats.

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      • But see that’s the thing, we don’t have a Xavi, a Busquets or any player on that level suiting up for the Nats anytime soon thus the backlash for different players not getting several chances. We as a country in the soccer world can’t rest on our laurels so we need to be turning over every stone

      • Oh the comment was just to refute the over-emphasis on hard stats in soccer. This isn’t baseball or football. Hard stats in soccer come with several asterisks and caveats.

        I’m actually extremely interested to see if the GM of Oakland A’s (Brad pitt in Moneyball), who is advising AZ Alkamaar, will find any solution to using hard statistics for player comparison.

      • Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and Gio, I think would easily rate above Bradley, and I think his game has fallen off considerably as of late.

  7. The video made the comments much more concrete. His candidness is appreciated.

    I still have the feeling that he is one of the players that made comments in the Strauss article. He had one appearance, as a sub, after the article was released.

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  8. Thank you Ives and thank you Feilhaber for highlighting our weak spots on our national team. I agree with you and Donovan 100%….from a player of your caliber you see things from a different perspective.

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      • Oh am I? How so? Or are you talking about the one who decides which players he selects, who has more information and knowledge than any of us phonies?

      • Typical JK fanboy. Any criticism is illegitimate because JK has more info than you. Sorry, but that doesn’t mean he’s always right or above criticism from the fans.

      • slowleftarm you lurker. I actually see both sides of most arguments which makes me atypical here. Anyways, the issue I have is that Feilhaber is proposing that a coach puts a certain team – he named the players – on the field that would have no chance of beating the one that coach currently fields. It is my opinion that this is a naive thing to say/think.

      • @Concorde – there seems to be enough naivety going around for everyone but my ? is how can you say so matter of factly that there aren’t other players out there who are not being called that can make difference if the same players are being selected?? Some players are allowed to come in to team having bad club form or who aren’t even playing regularly but are given time to find form and allowed to make mistakes but others who are playing lights out for their clubs can’t get a sniff thud the comments by Benny earlier. Lastly, if the players that we have and are continuing to use ar e as good as it gets and if JK isn’t willing to use other players or outside the box methods then it will be more Concacaf letdowns and games aren’t competitive on the world stage(major tourneys)

      • Ronniet, it is probably because I’ve been living in a place for a while now that has surprising consensus over who the top players are. I am used to fans and media speaking matter-of-factly, critically but not negatively, about selections.

        Klinsmann has tried out all these players. It is a good as it gets, I’m afraid. I believe that by international standards our players 1-5 are quite good. Players 6-20 are ok. Players 21-50 are decent. Exchanging a decent player for an ok player is what Feilhaber is proposing, which is just an average idea. But I think the manager’s position is that, somewhere within that 50, there are 10 players he’d prefer to take and try to push to the next level, because he sees their potential (Wood, Morris, Rubin, Morales, Brooks) to open up a game or make a difference versus a big team. This also has to do with style of play, but our only interest should be in making world class players. More ok players will do us no good, unless your goal is to market MLS.

        For what it’s worth, he gets it wrong a lot. Contrary to what you say he has tried a lot of players, but he also clearly thinks he knows more than everyone, which is wrong. Landon Donovan would have helped us at the World Cup, and Julian Green hasn’t got it. Many other head scratchers. But no point in crying about it, because big picture we don’t have enough talent yet anyways.

    • and this is another delusion that jurgen has created. He is not the club coach of these young players. He is the national team coach, he is not there to develop players and discover potential players. He sees these players for what? 3 weeks a year? the players should develop at their clubs not in a 3 day camp. Who made the fans believe he’s good at developing talent, if he’s never been a club coach or a youth coach.

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