Landon Donovan on USMNT one year before World Cup: ‘A coach shouldn’t have to coach effort’

Retired American national team star Landon Donovan believes that the last year before the World Cup 2026 will be crucial for the guest team and can offer opportunities for the group to correct the race before the tournament starts in June.

The USMNT is again in the session prior to this month’s Gold Cup, which marks their last chance to lift silverware for the World Cup. Head coach Mauricio Pochettino will spend the month working with an inexperienced team, partly forced by injuries to important players such as Antonee Robinson and Club World Cup responsibilities for some such as Weston Mckennie. Star Christian Pulisic will also be outside the tournament to recover from a demanding season with AC Milan. The Gold Cup, as well as previous friendly matches against Turikye on Saturday and Switzerland on Tuesday, offers a valuable opportunity for some of the USMNT’s up-and-Comers to plead a plea for themselves with the World Cup a year away, Donovan argued.

“There are some players on the edge who have a big chance because other players have struggled,” Donovan told CBS Sports. “Diego Luna is a great example, Brian White in Vancouver, [Patrick] Agaremang in Charlotte. These are boys who can suddenly get the chance to be in a World Cup selection, so you have to be careful if you are an established player. It can go fast and you have a few bad games and you have someone else who comes in and plays well, that’s it. You have to be careful. “

The possibility for the new faces of the USMNT comes on the back of a tumultuous year for the group, in which the resignation of head coach Berhalter was fired after an exit of a group phase in the Copa America last summer, but managed to perform behind a fourth-Paleas Pochtino CONCAFS FINETININO. The prevailing sentiment after a few defeats in March was that the USMNT was missing a competitive advantage, a problem that the arrival of Pochettino dates from Pochettino and Danovan applied to criticize the group In a tweet. Months later he states that “talent is great, proud is better.”

“It doesn’t matter who coaching is,” said Donovan. ‘If you and I coach [and] That is the effort that our team releases, we have no chance. We don’t come from our group. We will be ashamed of our house, so I believe there is an obligation for the players to appear and play, regardless of who the coach is. Pochettino is a very good coach. He has proven it, but [former USMNT head coach] Bruce Arena always said that a coach should not coach effort. That should be a given, and at the moment he probably thinks he should coach effort, Pochettino. That is not good, so the player will take some responsibility. “

The ‘obligation to appear’, Donovan argued, is about bringing a tribute to previous generations of the team.

“I became aware of probably halfway through my national team career that there were a group of people for me and for them and for them and for those who sacrificed a lot for us, suddenly, his stars and make millions of dollars and do all these amazing things, and this generation must know that my generation and the previous one and the previous one now also said a lot, he said. “That’s it. It’s a responsibility, and it’s fun, and it’s fun, and it’s great, but it’s a responsibility, and if you don’t want that responsibility, fine. Then not. Don’t put the sweater on. Good, but if you are going to do it, you better go home and do it.”

That does not mean that Donovan, the joint leading goal scorer of the USMNT with 57 goals, is actually soured in the potential of the group. He said that Pulisic “plays if he has ever played” at the end of a career-best season with Milan, scored 17 goals and Nocked 10 assists on the road. Any occasion that USMNT players wait, both individually and as a collective, will be valuable to the World Cup for another year. This includes this Summer’s Club World Cup, where McKennie and Timothy Weah will compete for Juventus and Gio Reyna participate in Borussia Dortmund.

“They are going to be enthusiastic to get home and play,” said Donovan. “Every time you come home and play in your country, they will be enthusiastic, so they will be super excited. There is a lot for those guys to prove … It is another chance to be here and play well and there are not many opportunities about it.”

Reyna will probably have to translate the chances of this summer into a transfer to a club where he will regularly receive playing time for the World Cup in the last season. He only made five starts in 25 performances for Dortmund this season, although he only achieved 12-plus-star in his club career since he made his debut for the Bundesliga club in January 2020.

“My strong advice is that everyone who does not play consistently goes somewhere and plays,” said Donovan. “Does not matter. Just go somewhere and play. That is the biggest predictor of success in the World Cup, if you play consistently and play with confidence.”

Play time is especially crucial for a world cup on a home floor, where the current group is confronted with pressure in contrast to those Donovan and his teammates at national team level.

“The differences are that they play in America,” he said. “I never did that in a World Cup, and I can’t imagine, especially this world where you are checked and followed every step and action, and it will be enormous pressure on them. About everything. That’s when things can go wrong.”

For Donovan, the last year before the World Cup is about the USMNT that proves that they can realize the potential that many have seen in this group, because they first met as young players who were ready to restart the program after failing the previous generation to qualify for the World Cup 2018.

“The challenge for this group is not in their skills,” said Donovan. “It is not, because we have seen that they can play and succeed in big clubs, big moments, and do well.

“There is a bit of a leadership question, I think, with the group and the way in which someone described it is: we need more guys responsible for the result and when you are responsible for the result, [it’s a] A lot of other feeling and just being in a really good team, but you are a bit of a bit player. There were many boys who, when I played before and before, who, if they played badly, would lose the team and they knew it and you had to play well and we need more days that are not alone for the ride, but take the lead and are responsible for the result. “