US Soccer: Why Donovan Is an Even Better Player with Klinsmann

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at Internationaled.org

Published: July 19, 2013

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Landon Donovan just played his 10th game for USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Klinsmann is 7-2-1 when Donovan suits up for his national team, including the last four games of the team’s record setting, eight-game winning streak.

With the Nats' next few matches all Gold Cup knock-out contests, the winning streak is likely to increase to 10 or 11 games. The prodigal son Donovan will go down in the record books as a key component in extending this impressive win streak.

Is this success with Donovan mere happenstance? Did Donovan return at just the right moment to ride the wake of some players eager to spend next summer in Brazil? Or is there something about Klinsmann’s system that could facilitate Donovan and the entire U.S. Soccer program reaching even loftier heights?

 

Klinsmann Deploys the Highly Flexible 4-2-3-1 Formation

In Donovan’s first game with Klinsmann, a 4-1 drubbing of an overmatched Scottish reserve side, Donovan started the game at right wing. According to ESPNFC Gamecast, Donovan spent most of his time attacking from the wing, but on the heat map there is evidence that Klinsmann inverted Donovan to the left hand side for at least part of the game.

Four days later and on the other end of the 1-4 thumping courtesy of the Brazilians, Donovan never moved from the right-hand side of the pitch. The same thing happened in a lackluster 72-minute appearance in a scoreless draw with the Canadians. When Donovan stayed wide right, the team performed poorly.

The next three appearances, and his last for nearly a year, started with two World Cup Qualifiers and finished with a 45-minute contribution to the miracle win in Mexico City. For this game Klinsmann lined Donovan up as an inverted left-winger and, as the heat map shows, Landon repeatedly cut inside on his right foot to attack the Mexican defense.  

That was Aug. 15, 2012, and it would ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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