With Landon Donovan pulling out of the U.S. national team’s friendly at Italy (Wednesday, 2:45 p.m., ESPN2) due to bronchitis, it means that first-year coach Jurgen Klinsmann will once again be denied having the country’s two best attacking players — the other being Clint Dempsey — at his disposal. But if Klinsmann is really concerned with the overall development of the U.S team, that’s the least of his challenges.
In nine games at the helm, Klinsmann has had Donovan twice and Dempsey five times, but never together, and the next chance won’t come until three friendly matches in May and June before World Cup qualifying begins against Antigua and Barbuda on June 8.
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Here’s what else the U.S. hasn’t had under Klinsmann: goals, getting shut out four times and scoring just seven times.
While having Donovan and Dempsey on the field at the same time would almost certainly help to remedy that drought, Klinsmann hasn’t found a perfect midfield to help generate offense either. Yet, he does have a depth chart, and it took injuries to Jose Torres and Jermaine Jones for the German coach to finally offer an overdue chance to Sacha Kljestan, who is having an outstanding season with Anderlecht, the best team in Belgium.
And Kljestan probably won’t play against the Italians either, as a predictable midfield pairing of Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu is far more likely. That’s where an increasing amount of focus needs to be should American goal-scoring troubles continue, not on missing Donovan.
