02 Jun 2014
US national team star Landon Donovan has claimed that he is not sure whether he will be part of the final squad for the World Cup 2014. Ever since the LA Galaxy striker took a sabbatical from the game without informing US national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann, tensions have been growing between the duo. Donovan has gone from being one of the most important players in the US national team squad to the periphery in the last few years. Even though he has been named in the provisional squad for the World Cup 2014, Donovan has now claimed that he is not sure about his participation.
The US are expected to have a tough World Cup in which they are one of the favourites to getting knocked out of the group stages. This is because they will be coming up against European powerhouses like Germany and Portugal along with African giants Ghana. This is widely seen as the group of death and Klinsmann has been urged to take his strongest possible squad. At 32 years of age, this may be his final World Cup appearance for Donovan, but he’s not sure if that would happen at all.
Donovan says that this situation is similar to the one he experienced in 2002 when his participation was not decided until the last moment.
"For me personally I sort of liken it to 2002. In 2006 and 2010, I knew for the most part that, unless I was awful, I was going to make the team. This time is more similar to 2002 where I wasn't sure. In that way, it is as competitive as it has been personally in a long time. There is a lot of quality here and you can really make the case for any of the guys to be on the squad,” said the striker.