Club form not necessarily criteria for national team selection

So many things go in to choices coaches make when selecting their national team squad for pressure filled World Cup qualifiers.
The criteria could be many things and what is important is how valued all these different criteria are for a manger.

So many things have to be taken in to consideration like current club form, degree of difficulty of the league one play’s, health and fatigue, and if players are a tactical and squad fit. The level of confidence a manager has in a player looms large.

U.S. manager Jurgen Klinsmann is paid to make the big decision and he recently has leaving off Jozy Altidore who is banging in goals left and right in the Dutch Eridivise of AZ.

Klinsmann fairly says Altidore’s form at the national team has been less than impressive and he is right. His in-ability to hold the ball at times has been shocking for a man of power and strength.

No one is giving up on Jozy but one can clearly agree with the reasons yet he is an in form striker. Yet a real argument can be made for the degree of difficulty in defenses in the Netherlands where Dutch teams would prefer to win 4-3 as opposed to 1-0.

Now take Chris Wondolowski who was left off for Alan Gordon who apparently fits the banger aerial game composition Klinsmann needs tactically in games against Antigua Barbuda and Guatemala potentially.

I find this maybe even tougher to accept as Wondolowski has clearly mastered in MLS the ability to know where the ball is ultimately going to be.
Herculez Gomez and Clint Dempsey remain the first choice strikers but it sure makes for interesting debate.

The cry for club form does not necessarily mean inclusion internationally.

As for me tonight I am calling the Princeton/Creighton mens soccer game on ESPN U and looking forward to the broadcast with Tony DiCicco on ESPN U at 7 Eastern.
Apparently a few MLS potentials playing in this game.

Twitter: GlennDavisSoc

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