Friday, April 06, 2007

Wynalda vs Donovan Cold War Continues

By now I am sure everyone has heard about Eric Wynalda's comments towards noted Soccer hater and general sports trash monger Jim Rome. What had escaped me during the ordeal was Wynalda's comments towards Landon Donovan that follows up nicely on the war of words on both sides we discussed here last week. Thanks to Bill E Shears at Odds and Sods for pointing out this priceless Waldo quote from Sportscenter last night:

"I don’t know if getting married is going to help him, but he has already been in a situation where I think a lot of the decisions he has been making have been about his personal life, about being happy, about being where he needs to be. He needs to make the decision whether he is going to be a guy playing soccer, or a soccer player. I want him to be a soccer player, because I know how good he is. And I want him to challenge himself, because there is nothing, in this country, that is going to challenge Landon Donovan any more."

No response from Donovan as of yet, but Donovan responded harshly to Wynalda last week in a Dallas press conference and probably will do the same if pressed on this quote.

7 comments:

Harvey said...

Wynalda is 100% right about Donovan.

Anonymous said...

Wyanlda ought to be a team player and stop taking pot shots at our players. He needs to be disciplined or fired by ESPN.

truth said...

Donovan is going backwards playing in MLS. Wynalda is right. He needs to play for a top-level league.

Anonymous said...

First of all, Donovan did not react harshly the first time. His comments were understated and wise, unlike Wynalda's usual stuff, as evidenced by his being suspended now.

Second of all, aren't all players making their decisions as personal decisions? Deep down, the players electing to go to Europe are doing so because it makes them happy, a personal decision. It's what they want to do. Donovan made his decision to stay here because it makes him happy, a personal decision. It just so happens that his personal decision doesn't make Wynalda, and others like him, happy, so he/they criticize.

Anonymous said...

I agree honesty. Wynalda is a disgrace and has become an unwelcome sideshow during every match. His attention grabbing comments during the world cup hurt the morale of the team and undermined the ability of Arena to keep the team together. Since the World Cup he has made Donovan his target and even when Donovan scored against Denmark and Mexico he spent the whole game attacking him.

Harvey said...

Wynalda is the only person willing to tell it like it is in the current ranks of hacks employed by ESPN. Donovan is a lazy, unmotivated loser. He has extreme talent which shows itself every now and then in meaningless friendlies or some subpar MLS game, but never ever on the big stage.

Anonymous said...

Harvey

Did you miss the Ecuador game?

Obviously you are just a hater and don't want to give Donovan any credit for his excellent performances.