Landon Donovan reacts to Jurgen Klinsmann's firing
Landon Donovan's falling out with Jurgen Klinsmann was one of the biggest stories of the manager's U.S. men's national team tenure, but Donovan sounded a conciliatory note after Klinsmann's firing on Monday.
In a tweet, Donovan expressed regret that Klinsmann had to lose his job, though the ex-national team star did not say whether or not he supported U.S. Soccer's decision. Donovan also backed the U.S. to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Klinsmann infamously left Donovan, the all-time leading scorer for the U.S. men's national team, off his 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup. Without Donovan, the U.S. reached the knockout stage, falling to Belgium in the round of 16, and Donovan retired from the national team in October 2014.
Klinsmann was fired from his roles as manager and technical director after the U.S. opened CONCACAF's hexagonal portion of 2018 World Cup qualifying with losses to Mexico and Costa Rica.
U.S. Soccer pulls the plug on its grand Jurgen Klinsmann experiment
In 2015, before the CONCACAF Cup playoff against Mexico, Donovan suggested Klinsmann should probably be fired if the U.S. lost that game. They did lose, but Klinsmann wasn't immediately fired.
LA Galaxy coach and former U.S. men's national team manager Bruce Arena, who coached Donovan for club and country, is reportedly the favorite to replace Klinsmann.
