In a wide-ranging interview published on ESPNFC today, Roger Bennett asked U.S. national team star Landon Donovan if he expects to play in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. His reply:
“I don’t have the answer to that. There are a lot of moving pieces: Will I be playing, period? Will I be part of the team? Will I be good enough to be wanted? If I had to guess I would say it is 50-50. I will have more clarity after I take a break.”
The “50-50” part of that quote lit up Twitter like a Roman candle this morning, and it’s not hard to see why. But we would pay equal attention to the last sentence: Donovan needs a break, plain and simple. He’s been playing professional soccer for 14 years, which is one year shy of half his life, and he’s gone on winter loans in three of the past four MLS offseasons.
He’s suffering from burnout.
If he takes, say, four weeks off in November and December, we’d wager that he’d come back refreshed and renewed, ready to join the U.S. in Jurgen Klinsmann’s January camp, and spark the Nats in the WCQ Hexagonal in February.
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