by Roderick MacNeil
Jozy Altidore’s struggles are an ongoing concern for the USMNT. (Getty Images)
USMNT Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has a problem on his hands. His top striker, the man who lines up atop the self-defined “spine” of his team, is not only not scoring goals with his club, he’s now not even making the bench.
The concern over Jozy Altidore continues to mount. For the second consecutive week Altidore was left off Sunderland’s game day roster by manager Gus Poyet. A week ago Altidore suffered the indignity of being assigned to Sunderland’s U-21 squad. His scoring drought continued through that match as well.
Officially, the Barclays Premier League website lists Altidore among Sunderland’s “Injured Players.” Without details provided or any trace of an explanation forthcoming, skepticism reigns.
Poyet attempted to downplay the U-21 assignment earlier this week. “He’s a professional, and I’m sure it was difficult for him – the Under-21 game was at the Stadium of Light, and we were playing on the same night,” said Poyet. “But it wasn’t a punishment – there was a reason behind it. There were a few players who needed a game – Ondrej Celustka and company. It was all nicely prepared, and it wasn’t for any other reason. It’s the sort of decision you have to make in this job.”
Spin it however you like, but for a player of Altidore’s stature, it was a humiliating demotion. He’s the starting striker for his national team, he led the Eredivisie in scoring a year ago, and is currently among the highest paid players at his club, having arrived on a $13M transfer fee last summer.
Altidore was expected to be a major part of Sunderland’s attack this season. Instead, he’s only scored one Premier League goal and has been in and out of the lineup all season.
What does this mean for Klinsmann and the USMNT? Klinsmann has long emphasized the importance of his players getting consistent minutes with their clubs, and of course, playing well during those minutes. Altidore is doing neither currently, and its become a fair question whether he’ll play again for Sunderland this season at all. Perhaps a post-World Cup change of scenery is in Altidore’s future, but that’s not solving any immediate USMNT problems for either him or Klinsmann. For all practical purposes, it’s too late to secure a loan anywhere to get more pre-World Cup playing time.
Meanwhile, Aron Johannsson continues to pile on the goals in the Netherlands. He’s coincidentally doing so with the same club (AZ Alkmaar) that Altidore scored 31 goals with a year ago when the two players were teammates. Johannsson’s experience at the international level is minimal, but at what point does current form trump experience?
Regardless of where you choose to assign blame for Altidore’s struggles at Sunderland, the end result is that he’s a striker lacking confidence at the present time. If he doesn’t have opportunity to change that before the end of the Premier League season, which version of Altidore is going to arrive at USMNT camp in May?
The optimist will believe that he can flip a switch and continue the goal-scoring success he had during World Cup Qualifying in 2013. It may seem like just yesterday he was scoring a hat trick against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo. That was actually eight months ago, before he ever appeared in match wearing a Sunderland kit.
Altidore remains a critical player for the USMNT’s chances in Brazil. It’s clear that Klinsmann puts a lot of trust in him, and it’s difficult to envision anyone but Altidore positioned atop the starting lineup. Johannsson has the hot hand in club play, but lack of experience aside, he doesn’t possess the same skill set as Altidore nor does he present the same matchup difficulties to opposing defenses.
So sink or swim, Altidore is Klinsmann’s guy. Jurgen and USMNT supporters alike will hope that Altidore has the maturity and composure to put his recent club failures behind him, and be the player who scored 8 goals in 14 games for the United States a year ago. The fate of the USMNT this summer depends on it.
The Near Post 
Added to ‘injured’ is how do you play in a 21 game if you’re injured? There’s a major problem that I think you’ve laid out quite well here, lack of minutes and quality means, by jk’s rules you shouldn’t get usmnt minutes…
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It’s fishy. The U-21 game was a week ago, then this weekend suddenly he’s “injured.” Injured what? when? how? Guys pick up knocks in training all the time, but usually you get some sort of indication on the nature of the injury and timetable. There’s just nothing on this.
Very tricky for JK, esp. if Jozy doesn’t play again this season. I guess you see how he looks in camp and go from there? Do Altidore’s struggles make Eddie Johnson a more important player? (Not that EJ is lighting it up, but at least he’s playing, and he looked good vs. Mexico.)
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My problem, as a high school teacher the one single most important thing that was true when it came to discipline was “consistency.” If you treat one kid differently than another kid, well, then you’ve basically lost the classroom. You’ve either got pets or dislike someone. If you want a productive and friendly classroom, you have a set of rules (for me, it was minimal) and you enforced them absolutely.
If JK drops Donovan from the squad because he’s not playing and then makes him play his way back in via the Gold Cup and is still only giving him sub minutes… Well, I don’t think it’s kosher to then bring in Jozy to camp. If Howard started sitting, wouldn’t Guzan jump him pretty quick?
Maybe not Bradley, we suck without him, can’t move the ball from back to front. So, maybe he doesn’t have to log first team minutes…
Dempsey?
It’d be a pretty crappy move to say, “these three guys, they can do whatever, they’ll still come to camp, everyone else though, you have to be playing first team minutes and playing well.”
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