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Landon Donovan says Jurgen Klinsmann should be held accountable

By Mike Gray
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Landon Donovan just said what many American soccer fans have been thinking for a long time.

Appearing on ESPN FC, the Galaxy and U.S. National Team legend who was controversially left off the 2014 World Cup roster suggested if Jurgen loses the big one this Saturday (6 pm, FS1 and Univision), he should be held accountable for the Americans' recent poor run of results, perhaps with his job.

Here's the full quote:

Host: If the U.S. doesn't get a win against Mexico this Saturday, is Jurgen Klinsmann on the hot seat?

LD: Well, I would say it this way. Around the world, if a player plays poorly and a player has a bad string of results, they get dropped from the team. Jurgen's said many times that he wants our players to feel pressure so if they lose a game they can't go to the grocery store the next day, if they lose a game they're getting hammered in the press...well, the same holds true for the coach.

And so we had a very poor summer with bad results in the Gold Cup, the last game against Brazil was probably the worst game I've seen the team play under Jurgen, and so the reality is now, anywhere else in the world if this coach had had those results and they lose this game against Mexico, they'd be fired.

And I think if Jurgen wants to hold everyone, all the players to that standard, then he has to be held to that standard too.

Hard to argue against Landon's tough but fair criticism unless you're a Jurgen bot.

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