Leaving Landon Donovan at home is no big deal.

Copyright Ryan Healy

Much has been made about Jurgen Klinsmann's choice to leave Landon Donovan off of the US National Team's roster for the 2014 World Cup.  Yes, Donovan is the all-time leader in goals and assists for the Yanks. Yes, he's second all-time in caps, behind Cobi Jones. But isn't sport supposed to be about "what have you done for me lately?"

If we go purely by who has scored the most goals, then Eric Wynalda and Joe-Max Moore would still be suiting up for the national team in their 40s. What about last summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup? Donovan tied for a tournament high 5 goals! Unfortunately for Landy Cakes, the Gold Cup is the little brother of international cup tournaments. The Gold Cup has been played 12 Times and the USA and Mexico have combined for 11 titles and 16 finals appearances. 

Simply put, the competition in the Gold Cup is subpar and Donovan should, and did, dominate. However that tournament was almost a year ago. Donovan has had 11 months to get older, slower, and fatter. This year, in the MLS (more subpar competition for Landon), Donovan played all 90 minutes in seven games before being cut by Klinsmann. He failed to score in all 630 minutes while managing a whopping six shots on goal and two assists.

Once he was dropped by Klinsmann, the good Landon Donovan magically reappeared. He scored two goals against Philadelphia to become MLS's all-time leader in goals, while also notching an assist. Make sure you ignore the fact that Philadelphia is one of the worst teams in the league this year and has the most porous defense. 

Meanwhile, Clint Dempsey is third in the MLS with eight goals in as many starts. Even Chris Wondolowski has a respectable five goals from nine games. The fact that Donovan can't keep up with other top Americans in the MLS highlights that his game has fallen off. 

There is also the issue of Donovan's self imposed sabbatical last year.  He voluntarily missed three World Cup qualifiers while trying to decide if he still wanted to play soccer. You shouldn't have to convince one of your most important players to play in the biggest tournament in his sport. Especially when that tournament is the World Cup.

Finally, there are those that claim Klinsmann's personal decisions have gotten in the way here and they're partially right. It's Klinsmann's job to make personal decisions that he feels give the team the best chance to win. If he doesn't get along with Donovan then it's his right to leave him at home. There is also the notion that Klinsmann is taking a young team to Brazil to prepare for Russia in 2018. The average age of the 2014 team is almost exactly a year older than the 2010 team, 25.7 years old compared to 24.7.

The door may have cracked open just a bit with Dempsey missing last night's game against Azerbaijan with some kind of groin issue. The fact that the US is in probably the toughest group this year likely means that the US will bow out after only three games, regardless of Donovan's participation.