The United States national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann has said that he has decided to leave the former Hull city striker Jozy Altidore for the upcoming matches in the World Cup qualifying.
The US national team will be facing two matches in the semifinals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. The team certainly needs to manage victory when they take on Antigua and Barbuda in the first match before playing against Guatemala a few days later.
The US national team will be looking to finish in either of the two qualifying spots available. The former Bayern Munich manager Klinsmann has said that he is expecting a disciplined and defensive approach from the opposition in these matches.
Taking into account the style of play of the opposition, he has decided to leave the 24-year-old Jozy Altidore out of the squad for the matches. Jozy Altidore has been great scoring form for the Dutch club. Klinsmann has also stunned the media by leaving out to the San Jose striker Chris Wondolowski, who has also been in terrific form scoring 25 goals this season in the MLS. Klinsmann has revealed that he has decided to leave out Altidore due to his poor performances for the national team in the last year.
“I communicated with Jozy that I was not happy about his latest performances with us, maybe even over the last 14 months. Jozy can do much, much better. The reason why he is not coming in is mainly about his performances at Jamaica and at home (in last month’s qualifying games) also in training. The door is always open and we hope to see a positive reaction from his end and put more effort and more commitment into this whole approach,” said Klinsmann after announcing his roster squad for these two matches.