By Mark Vincent Lincir

Watching the United States hard-earned 3-2 victory over a feisty Slovenia squad in an almost debilitating fog today made me think that maybe the USMNT is better off without Landon Donovan.

I’ve never thought he was cut-out to be a striker at the international level and now the U.S. team has an abundance of midfielders and with Clint Dempsey CLEARLY the choice to be the number #10…it leaves Landon with nowhere to go but bench.

I like what I see of Fabian Johnson so far. He’s got pace, takes people on and can cross a ball. Not sure about Bradley floating around at an outside midfielder, even though he pinched in most of the time today in the diamond. And I’m absolutely petrified that Kyle Beckerman is a real choice to Klinsmann.

But one thing I will give Beckerman is that he played his role today and simply clogged the middle of the field up and protected the backline and every time he won the ball he gave it to somebody in front of him who could actually do something with it.

Perfect…that is his role and he did it well. So I can kind of see how Jurgen likes him…but I still hope we find somebody better than him for that role, because it is a very important one.

Back to Landon…he’s not getting any younger and he is losing some of his pace. I have watched a dozen Galaxy games this season where you don’t even realize that he’s been out there for ninety minutes. I think that the coaching change will be good for Landon because it will force him to push himself. Jurgen might not be winning a whole lot of games yet…but he is looking at options. And Landon might not be one of his first eleven anymore.

For what it’s worth, he wouldn’t be in my first eleven anymore. I’d use his ability to pick apart defenses when the game opens up as a super-sub in the late minutes. But he fades in and out too much (always has) and the time has come to establish consistent performers in the team.

I also think that the fact that he is not playing in Europe should be a strike against him. Not knocking MLS but it’s not the EPL, Bundesliga or Eredivisie…and most of the squad is coming from good level European leagues now.

I know that Jurgen will continue to schedule European competition and will slowly but surely glean the CONCACAF opponents from the USMNT’s friendly schedule (don’t we already see them enough in qualifying?).

There was speculation that Landon will go to Everton this off-season for what I deem a playing-vacation. But I can’t take him seriously as a supposed “world-class” player until he puts in at least one productive full season in Europe.

HAVE YOUR SAY…Is it too early to be sitting Landon on the bench? The all-time U.S. goal scoring leader has proven his worth so does anyone still care he has remained in MLS? Join the conversation by adding your comments below.

Mark Vincent Lincir is the author of A SOCCER LIFE IN SHORTS and blogs at www.markvincentlincir.com