(Editorial) – He is April’s Player of the Month in MLS. He has been one of the best Americans in club play for the past two seasons. He hasn’t played in for the U.S. Men’s National Team since February 2014. His name is Benny Feilhaber and he should be a regular for the USMNT. Instead, his international career is all but dead.
Feilhaber was involved with the national team extensively at the youth level while playing professionally in Europe. He made his senior team debut in 2007 at the age of 22. He would go on to become a regular in the squad, participating in the 2007 and 2009 Gold Cups. He joined the 2010 USMNT World Cup squad as the first midfielder off the bench.
All of this was done under Head Coach Bob Bradley. In July 2011, Jurgen Klinsmann took over the USMNT. Feilhaber has only received three caps under Klinsmann, all of them in post-January Camp friendlies.
Much of Feilhaber’s omission from the USMNT during this period was unfortunate timing. He returned to the US in 2011 and joined the New England Revolution. While he was a regular starter, the Revs finished near the bottom of the table both years he was there. As an individual, his play was less than impressive for a World Cup veteran.
Feilhaber’s European career wasn’t good enough to earn Klinsmann’s benefit of the doubt. He didn’t play well enough with the Revs to get called in.
Klinsmann’s preference for European based players is well documented. Feilhaber never stuck around with a team long nor was did he get regular minutes in a prominent team in a prominent league. He broke through with Hamburg SV in 2006 after a year with their reserve team. Hey would make only 12 appearances with the Bundesliga side though.
Newly promoted EPL side Derby County bought Feilhaber in the off season. He started immediately for The Rams, but Manager Billy Davies was sacked midseason. Interim Manager Paul Jewell played him very little and Feilhaber was released after one season as Derby County was relegated.
Feilhaber moved to Denmark to play three years at AGF Aarhus. He had an excellent 2009-10 season, making 26 appearances (his most in a professional season at the time); his form getting him into the American 2010 World Cup squad.
His decision to return to America hurt his chances of getting called by Klinsmann. In the Bundesliga and the EPL, he was on teams fighting relegation battles. If he stuck around on one of those teams and became one of their best players (like Steve Cherundolo with Hanover 96), maybe he could attain ‘Euro cred’ with Klinsmann. Maybe if he went to an average calibre team or became a bench player for one of the Champions League level teams, he will be more likely to get the call.
As of 2011, he proved that he is one of the Americans who can make it in Europe. Yet he didn’t have the pedigree of a Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, or Geoff Cameron. Klinsmann saw (or completely ignored) his play in New England and thus didn’t call him in.
Feilhaber has had a career renaissance With Sporting KC. He’s a leader on an MLS power and has earned a second chance with the national team.
It wasn’t until part way through the 2013 season, that Feilhaber started playing like the current iteration. He was a major part of Sporting KC‘s MLS Cup Championship that season. He has a high Soccer IQ and is a tempo setter in the central midfield. He has the ability to dictate where the game is played even when he’s not on the ball because of his movement and his intelligence – while no Graham Zusi, he is exceptional on set pieces.
Feilhaber took time to adjust to Sporting KC’s system, but the results have been tremendous. He can play anywhere in the midfield as a part of Peter Vermes’s 4-3-3. He’s as #SportingFit as any of his club teammates. He’s Sporting’s #10, putting the team on his back for the better part of this year.
He can fit right into most of the formations Klinsmann has experimented with.
While Feilhaber would not fix everything with the USMNT, he’s too useful of a weapon to not be called in. He can easily fit into the 4-3-3 (like against the Netherlands) with Bradley and a holding midfielder. He and Bradley can both play box-to-box.
He can also play as part of the two in a 4-2-3-1 next to a holding midfielder as a deep lying playmaker. This would be advantageous with Klinsmann wanting to play Bradley in a more advanced role. He fits that role better than Mix Diskerud, who’s been utilized in that role recently.
There’s no role that fits him well in a 4-4-2 diamond. He’s also a bit too similar to Bradley to be his central midfield partner in a straight 4-4-2. But if Klinsmann can play Brad Evans at right back in the Hexagonal and make it work, Feilhaber can play slightly out of position in the Gold Cup and succeed.
If nothing else, Feilhaber is Bradley’s back up, and an unconcerning one at that. Hopefully there aren’t any hamstring issues in the Gold Cup, as not having a replacement for Jozy Altidore hurt the Americans in Brazil.
At worst, Feilhaber is the third best central midfielder in the US pool behind Bradley and Kyle Beckerman. That is taking into account Jermaine Jones‘s groin injury. He’s possibly been one of the best Americans of the past 18 months.
His omission from meaningful USMNT play has gone long enough. Free Benny Feilhaber, Klinsmann. Let him spread his wings like the Mohawk Freedom Bird with the Freddy Mercury mustache he is. He just might set up the Gold Cup winning goal.
