Landon Donovan has been left off the United States’ final 23-man squad for the World Cup.
Defenders Michael Parkhurst, Brad Evans, and Clarence Goodson; midfielders Joe Corona and Maurice Edu; and forward Terrence Boyd also missed the cut for the team that will play in Brazil.
U.S. Soccer announced the squad on Twitter on Thursday.
Donovan, 32, has played for the U.S. in the past three World Cups dating back to 2002. He has been the face of the national team for most of the past decade, but spoke in recent months about how his body is no longer what it had once been.
He also took a sabbatical from the game at the beginning of 2013, and missed the first three World Cup qualifiers before returning and leading the U.S. in that summer’s Gold Cup.
Donovan has appeared in more World Cup matches, 12, than any other player. He is also second on the list of all-time appearances for the United States.
“It’s an exciting moment when you have narrowed the roster down as a coaching staff, and these 23 players that you’ve chosen can focus now purely on Brazil,” said manager Jurgen Klinsmann in a statement. “We can go into more specific things about technical approaches, and about the opponents. For the players, it’s very important to know that they are now part of it and they can relax and know they are on the list going to Brazil and taking it from there. After almost 10 days of work right now, we thought the point has come to make the decision.”
Edu and Goodson also played on the 2010 roster but did not make the final squad this time.
Five of the cut players compete in Major League Soccer, while Corona plays in Mexico for Tijuana and Boyd plays for Rapid Vienna in Austria.
They have been placed on a standby list and will be returned to their club teams.
The United States are in the middle of training camp in preparation for the World Cup in Stanford, Calif. Before traveling to Brazil, the Americans will play Azerbaijan on May 27 in San Francisco, Turkey on June 1, in Harrison, N.J., and Nigeria on June 7 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Source: ESPN