Benny Feilhaber ready to make up for lost time with USMNT revival

CARSON, Calif. – A confident, young Benny Feilhaber, having already sized up the situation, patiently waited for the ball to fall in front of him. He decided he would not pass – he would shoot – even though standing in open space to the right of him was Landon Donovan, whose corner kick had just been headed outside the box to the spot where Feilhaber stood.

Feilhaber didn’t let the ball hit the Soldier Field grass. He timed his right-footed volley perfectly to send a bending strike past goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez inside the left post. The 28th-minute goal ended up being the match-winner, as the United States men’s national team beat rival Mexico 2-1 in Chicago for its fourth Gold Cup championship.

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For Feilhaber, then 22, it was just the beginning. Or so he thought. He firmly believed there would be more volley strikes to come in a USA shirt.

“It was a bright start,” Feilhaber recalled this past week as the annual USMNT January camp wound down at the StubHub Center. “It eventually led me to playing in the World Cup with the team in 2010, which was a dream come true under Bob Bradley.

“There’s been a bit of a hiatus since then.”

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That goal in the 2007 Gold Cup final ended up being the signature moment of Feilhaber’s USMNT career. On the field (and in the middle of the dog-pile celebration) for Donovan’s dramatic goal against Algeria that sent the Americans through to the World Cup knockout round, Feilhaber would only make three more appearances for the U.S. after 2010. His last game came after his previous January camp call-up (which was held in Brazil in preparation for the 2014 World Cup) in a February 2014 friendly against South Korea.

When the Americans open their 2017 season in Sunday’s friendly against Serbia in San Diego, Feilhaber will be grateful to have the USA logo across his chest again. Brought back into the fold by new head coach Bruce Arena, the Sporting Kansas City midfielder arguably has the most to gain of any U.S. player – if anything, to make up for lost time.

Feilhaber spent the last three years in what amounted to be a national team exile imposed by former head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. After being thrown on as a 61st-minute substitute three years ago in a 2-0 win over the South Koreans, Feilhaber never got another call-up from Klinsmann. Instead, they traded harsh criticisms in the press, with the player questioning Klinsmann’s player selection and alleged bias toward deserving MLS stars and the coach firing back with a scathing assessment of Feilhaber and his inability “to step up to an international level.”

What confounded Feilhaber the most was the continued snub in 2015 when he enjoyed his best MLS season with 10 goals and 15 assists to earn an MVP award finalist nod and a place in the league’s Best XI. Asked about the perceived freezing out of MLS players before the 2016 season, Feilhaber could not contain his disappointment. A very public feud was born.

Ironically, Klinsmann needed a creative player such as Feilhaber to be the midfield engine whenever the U.S. attack bogged down. The lack of a true No. 10 became a recurring blind spot, as the coach preferred to have defensive midfielders Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones initiate the attack.

“He never talked to me as to why exactly he didn’t give me an opportunity, especially later once I was playing at the highest level of my career,” Feilhaber said of Klinsmann, whom he gave a parting shot with the simplest of tweets immediately after the coach’s firing last November.

“From my perspective, it was never something personal,” he added. “It was just soccer, I would assume. He didn’t like my soccer, and that’s why I didn’t get called in.”

Sporting K.C. head coach Peter Vermes saw the frustration in Feilhaber and advised his player to let go. “Him saying anything else wasn’t going to help. After that, he realized there was nothing more to say,” Vermes told Goal.com.

Feilhaber continued to watch USMNT games despite his feelings of “helplessness and frustration.”

“There’s no doubt that that sets in every once and awhile,” he admitted. “With the last year or two, I knew I wasn’t going to get a call. And at that point, you kind of close that chapter in your international career. For it to reopen now, unexpectedly, is a breath of fresh air for me.”

After being brought back to replace Klinsmann, Arena declared he would give omitted MLS stars a second chance. Feilhaber feels he has made the most of the opportunity during the two-week camp to prove he can be a useful addition as an “attacking central midfielder,” his position with Sporting K.C. However, the 32-year-old knows better than to allow his confidence to assume anything for World Cup qualifying in March when the USMNT’s European-based players return.

Ten years after announcing his arrival with a Gold Cup golazo, Feilhaber eyes a much simpler and unselfish goal in his national team revival.

“I feel good about how it’s gone. But at the end of the day, Bruce is the boss and he’s the coach and he’s going to decide how he feels how he can best get a group together to get the job done,” Feilhaber said. “Am I confident in my abilities that if I do get called up I can help? There’s no doubt about it. I hope I do get that opportunity. But I’m not going to guess what the coach is thinking at this point.”

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