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On the 1^st of February, the US national team played against South Korea on a friendly match that saw the Americans claiming a 2-0 triumph. It was more like a preparation match than anything else for the side which is being led by Jurgen Klinsmann as they have to get ready for their upcoming World Cup matches against Ghana, Portugal and Germany.

Chris Wondolowski scored both goals for the American team but there was something else that the head coach Klinsmann did which made an impact for the squad and that was appointing Donovan as the captain.

Donovan is the most experienced player in the squad that played against South Korea as he celebrated his 155^th appearance and even though he failed on marking his name on the scoreboard, the veteran forward still managed to influence the match on different levels.

The former Everton player provided Wondolowski with the assist for the 2^nd goal of the match as well as being in the middle of many attacking sequences for his team throughout the entirety of the match.

When the game concluded, Donovan stated that much of his performance can be credited to the armband as he confessed that when he is wearing it, he plays better.

“I don’t know the statistics, but throughout my career, when I’m wearing the armband, I would guess that I play significantly better. And I take that role very seriously. I take it professionally and, again, someone can do the stats, but I think our team record is probably pretty good when that happens.” Donovan said.

The side of Jurgen Klinsmann has another friendly match scheduled before they go on playing their World Cup matches. They will play against Ukraine on March 4 and Donovan is very likely to wear the armband once more.

The United States national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann has said that he has no personal issues with LA Galaxy star Landon Donovan. There have been a few reports that manager Jurgen Klinsmann has lost his faith Landon Donovan after the two suffered a relationship split recently. Following the appointment of the former Bayern Munich manager, Landon Donovan has been in the squad for the United States national team only once, while there have also been reports that he is yet to see the manager eye-to-eye. However, Klinsmann has been quick to deny such rumours by saying that there are no issues between him and Donovan.

Klinsmann has said that there have been numerous reasons for not picking Donovan for the US matches recently. Injuries, suspensions, and the tactics have been reasons for not taking the LA Galaxy star. Most importantly, Donovan was not part of the US team that had historic win over the 2006 World Champions Italy recently. Klinsmann said that Donovan had missed the match due to the bronchitis problem he has been suffering from. The former German manager also admitted that he would like to have Donovan back as soon as possible ready for the first team action.

“No. There’s no problem at all with Landon. It’s for us way unfortunate that he wasn’t available for the last eight games, whatever reason it was. We take it as it happened and are straightforward in our relationship, and obviously we want to see him back in the team. This time (for the Italy game in late February) it was bronchitis. The other times was other injuries that hit him. There’s absolutely no problem with Landon,” he said in an interview given to ESPN. The United States national team will be playing a number of friendlies in May and World Cup qualifiers in June.