ESPN insider article on Holden and Klinsmann:
Damen Jackson/Icon SMI
U.S. fans are waiting for Stuart Holden to make an impact, but injuries have prevented that.
As he demonstrates in Leander Schaerlaeckens' feature on ESPN.com, Stuart Holden never counts himself out.
The oft-injured Holden applies that thinking to the U.S. national team, too. The 26-year old has never had the chance to fully exhibit what he can do for the Yanks, getting cut down three times just as he seemed ready to take a central role on the squad.
But he's doing everything he can to stay in the national team picture, and Jurgen Klinsmann has done nothing to discourage that.
"Jurgen's been great," Holden told Insider this week. "He's really made me feel a part of it even though I haven't really been a part of things for more than a year now."
Holden gave Klinsmann a heads-up that he would be in L.A. for a checkup with the surgeon who performed his latest knee surgery early in January, and Klinsmann responded with an extended invitation to get to know the new coaching regime.
"He said, 'I'd love to have you in the January camp and get familiar with how we operate and our staff and just to meet everyone," Holden says.
He had conversations with the coaching staff, hung out with the team at meals and generally acclimated himself.
"Now when I go in for a camp with the national team it will be smooth, because I've met the staff and I've been involved and know what they're looking for."
Holden also received assurances to take his time in his rehab.
"Jurgen said the same thing I've been thinking -- not to rush anything, take my time, be on the right schedule and let my playing take care of itself," Holden says. "If I'm back playing in the Premier League I don't see why I wouldn't be involved with the national team."
One conversation they haven't had: Where he'll line up if and when he returns to the squad. Klinsmann watched Holden play a in reserve match for Bolton last fall, a few weeks before doctors discovered cartilage damage that required more surgery, and told Holden he saw him in his plans down the line.
"But that was the extent of it," Holden says. "I hope to have more detailed conversations when I get back to playing."
Holden played mostly on the wing for Bob Bradley, and would play keeper if he had to to get on the field. But all things being equal, what would Holden like to do for the Yanks?
"I feel like I thrived in the two-way role at Bolton; I felt really comfortable and thought it suited my game. I'd love to play in the middle in his system," he says of the role occupied mostly by Jose Torres and Clint Dempsey since Klinsmann became coach last year.
"It's a very free-flowing, attacking formation and it's something that when you watch, you kind of salivate a little bit on the sidelines wanting to be a part of it."
While Holden puts no timetable on his return, and won't rush to get back in time for World Cup qualifiers this summer, his injury situation has killed one dream -- the Olympics. If he were whole, the 2008 Beijing vet would have jumped at a chance to be one of the three over-age ringers on the U-23 squad.
"It would have been nice," Holden says. "The Olympics was one of the better experiences of my career. I would have loved to have played in that, especially in the UK. But it's definitely out of the picture for me now.
"I'd be just coming back from the injury, and to go and play in the Olympics, I don't think my (club) coach would be too happy," he says.
Nor would the partisans at Bolton's sneaker-monikered stadium: "I think I'd be handcuffed to the Reebok."
