Klinsmann's son in Twitter tiff

Cape Town - USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann apologised after his teenage son posted a tweet mocking veteran forward Landon Donovan's dropping from the Stars and Stripes' Soccer World Cup squad.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH DONAVAN (sic) HAHAHAHAA I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE UNTIL MY PHONE NOTIFIED ME," tweeted 17-year-old Jonathan Klinsmann, before his account was deleted.

"I am very disappointed," his father told a press conference, saying his son "has a huge admiration for Landon" and had only been joking with friends, not realizing how the story would explode on Twitter.

"He owes him a big apology, that was highly disrespectful and I think he has learned the biggest social media lesson that he can imagine," he said.