Getty Images Landon Donovan’s racked up a lot of miles. He started playing professionally at the age of 17. In the 13 years that’ve followed, he’s made 141 appearances for his national team. Having gone through so many battles, you can forgive him if, at times, he doesn’t look like the same spry attcaker we saw at World Cup 2002.
But every once in a while, Donovan can turn back the clock. For 90 minutes, he can be the quickest man on the field. Add that to his ability to read the game and you have a combination that can define games in this part of the world.
It would be a stretch to say Donovan defined tonight’s 3-1 win over Antigua and Barbuda, but with most of the U.S. Men’s National Team struggling to impose themselves (on an opponent that insisted on being an imposition), the U.S. surprisingly needed one of Donovan’s turn back the block nights. One step ahead and two steps faster than everybody else on the field, Donovan played in part in all three goals as a flat United States took full points from their World Cup 2014 qualifier.
It began in the eighth minute, with Donovan drilling a corner to just outside the six. The play that followed ended in Carlos Bocanegra’s 13th career international goal. While most of the work was done after the kick, the play foreshadowed a night of good service from Donovan, who whipped in a vicious first half restart that Clarence Goodson nearly hammered home.
With the U.S. struggling to find a second goal before half, Donovan made his most significant contribution of the night. Working with Clint Dempsey on the left side, Donovan burst past Antigua and Barbuda’s defenders onto a ball in the left of the penalty area. A panicked Marvin McCoy took him down, leading to Clint Dempsey’s (ultimately) game winning goal.
After the visitors pulled one back, Donovan started the play that led to the U.S.’s final goal. Breaking through the left side of Antigua and Barbuda’s defense, Donovan got behind the line, turned the defense and cut a ball back to the top of the box. The ball eventually found its way to Herculez Gomez, who gave the U.S. its final margin of victory.
It wasn’t a perfect night for Donovan. On a couple of clear second half chances, Donovan bought into the team’s frustrating refusal to put the ball on goal. Two times he demurred, playing the ball into the six. Two times he made life easy on his opponents.
But late in the game, in a similar situation, Donovan’s instincts served him well. Forced to take a ball toward the line, he put a ball back into the six that nearly forced an own goal.
Donovan didn’t need a perfect night to be the team’s best man. In a game where his teammates underwhelmed, he was one of the few players who showed a desire to dominate his opponent. Be it on the right, left, or standing over dead balls, the U.S.’s all-time leading scorer led by example. Had the rest of the team match his effort, the U.S. would have posted the lopsided result fans were expecting.
With apologies to Carlos Bocanegra (who scored an played a strong emergency left back), Donovan was the U.S.’s best player. Again.
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- tylerbetts - Jun 8, 2012 at 10:04 PM
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Imagine how good his night would have been had he taken a few shots on frame, rather than laying off or taking an extra touch?
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- Richard Farley - Jun 8, 2012 at 10:11 PM
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Yep. Landon’s never pulled the trigger in that spot, and it a bit of a problem. I mentioned this to somebody on Twitter, but remember Deuce’s goal against Spain? Where he took the ball off of Sergio Ramos’s foot and beat Iker Casillas? In the build up, Landon gets played a ball and he’s wide open to the right of goal. Instead of shooting it, he does what we saw tonight. While that turned out OK, it wasn’t the right choice, IMO.
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- schmutzdeck - Jun 8, 2012 at 11:17 PM
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What if he shoots and it is saved ? No rebound for Clint.
What if he shoots and it goes out of bounds? No rebound for Clint
How was what he did the wrong choice?
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- Richard Farley - Jun 8, 2012 at 11:21 PM
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What if he shoots and it goes in? You can’t judge the choice based on the outcomes as you’re doing here. You need to look at the circumstances at the time of the choice independent of what the outcomes was.
Landon had a chance generated for him. It was from about 12-13 yards just to the right of goal. It was the type of chance any coach would love to see his team generate. And he passed on it.
What happened? He played a ball into the box that got intercepted by Gerard Pique (iirc). Sergio Ramos then gets caught off balance and Clint sources.
Landon took a scoring opportunity and, though unselfishness, nearly turned it over.
The reason he should have shot: The U.S. had a better chance of scoring a goal had he shot than he had done anything else. Of course, it’s a matter of opinion, but the way the movement played out (I believe) supports what I’m saying. It all worked out great for the U.S., but he didn’t make the right choice.
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- schmutzdeck - Jun 8, 2012 at 10:48 PM
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Mr betts,
Maybe.
That is always an interesting criticism in a backseat driving, 2020 hindsight kind of way.
On several of Donovan’s passed up shot opportunities it looked to me like passing was a reasonable option. More to the point, the US had the lead. If they were tied or behind maybe he takes those shots. I do know that forwards who don’t always take the obvious shot can be downright unnerving to defenders.
No one wants to hear that they won 3-1 and took the three points they needed but they did.
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- brad9000 - Jun 8, 2012 at 10:36 PM
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Landon’s game has not really progressed over the past few years (maybe because he plays in a subpar league), while Clint’s has skyrocketed. Can we finally get past Landon being the U.S. soccer poster child and recognize that Clint is the best player on the team right now and Michael Bradley is rapidly growing into the number 2 spot?
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- schmutzdeck - Jun 8, 2012 at 11:00 PM
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brad,
Who cares who is “better”?
Who played better tonight? US fans are so into the cult of personality and celebrity and who is number one. Don’t you care about the team winning? Would you happier if Dempsey had a better night than Donovan even if we lost?
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- aglumac - Jun 9, 2012 at 12:11 AM
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Couldnt agree more, if Donovan only had the “killer instinct” there is a time to bury an inferior opponent. Howard had been his usual dependable self, Bradley has grown leaps and bounds, when he is involved he has that calm look like he already knows what is going to happen three touches from now, I hope Fabian Johnson keeps progressing as well, he has flashes of brilliance, hopefully the consistency comes. And as for the other commentors, I dont think its a matter of who is better, we all want to see the US succeed, its a matter of personal growth, and it seems that others are fairing better than Landon.
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- Steve Davis - Jun 8, 2012 at 10:59 PM
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(for Brad9000:) That may be … but what does that have to do with Landon Donovan as Man of the Match? Bradley was quite good, yet again. But Dempsey wasn’t much to shout about. He said so himself. He’s still hurt, not yet 100 percent fit. Yes, Dempsey and Bradley are becoming more important figures overall. But Donovan’s contributions were undeniable Friday.
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- Richard Farley - Jun 8, 2012 at 11:24 PM
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I think Brad might be inferring too much from my use of “Again” at the end of the piece. Brad can clarify.
I’m not making any claims as to Landon’s primacy or subserviency, Even if you think Landon’s the third best player for the U.S. (honestly, I don’t know – it could be lower or higher), he’s going to have a few more MotM performances in him. And, it was only three games ago that he previously won the honor.
You could say “again” for Bradley, Dempsey, Howard … and Landon.
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- jucam1 - Jun 9, 2012 at 1:39 AM
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I don’t mean to poop on your parade but aren’t you all missing the MOST important point?…. The team the US played could be beaten by my college team and South American and European teams laugh at the fake FIFA rankings that put the US in even the top 50 of nations…. Are you guys kidding me?…. Who cares how good grandpa Donovan looked, the US just played the little sisters of the poor and got scored on!…. This has to be BY FAR the most overrated football team in the planet…. If the US soccer federation would have any real BALLS, it would quit Concacaf and let Mexico continue to never get better on the world stage, while the US joins Comembol and in 20 years or so becomes a true contender…. Until then, the true WC contenders will continue to laugh at this sad team and mock that douche Lallas who always talks up this SAD US side….. You know I am right!
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- Richard Farley - Jun 9, 2012 at 1:50 AM
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Actually, that’s not the point at all of this thread/post. The point is just to talk about who we feel was the US’s best player on Friday. They could have been playing your college team. If it was a World Cup qualifier, we’d be having the same discussion.
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- term3186 - Jun 9, 2012 at 1:58 AM
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Do you go around copying and pasting this rant into ever pro soccer article you can find? I’ll copy and paste my rebuttal again! Have at you!
Calm down. The USA isn’t much overrated. A second place finish in the last Confederations Cup (knocking out Spain 2-0, who had been unbeaten in 35 previous matches). Topped Group C in the last World Cup and made it to the round of 16 before an admittedly disappointing defeat against Ghana. By what metric are we overrated? Gooch screwed up…. again. Shit happens. Granted, we’re not top tier (Spain, Germany, Brazil, etc.), but I don’t really know anyone that thinks we’re top tier. But we’re doing pretty decently on the world stage, and we’re making progress.
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- schmutzdeck - Jun 9, 2012 at 8:51 AM
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jucam.
You are off topic. However, why are you so concerned about ratings? Other than the fact that they affect seeding ratings are irrelevant. Let the world laugh at us. It does not matter.
What matters is that we finished as somewhere around the 16th best team in the last World Cup and we need to improve on that next time. Everythings else, as far as the USMNT goes, is BS.
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- jucam1 - Jun 9, 2012 at 1:42 PM
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This has nothing to do with rankings or anything else besides the fact that if the US manned up and joined Comembol it would suffer for a generation but in 20 years might actually have a shot at winning a cup…. I love this country but the point is to win a tittle some day, and playing in Concacaf is never going to do it…. Hence you get to beat an awful Scotland squad at home 5-0…. But get annihilated by a very average Brazil squad…. I can’t stand the false marketing about this US squad being any good (excluding Clinto)… I want them to get on the road to being good some day… And don’t say “it takes time”…. Look at Mexico always “happy to be there” because they play no one on the road to the cup
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- Richard Farley - Jun 9, 2012 at 1:47 PM
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Your arguing with somebody who doesn’t exist.
“I can’t stand the false marketing about this US squad being any good …”
Who’s marketing the U.S. as being good, bad, or otherwise. Just because people are excited about the USMNT doesn’t mean they have delusions about the team’s quality.
But yes, you do have a segment of any fan base that is going to be very optimistic. I’m not sure you see that here, which is why your comments are being met with such derision.
You’re very, disproportionately, negative. You’re arguing with somebody who thinks the U.S. is going to contend for a World Cup in two years. Nobody here is saying that.
Join CONMEBOL? `Nuff said.
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