hopefuly he gets more time sunday he looks like he can put in some dangerous crosses as long as toni gets his finishing back
Game over 1-0 to Hamburg. Well I thought that was a solid league debut for Donovan in his 15 minutes of action. A few good touches, a nice cross or two, only one turnover. Almost had a pedestrian assist on a shot Van Bommel (I think) pushed wide.
Wow...only 2 minutes of stoppage time? I was pretty surprised by that after all the cards and rolling around on the ground. I was thinking 3 minimum. Thought it was weird that Landon hasn't played out wide at all in the friendlies then that's where he plays tonight. I guess it shows how versatile he is but I was a little puzzled by that. Overall, not bad for Landon. Created a good chance and sent in some good crosses.
He looks like a scared puppy out there. Maybe it's just me 'cause I'm so nervous for him. I'm not sure his teammates have come to trust him yet either. Right mid is definitely not his best position. Still, he had a nice cross which unfortunately came to nothing.
The announcer was completely correct. Disappointing from Donovan today. He needs to shake off the nerves. Doesn't help he played an entirely different position than in the preseason games, however.
Donovan looked a bit hesitant at first, which is to be expected from a forward asked to play right mid. No indictment of Klinsi - it was the right move to put him there - and in spite of a slight case of the yips, I thought LD added some quality to Munich's attack. Shame Toni was doing his best Conor Casey impression.
He did fine. As others have stated, he's pretty much wasted at right mid, but he did fine. I think Bayern has real problems at the back.
Disagree. You have to play your position, and with Ribery, Lahn, and Altintop going all over the place, you needed someone wide to maintain width.
Not sure I agree. If he was put in and told to stay wide to create width and help pull out HSV a little, then he shouldn't have been running into space and crowding things. It appeared he was told to play wing, which he did. I know it would be satisfying for him to take charge, but he was a winger and serving as an outlet for the defense to work it up if the middle was clogged. At least it looked that way to me. Edit: I see Appoo beat me to the punch.
Bayern was done wrong when they stole Toni's goal in the 1st half. Great game though all around. End-to-end action.
The Bundesliga is balls. I need to watch more. I don't blame Klinsman for putting Landon on the right, towards the end he was a nominal 3rd striker anyway... Klose and Toni were doing a pretty decent job of connecting, so he couldn't sub either one of them. Landon didn't have many touches. He had a pretty good lobbed pass that went a tad to far, a decent cross into the area, and made some dangerous runs. The whole team however felt that passing the ball was an unnecessary risk and (awesomely) bombed towards the goal. Maybe next time Landon will do the same and recklessly go towards goal. Question for Bayern fans; is Klinsman job in any way threatened?
He didn't play bad, but I don't think Donovan played well either. His touches were off to me, plus it appeared that Borowski yelled at Donovan to play that one pass to him more inside. He looked just alright, he appeared to be nervous at first, but did seem to settle into the game. He was played out of position though, but at the same time, who you going to play that far right? I didn't agree with Klinsi's substitutions. Now with a German Cup and a Bundesliga appearance under his belt, hopefully he gets these jitters out of his system and gets down to being the Landon Donovan we know he can be.
I'm not saying he played poorly, but I don't agree with people saying he played well. He had a couple pretty good touches, a couple pretty bad touches, and a lot of passivity (the latter of which is his biggest flaw in my opinion). I would like to see a replay of his shot at the end. Would have been nice to have seen him do more with it, as it was Bayern's last real chance.
I'm sure that he'll be more reassuring in his next game. This was his first official Bundesliga match since getting back in the league. I'd like to see his teammates trust him a bit more. But that will come with time.
You have to play your position, but you still have to make runs. He was waiting for the ball for most of his time on the field. He needs to take the initiative and attack the game, not wait for others to dictate his game.
Donovan did well in that match. His passes were good in which brought a spark at the end of the match. It's the finishing that cost the match for Bayern. Klose was nowhere in this match. He should been sub off instead of Piggy but I guess Jurgen wanted to play 3 up front (though thoughout the match it seem like LD was playing RM instead up front). Toni was off his target the whole game except for that goal that should have counted.
Early days yet, but as several have commented- the pre-season doesn't mean shite, and never meant shite. Donovan hasn't done much in last 2 games to justify some big transfer. Put me in the camp that says Donovan still looks a little tentative + his teammates still don't fully trust him. But every game's a new chance. Still time. Nothing positive or conclusive. He was ok- nothing that makes you say 'wow'. For those criticizing Klose- Donovan needs to be better/much better than Klose to justify a deal. He can't just break even with him. Klose has a contract, Donovan doesn't. Klose has the more storied BL resume, Donovan doesn't. The onus is on Donovan, not Klose- although both still have to perform middle/long term...Donovan really needs to show well in the short-term too. Now the real fun by Bayern begins. The knives will be out after this one....
I didn't see any bad touches and passiveness is arguable. Not much time to work with either. Clearly an incomplete or positive grade here. Definitely not a negative. On to the Dortmund match...where he will hopefully make Neven Subotic his bitch
he had one pass to Lell (I think it was Lell at RB) who was overlapping go out of bounds, got muscled off the ball once, and Altintop took over his flank after a while he wasn shit, but he wasnt really good either
His first touch was a limp erection pass that got stolen. He completely whiffed on a 5-yerd pass to him which went out of bounds to Hamburg. The key pass, the breakaway to Borofski, he just barely missed on and that too went out of bounds. Those are the kind Landon usually nails. That's the one where Borofski gave him a dastardly look. A good pass there and it's a breakaway for Bayern.
Donovan needs 45+ mins in a game, so that he can play the way we want to see him play, the way we know he can, the way he did in the friendlies.......but i dont see this happenning unless Toni or Klose go down
I guess he was supposed to come on, steal the ball from Toni and Klose, drive 30 yards and score a goal in the first 30 seconds of the game? Sheesh......Totally ridiculous standard to hold the guy to...but it is Landon, I don't know why I would expect better. Good plays: He set up a teammate on his second touch of the game on a tee from the top of the box as he sucked defenders off of him by making a solid run. That guy missed wide. He linked up well a 2nd time in another series where he would have had an MLS secondary assist, but the finishing was poor. He made a great run that a defender practically had to do the splits to get a touch on that would have put him in behind the defense. He practically did the splits and got the faintest of touches...nice play by defense. He sent in another dangerous cross in stoppage time He had another opportunity fall to him on the right when a deflected shot fell his way. It was a relatively tight angle to shoot (but he could have) and he did what he was supposed to do IMHO, hit it hard and low across the box, but a defender got a boot on it first. Plays you can criticize: He played a ball to the outside of his teammate and it rolled narrowly out of play instead of the inside of his teammate. He got muscled off the ball once.... Anything else? Don't get me wrong....LD wasn't Great. But he played fine, seemed to be a little nervous, but came on for what 15 or so minutes, created some dangerous opportunities, but it didn't fall for him.