Howard, Donovan: Everton vs Birmingham 1/23 10 a.m. EST

There's come to be a bit of an expectation among most of us that Landon must do it all. If he doesn't do it all, something's wrong.

 

Because in certain sitautions it will make his team better, if he ends up scoring. If he shoots when he has an open lane, the probablilty is more likely that he will score than him passing backwards or to anothe rplayer that has a less probability to score when the lane starts to close down from on rushing defenders. Think Donovan's backpass to Olsen vs Ghana in the World Cup.


by the way the best term to use for what LD needs is SWAGGER.

 

Ahahaha... LMAO.

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva]

Werd up! Son. yo LD ya need uh urban attitude
'coz ya'll is mad stupid. [/FONT]

 

I usually am successful in ignoring your overly simplistic sociological analysis. But you really do traffic in this stuff. Sure I, too, hope soccer takes off in the inner cities in the US and elsewhere. Not because I think the inner cities will provide the future pele's but because I simply want soccer to be more popular.

Dempsey's development as a soccer player was hardly confined to one milieu. There are examples of players of privilege and players from poor backgrounds across sports who have this killer instinct. Larry Bird was a rural kid and had it in spades. Jordan had a middle class upbringing....Kobe was a child of privilege. Lampard as well. I am sure we could unnearth myriad examples of indecisive and weak willed athletes from urban environs as well. I am not sure what it would tell us.

I live in the Essex County NJ megalopolis that contains affluence as well as poverty and see kids and adults of all stripes converge on the local park(s) for pick up games and its really great. Is it "urban" or "Suburban" or "exurban"? I dont know. But its nice to see.

 

Exactly that's not about attitudes or being selfish it's having a decent brain for the game. If you can assess that you'll get a decent shot away and there's no other avenue open to you that presents a better opportunity and then carry it out, that's a great asset to have. It's nothing about attitudes or where someone's brought up, it's about having a good brain and body for the game.

 

you were speaking in code words. we have the decoder ring.

 

He managed to provoke me to a yellow card when I reacted badly to one of his disgusting sexual slurs against Donovan.

 

Did he have swagger against Man City when he looked off open teammates and took the left footed shot on goal? or when he tried to chip Given instead of droping the ball back on the 6? Or when he did the same today w/r/t Hart instead of dropping the header back? Did he have it scoring the goal of the year against Brazil or putting a pk past arguably the best keep in the world [Buffon]?

What is swagger? I see a guy trying to fit in to a new team and striking a balance between playing conservative and smart with taking the occasional chance. I think some US Fans [myself included] deep down want our best player of all time to shine in the best league in the world and to be dominant. When he does not dominate we tend to see it as a disappointment. Then instead of saying ok, two good games and one ok game, nice start we go overboard with the criticism. IMHO, Donovan's touch and decisionmaking looked a little shaky in the first half. As the game went on, I felt like he did well and made good decisions. Sure, Neville chose to whip the ball into the middle a few times when I wouldve liked for him to pass to Donovan. But I supposed Phil Neville has earned the righ to make those decisions.

That Donovan seems to want to be involved in every pre free kick strategy session and that he immediately assumed corner kick responsibilities as a loanee has to reflect some of this swagger you speak of.

 

You do go on about Dempsey comparisons. And yes, Dempsey has developed into a fine player.

But how much did Dempsey impose himself in his third game in the EPL?

I don't know. I don't remember. But I don't think he even started in his first 3 Premiership games. (I could be wrong, but I think I'm not.)

You need some perspective.

 

Well see.

Its called having a swagger when you play. Its recognized as an Urban distinction, because most players do grow up with a swagger in Urban evironments, but its not restricted to just Urban environments.

I mentioned i hope inner-city soccer picks up because your more likely to find Dempsey's from Urban environments than Suburban. But some people who do grow up in the suburbs have that swagger.

 

Was Stuart Holden showing urban swagger in the Olympics when he "selfishly" kept the ball against Holland instead of passing to a wide open Sacha for an easy goal? I just want to be clear. Was it urban swagger when Jordan dumped the ball off to a wide open Paxson for the win in the finals vs. Phoenix?

 

So you want Donovan to be an arrogant sob that acts like he's better than everybody? As a loanee? As a new guy?

 

I have rarley ever criticized Donovan, only recenlty.

If fact you can go into my post history and you will rarley see a negative comment before late 2009.

But, at this point i thought he would be more hungry when he plays, like Dempsey. We will see.

 

so wait, a trailer park in nacodoches, texas...is an urban environment? Redlands, California is not.

 

And well look at where Dempsey is now... In danger of not going to the world cup because of an injury.... The guy that takes on everyone and isn't afraid of anything. The guy with swagger....

 

Just made it inside the 10 pages marker. I didnt watch the game, but I think LD was terrible and will be back to MLS Pronto

 

Wow, please stop. Holden was not in a greater position to score compared to his teammate same with Jordan. Thats being an extremely selfish person what Holden did. Donovan passes up his open chances for other less probability chances. Every player needs a little selfishness in him.

Thats all.

Lets not pretend.

 

Sure that's why Juan Pablo Angel won MLS goal of the year for 2009 and not Landon....

O wait.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax8aCezeHwk"]YouTube- MLS Goal Of The Year 2009: Landon Donovan[/ame]

 

Injurys happens all the time. Lets not act foolish here.

 

WTF is going on here?

 

Whether a player is in a better scoring position than another is a judgment (more often than not subjective) that is far easier to make (e.g. to see) from one's couch than from the field. So you see Donovan dumping to Pienaar as evidence of Donovan's lack of swagger, though from Donovan's vantage point Pienaar [or Olsen for that matter] mightve been better positioned. It seems equally as plausible that Donovan's error [to the extent that he erred] was one of field vision rather than some character weakness [swagger deficiency syndrome]. Others see the character deficiency I guess. Suburbs. End of threadjack for me.

 

1) This is MLS



2) The point is, for the first time ever, im 100% expecting LD to produce, get hungry and earn that club contract extension. Well see if he does in the next two months. Hes labled as the Best American player ever. Her should be expected to make it happen at Everton.

 

Just got off the phone with Landon.

He wants me to let everyone know he's fine and not suicidal.

Hopes everyone watches next week.

 

1. It's still the same Landon that took that shot. The uswaggerless, no hunger, weak, scarred, little, bald man that you seem to see.. ( I might have added few things)

2.

Are you Landon Donovan? Do you know what HE wants?

 

Holy cow, posters in the past continually post how Donovan is tentative and not hungry enough when he becomes a small fish in a big pond.

Lets not go overboard when someone says he needs to get a swagger when he plays in a big pond.