Donovan is one of the builders, who pushed for a system where MLS is the main column. He must be pissed at Klinsmann, who has dismissed the MLS as "not competitive" and the MLS players as "not fit enough," while on the other hand telling them to go to Europe, where they're no longer wanted after what JK has been saying.
I hope Landon gets to coaching our grown players. We honestly need someone with his mental skills at soccer helping coach. Vision is so crucial.
Sup people! So I was able to find a stream for the GB VS WORLD game. Landon is on the bench. The world team looks slow and out of shape. GB team looks pretty lively. Beckham looking pretty good.
Well that was a fun game. Beckham looking like a spring chicken with 2 MLS secondary assists and Landon looking like Landon, with an assist to Dwight Yorke.
The game is still ongoing. It's on BeInSports, if you have it. Michael Owen has just scored. Landon Donovan is wearing #23 and looks pretty good.
I miss David and Landon. Highlight time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=181&v=-ZT-ZlJhpFE
Damn! This was on today!?!?! I would have DVRed it. Off to watch the highlights. A big thank you to those who put the highlights up. EDIT: His assist was gorgeous. Sneaky suspicion that even with a year off he could run circles around several of our current national team players. His creativity and vision make me want to cry versus what we saw on the field on Friday.
Just watched it. First it was just fun watching legends play and having a good time. Also, the competitive spirit bit many of these gentlemen as it wasn't a complete layabout game. My original thought on LD was right - he could run circles around several of our current players. My favorite was watching him toast Neville multiple times. Because he was one of the youngest on the pitch, his speed was fun to watch (and the counters he helped spring). But most of all, he was involved in the majority of chances his team created. I hate you JK for 2014.
This may seem a little crass... but I was cleaning up some stuff on my blog this morning and came across something I wrote four years ago about Donovan. I thought some folks might find it interesting in a nostalgic sort of way: http://danhaug.net/2011/11/25/the-usas-best-soccer-player-ever/ It's actually amazing how Donovan's controversial legend has grown since 2011.
Interesting. I finally watched the Landon Donovan/Don Garber interview. It was excellent. Good questions, good answers. Not a typical interview by any many means. I've learned quite a bit about the "behind the scenes" things that go on in running a league.
Donovan comments on Wambach's comments: http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2015/...e-sides-abby-wambachs-remark-about-foreign-us It's hard to tell what he's really getting at here, or where his comments came in a discussion. I'm disappointed that he seems to be supporting Wambach's slightly xenophobic comments, but If you read the whole article, it may be that he did not intend the comments in that manner. In my mind the issue is not bringing in guys like Jones and Johnson, but essentially bribing players like Julien Green with roster spots.
Donovan's position is logical and consistent with what he has stood for his whole career: "It’s nothing against them. I mean, Fabian Johnson is as good of a player as there is, maybe in the Bundesliga right now, and I love him and he’s a nice kid. I love Jermaine [Jones]…and they’re good teammates, I like having them on the team. But if we had a team full of players like that, it just wouldn’t feel the same as if we developed a team that then went on and won a World Cup." Exactly. Because they have not been developed by our system. Patching things up with players developed somewhere else is just short-term thinking. Specially when we have players just as good at home (the cases of Chandler, Green, Mix, perhaps even Johannsson). It's realistic that, if you're all in for the USA developing as a soccer nation, you're not going to be happy if players developed abroad are given first pick over equivalent guys developed at home. And that's what JK has been doing. That is detrimental to what people like Donovan have been trying to do.