Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK I realize you made this point sarcastically and that I'm inviting countless mocking replies to this, but I think that's in fact true, in a sense. That entire point of the ritual Landon Donovan does prior to taking his penalty is to calm his mind and gain focus. To take out the screaming fans and remove any doubtful thoughts. People in this thread have mocked Donovan's pre-pk ritual as arrogant, but they are ignorant to it's purpose. It's a common technique taught in sports psychology. It's EXACTLY the same technique used by basketball players at the freethrow line...Jason Kidd says a prayer to his wife and kid and blows a kiss to the rim, Richard Hamilton bounces the ball three times on his right side slightly behind his body, Karl Malone used to repeat something to himself, I think Kobe Bryant says something to himself. All of these behaviors are the same technique- the application of a ritual to clear your mind in the pressure situation and make it just another free throw/pk. The technique is to use the ritual in pressure-free practice situations, so that you can temporarily regain that feeling under competitive pressure situations. Donovan's ritual is he bends down, I think he grabs a blade of grass but I'm not sure, he says something and kisses his right wrist three times, then his left wrist three times (I think he's kissing the tattoos of humming birds he has on his wrist that are a symbol of his relationship with his wife...he said "hummingbirds only have one partner in their life" in an interview). The whole POINT of this ritual is to do the SAME THING. TO REPEAT THE SAME BEHAVIOR...i.e. RITUAL. However, Landon Donovan broke his ritual prior to this penalty kick. He kissed his right hand three times but he doubled the amount of kisses on his left wrist....The ritual is 3 and 3. I've watched it countless times. Do kisses=goals...sadly, no. But , the fact that he broke his ritual is emblematic of the fact that he was under serious pressure....You can see him aggressively kissing his left wrist a second series of times as if to say "COME ON!!"...Thus, clearly LD was not calm and collected like the two Pachuca players before him who flashed smiles at the ref/Joe Cannon. And thus, yes, he kissed his hand too many times because he was under pressure, and he missed the penalty because he was under pressure. Minute 06:16 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Ujn6CkdLg Minute 06:50 to see just how horrid of a tournament-winning penalty it was from a team captain.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK He neg rep'd me too for asking what situations LD has achieved under pressure Profiled, what is wrong with you? This is a "forum", a place for open discussion. Discussion typically involves more than one opinion...it even sometimes involves critiques and debate! If you disagree, you can post it directly in the forum...you don't have to neg rep posters for disagreeing. Aosthed has made numerous thoughtful posts in this thread and there's no reason for you, especially a freak'n Mod, to neg rep him for disagreeing. damn.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK I agree with posters such as EastBayGrease and aosthed (knocking-on-wood as I haven't gotten the neg rep...yet). We are talking only about the missed PK, so there's no need to bring in side stories and other examples and "agendas." I have always liked LD's play and thinks he's currently the best U.S. player (but that's another discussion).
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK You're making fun of my dead dog? Go die in a fire, you filthy piece of shit troll.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK You know, it wasn't the decision to leave BL that was the problem. The problem was the "come to MLS" part. BL was a bad situation at that point in time; getting out was the smart move. As a US fan, I think his career and the USMNT would have been better served if he had tried to go to a French team or a non Big 2 Spanish team. "Off base" is much nicer than I would put it.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK 1. The bathrooms shouldn't have been locked. That wasn't Landon's fault. 2. This is a new twist on "I wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire."
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK No, that's actually an iron law in sports. The hated players are ALWAYS great players. And that's because a certain breed of fans tries to live vicariously through their teams, and judge their failures more harshly than the failures of their families, their friends, and especially themselves. And when the team loses, they react to the star players accordingly.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Now this IS funny. In a thread about Landon missing a PK, a guy holding up Dempsey as a shining example of...something.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Right, this thread is about LD. You claim SL isn't important but you'd dug this deep to discuss it. If you didn't care, you wouldn't bother, unless you are a troll. Yea, keep with the names buddy, that's reinforcement for your argument. Mos def. As said before by someone wiser than I, match facts with your agenda, if not you are wasting your own time.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK This tourney was well followed given its limits. It will grow and become more meaningful. It is not meaningless, except to a few obnoxious, stubborn fans who are getting left behind as society moves foward. LD won't be over this by the weekend. Bet on it. keep saying it, it won't change anything, just prove your stubbornness. I like it. Security in Mexico....none in the USA....what colored glasses are you wearing? To hell with that stadium, he needed to take a leak. Mexicans threw more urine on the field than he naturally passed. Urine in a bag with batteries isn't a natural passing, unless you are a Mexican fan. It is easier to justify LD taking a leak than it is to justify why the fans threw it on their 'sacred' field. It is only funny that you try these absurd arguments. Beasley didn't cause an outrage for the same incident. Amazing the color of theses glasses that feverantly dog LD. Actually, he was on one knee. The missed PK isn't the greatest memory or most defining moment, but he isn't forgetting about it next week. neither is BS I'm sure. to quote, he panicked.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK OK everybody is talking about LD's missing PK but, what about Abel miss?What about Vagenas own goal? Every soccer player can miss a penalty ( cf. Beckham in last world cup) and a lot more. About his ritual? He explained it in an article, he does it just to be more relaxed. Why all these hate? Let the guy play.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK I didn't have to "dig so deep." I'm here to tell everyone that thinks Donovan's pk miss somehow sums up his career to relax. I'm not on the superliga thread, I'm in a Donovan thread.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK I don't think anyone is arguing that the missed pk "sums up his career". The phrase that was used in the original post of this thread and throughout is "a defining moment", as in, "one of many defining moments", as opposed to, "the defining moment". IMO, the moments that define the trajectory of Landon's career are Winning 2001 MLS Cup. Turning around SJ Clash/Quakes losing history(+) Performance in 2002 WC (+) Hiding from the ball in Leverkusen's CL match/Leaving Leverkusen (-) Poor 2006 WC performance (-) Missed championship-winning PK in Superliga final (-) * I excluded Landon's 2003 and 2005 MLS Cup's because by this point Landon's athletic ability and talent level is far above and beyond that of the league. For the record, I'm a big Donovan fan. This thread is merely to point out one of his limiting qualities...he seems to be shaken by significant pressure. He's an amazing athelete and a smart soccer player and I'm damn happy he was born in the USA. But he lacks competitive hunger, and thus, the desire to have the ball in pressure situations. The reason MJ, Magic, etc. want the ball under pressure is because they want to win so bad they can't stand the idea of a teammate taking that last shot.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Ah...the urine bag incident..., do you know that "Soccer America Magazine" already called this a myth ?, probably some tourist got some beer thown at him, and the story was blown out of proportion. And if some proof was necessary, the original story was "only" urine, now the contents are being upgraded to "urine AND Feces"... And this coming from a Landon hater, get a life guys; he missed the PK, big deal, I cant even remember the name of the french players who missed PK's at the world cup. and the "Super Liga" is just a mickey mouse tournament. to call the incident "a difining moment" is a joke.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK And, as I've said before, that's the biggest reason why a healthy Beckham is crucial to the Galaxy's success... he keeps Vagenas off the field.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Try This or this. Of course it won't be a defining moment in his career. Even if he scored a 2 goals and the winning penalty it would still have been a meaningless competition with an abject team facing an opponent gearing up in preseason.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK I think he gets too caught up in his pre-penalty ritual and doesn't have the focus he needs. I mean come on he's never been good at taking penalty kicks but he's always assigned to take them. He must be decent in practice when he isn't kissing himself before taking them. Eyes on the prize Landy, and the prize isn't your friggin hands.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Yup, his OCD got in his way. He was too busy counting how many times he kissed and licked his fingers to concentrate on the PK...lol
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK You're right, my bad - I'll add one now. I generally figure that a thread started more than 12 hours after the end of a game is pretty open for discussion, and so never thought anything of this one. I am more concerned with the mean spirited nature of the thread.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Again, this thread is implicating that the missed pk is defining of landon's inability to handle pressure, which, is very pertinent to his career. Again, he didn't just get his pk blocked, he panicked under the spotlight and hit a horrible spot kick. No one is arguing that the PK was how Landon will be remembered. However, looking at the trajectory of LD's career as he's been handed more responsibilty on the field, IMO, that missed pk was symbolic.
Re: Landon Donovan's missed PK Adding an [R] does nothing when the title of the thread gives something away.