Bob Bradley's decision to shift Landon Donovan to a winger role proved to be a good one, and coupled with him entering his prime, led to some insanely productive years from the USMNT GOAT between 2007-2011, with him carrying the team. When I think back to the Bob Bradley era, outside of left back, I thought our central midfield was our achilles heel on the squad (right after with LB, obviously). Michael Bradley was still very young, and our other CMs in rotation during Bradley's 4 years in charge were Ricardo Clark (who was phased out in 2011), a young Maurice Edu, a young Benny Feilhaber, a young Sacha Kljestan, and a young Jose Torres (who was never that good). The 2007-2010 cycle was the 2nd weakest CM pool we've had in modern USMNT history aside from the 2015-2018 cycle. Think about how much more dangerous our squad and Landon Donovan might have been if he was on the receiving end of more incisive through balls from more elite central midfielders. Can you imagine a Weston McKennie or Yunus Musah pinging through balls to Donovan?
And what do you know? We have some relevant recent Landon Donovan news in the Landon Donovan N&A thread. Clap emoji.
Donovan played all over the attack. He spent a lot of time as a second striker and an attacking midfielder in the center. He has one of the craziest position listings on Transfermarkt that I've seen. It lists his positions as Centre-Forward, Right Winger, Second Striker, Left Winger, Attacking Midfield, Right Midfield, Left Midfield, Central Midfield. https://www.transfermarkt.us/landon-donovan/leistungsdaten/spieler/68
Little known fact: as of this past June, Donovan had more NT assists than anyone who has ever played the game. Anyone. It's probably been surpassed. So, he's in the top 3 all-time international assists.
I've always assumed that's because they didn't track assists until the aughts. I'd be stunned if that's actually true, otoh, he played an absolute ton of internationals.
He also is back into coaching as the interim coach of the San Diego Wave. And said he’s had multiple offers to coach MLS teams which he’s turned down. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5710888/2024/08/19/landon-donovan-nwsl-san-diego-wave-coach/
Yes, I believe Neymar passed him up. I think Opta has gone back to the 90s with their stats but before that it’s going to be spotty/anecdotal.
LD is still the first ever go have 50+ goals and 50+ assists for their national team... he's since been joined by a couple other guys who are pretty well known
and I'm sure there were a lot more assists to be had back in those days. But, 2nd most assists since the 90's is pretty good.
No. He often played as a withdrawn forward under Bruce Arena's 4-4-2. He played as a forward early in Bob Bradley's tenure as well, including in the 2007 Gold Cup.
Yeah, there was a lot of debate back then about where his best spot was, which missed the point. Basically, put him in the team’s weakest attacking position, now that’s the best attacking position. Force multiplier? First time I’ve used that term hope it’s right just go with it.
As has been said, he's played all over. Maybe his most iconic position was as a wide mid in Bob's Empty Bucket. He and Demps played wide, with two forwards that didn't score a lot (I mean, Jozy was there, but ...). The forwards were almost dual-9's that would lay the ball off to Demps or Dono on an overlap. Meant that Demps and Dono didn't combine much - which is a weird decision, but it worked. The big bummer to me is that when Donovan and Beasley were positioned where they could work together, they were kind of magic. But, Beas was hurt a lot, and Bradley some managers didn't position them together so we didn't see that neeeearrrrrly enough through their careers.
That's what Donovan PREFERRED to do.........................in his prime years with the USMNT anyway. Withdrawn forward or an advanced position in central midfield behind the McBride and Eddie Johnon types. July 2002: Donovan- “If I had my absolute choice, it probably would be up front or underneath a target forward, but I am happy to be anywhere.” December 2005: Donovan- "I think we know Brian's going to be playing up front. If Eddie can get back and be [at the level] where he was, I can play in the midfield. They do all the battling, all the running and I just find them and feed them and that's nice. On the national team it's just more fun to play behind those two. With those two ahead of me, it's a lot of fun to play in the midfield with Bease. I think that would help us a lot. Otherwise, I have to go upfront and battle with the big boys." February 2006: Donovan- “It’s a lot harder to play up top at this level. It’s more physical, not that I don’t fancy my chances. It’s a different game. I feel a lot more comfortable playing behind two good front-runners. I think it helps me.”
Yes and no. He played as a forward, but was almost always on the right side of the field (same as he played with the Quakes). In the end, it's probably just semantics.
Not to be argumentative, but kind of different roles. With the national team under Bruce Arena (including games 1 and 2 a the 2006 World Cup) and in 2007 under Bob Bradley, Donovan most often lined up as a withdrawn forward or central attacking midfielder in a 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1 to be exact). It was a different role than when Bradley eventually moved him to a right winger, which actually didn't happen until 2009 (coinciding with DaMarcus Beasley's injury/form decline and the emergence of Jozy Altidore initially as a partner to Brian Ching, and eventually Charlie Davies as a partner to Altidore). The 2009 Confederations Cup is when Bradley also started experimenting with shifting Clint Dempsey to a forward role in the 2nd half of matches (often inserting Benny Feilhaber off the bench as a pinched-in left sided midfielder) I double checked our starting line-ups in every 2007 Gold Cup and 2008 WCQ match - by my check, Donovan lined up as a withdrawn forward (not a winger) in every match in which he played during that period.