USA is creating dangerous players. Their good organized football is seemingly developing. They work hard & together as a "TEAM". Many national teams are organized. Now the USA is benefiting from Dangerous players...Donovan, Mathis, Beasely, Wolff,....and rumors are they are creating more at the younger levels.(Eskandarian, among others) They have "difference makers" in goal with Friedel/Keller. They have definitive contributors in Brian McBride and Ajax's John Obrien. But, Landon Donovan's goal this weekend against Venezuela, was a display of individual danger that more players are bringing to the game from the U.S. Nats. Donovan received a normal posession pass from a teamate at about the midfield stripe, received the ball turning inside simultaneously to avoid the first immediate defender. While prusued by that first defender, A suden burst of speed with the ball, carried the USA striker, directly into the path of an on rushing, full-body slide tackle from a venezuelan defender. This was no surprise to Donovan who deftly chip the ball about waist high over the sliding defender, while still pursued by others he carried the ball the remaining length of the field. He had penetrated the defense on a skillful, athletic solo effort. Facing the goal keeper and the three late, back tracking defenders racing in vain to get to him....HE SCORED! Firmly, with difinitive composure befitting such a class run, curled into the lower right corner around the Keeper. This was a critical goal at a critical moment, shifting momentum of the game further towards a USA win. The USA is giving their team over to young players because the young players are simply better, fearless and more dangerous to oponents than the older limited, established pros. There is an acceleration of football knowledge in their younger players. Americas young players don't masquerade, they don't play alibi-soccer trying not to make a mistake. They play football, no age limit! Some day in the near future the USA will field a group of special players with the ability to change games. It is simply inspiring to watch the game advance. Top teams don't have to worry too much as yet. But be warned, they are someday coming for the trophy you want.
i'm not taking anything away from Landon. unlike everyone else on the US who took a shot during the game, he cleanly put the bisquit in the basket. but, let's not go overboard. his initial touch was decent, and he showed a nice burst of speed, but Venezuela was hardly playing defense. the right back (i think it was #2) stopped chasing and made no effort to challenge, leaving Landon with unlimited time. again, i'm glad he kept his composure on an uncontested breakaway and that he didn't miss his shot from 8-12 yards out. But frankly i expect that from our national team players.
give him a bit more credit.Is is always easy to say the defense sucked when someone scores a great goal. Venezuela defense did not suck for most of the game. It was an excellent goal, one of the best individual goals from the US I have ever seen- and I have been watching a long time.
Yeah, I think you are taking something away from LD's goal. Why did the right back stop chasing? He gave up, no way he can catch LD. Do you think he'd have stopped chasing, oh, I don't know, Kirovski?? Doubt it. You say you'd expect that from our national team players. Funny how no one else did it but Donovan. Why not give the kid credit when credit is due?
I give him credit and will repeat it was a GREAT GOAL! But let's not say he was running at supersonic speed, he was at a speed were he could have been challenged or tackled by Vallenilla... but Vallenilla just jogged a long... in a qualifying game, or a game with importance, you would have seen hime chase Donovan as much as his body could, maybe unsucsessfully, but at least he would have tried.... He is a great young player... but he's not Maradona or Pele...
http://www.richardefidler.com/usasoccerclips/ Bookmark it, it's a great help. I've downloaded a bunch of them.
That was a world class goal. Some other U.S. players need to learn how to be under control as well. Also, Stewart did a good job in the second half when he came on, the U.S. still needs his leadership.
Nothing funny about it at all. The performance of many others was actually quite sad. Indeed, as I noted in my initial post, Landon was the only one to make a clean shot in this game. I expect Landon to do what he did, and expect a lot more from others as well. If you ever want us to win a world cup, you'd raise your expectations too. Let me also be clear, I didn't make my initial post to knock Landon. He did everything he needed to do on this play. That's all we can ask of him. But to call this a great goal, I just think that's going too far. Other than his push past the second defender and his burst of speed, he just dribbled into the penalty area and beat the goalie without any pressure. Again, I'd expect that. Of course, had the right back tried to challenge him, Landon might still have have broken away from him and scored a truly great goal. But, we'll never know now, will we? It was a decent goal, in a friendly against a team that hasn't been to the world cup in years, with the last defender giving up and going at half-speed at best. Nothing more, nothing less. I'll take it. But I'm not going to celebrate.
I think it's a measure of how far Donovan has come that we now expect goals like this from him. His effort is appreciated, certainly, but we're no longer in surprise and awe. (Or should I say, "shock and awe"?) It was a good goal - we hope to see many more, Lanny!
thank you, seemed like a goal created by great speed. Solid finish, like there was no pressure. You'd think the South Americans would have done some research and find out that Donovan is a blazer.
Van Nistelroy's similar run and goal a couple of weeks ago was world class. LD's was very good but not quite world class (through no fault of his). The Venezuela defense was quite comical on that play. The sliding tackle by the center back was weird. When I first saw it, I thought he slipped. From the replay, I don't think he slipped. He just missed the ball and LD by about 2 yards. It was almost like he deliberately got out of LD's way.
Nobody here would claim he was...if you have been paying attention, Freddy Adu is the next Maradona or Pele.
Really? I thought the defense on Ruud's goal was quite comical, the way they just let him run around them. I don't care what league they play in, or how far from goal that play started, but it just wasn't the goal it was cracked up to be. I'm not going to argue what "world class" is, or the quality of defense each player faced, because it doesn't change the fact that the first 3 touches by LD were brilliant. He adapted to how the defense played him, and did it in style. Golazo.
Just bookmarked it, too. I wonder why I never bookmarked it sooner. Probably because with dial-up, it's a given that downloading times are slower. Just had DSL/broadband installed this morning, and it makes an incredible difference. World-class goal by Donovan. Beat those first two defenders with ease, and had no trouble clearing the third. And what a cool finish! Sticking with the premise, players being developed within the USA just keep getting better and better. And no one can sell short the role MLS has played in the development of many of our younger players, and that includes Donovan's case, too, although he had most of the package already before he came to San Jose. Golazo, indeed!
Regardless what you think of the quality of the defense, remember that it was just a few short years ago our best breakaways were defined as Cobi Jones running on to a long ball, taking one desparate touch and usually not being able to put the ball on the frame. And he was the best we had. Let's just take a moment and enjoy having a player that can consistently beat the keeper. Even if the defense had eventually shut him down, Landon's touches and decisions based on what he saw were excellent. That is all you can ask. Enough of the criticism...
What criticism? I see, you mean criticism of the Venezuelan defense! I thought we (the posters on this thread) all thought that LD's goal was from good to world class.
If BigSoccer had existed in 30 A.D.: "I'm not trying to knock this guy from Nazareth or anything, but I don't know, did you taste that wine he made? It seemed a bit dry."
Yes, the first three touches made all the difference. If this goal illustrates that young Landon is learning how to play with his back to the goal, and turn an unsuspecting defender, this addition to his bag of tricks is big news indeed.
I'm not a personal fan of his, but the up and coming Taylor Twellman of new england looks like he has the same kind of "difference making" abilities that Donovan has. These two are the kinds of kids that wait until the opposition is getting ready to assume that they've won... and then Twellman/ Donovan strike hard. It's painful to be rooting against them in MLS games, because the outcome of the game is up to them until the final seconds of stoppage time are done.