Since we have no new games, I am watching old ones and they have sparked some thoughts. 2002 US/Germany. I just saw the whole thing for the first time in 18 years. It was better than I remembered. What a contrast from that rear guard action against Belgium in 2014. The USA was taking it to an eventual finalist. 20 year old Donovan had Germany's full attention and should have been through in about the second minute but for a bad offsides call. He was super dangerous and drew a couple of good saves from Kahn. Also weird that the US announcers were on Frings's side on the handball. Friedel didn't have much to do, once again, what a contrast to 2014. 2016 MLS Eastern Conference Final Jozy was great but that isn't the part that got me thinking. Freshly appointed Bruce and Sunil were at the game, watching Morrow raise hell as a LWB and Bradley play with another deep CM (Will Johnson) but somehow neither of those two things seemed to make it onto the field for the USMNT in the Hex.
USA v Costa Rica October 14, 2009 The WCQ game after the Charlie Davies crash. Injuries really hurt the team that went on to win the group in 2010. Davies career essentially ended as a part time starter after only 17 starts. Stu Holden started this game for Dempsey. He didn’t make the squad. Gooch hurt in the 83rd and never was the same. Keylor Navas was 22 and good. Bornstein was great. I didn’t remember him playing so well. The offense ran through 19 year old Jozy to a surprising degree. Casey was the but the ball kept going to the kid. Connor Casey had a comedy miss at 8:50 of the first. Landon Donovan was so fun to watch. Jozy nodded a ball to Landon and he sombreroed a tico at full speed at 36:40 and avoided the foul, but skied the shot.
You should go back and watch Belgium 2014. The game was nothing like you remember. Not sure why you bring up Donovan. He looked in over his head for most of the game. There were many other american players that led the team that day. Reyna was an absolute beast that day.
I’ll see if I can find 2014 in full. I don’t know how you grade Donovan as over his head in 2002 He was arguably the most dangerous American attacker on the day,
Yikes! The myth of the legend continues. Making runs, doesnt make an attacker dangerous. I didnt say he was necessarily bad, but looked like 20 year old at his first world cup. I havent watched the game in a couple years, but my recollection was that he was often hesitant and never created in real dangerous chances. You will need to sign up... https://footballia.net/matches/belgium-united-states
As i said, i hadn't seen it in 18 years and it was a pleasant surprise to see the US actually attacking Germany, Landon was probably better than you remember. Watch it again.
I think if you look at Landon Donovan’s body of work in the five games he played: He scored two goals, forced an own goal, had a goal overturned, and had a hockey assist on another...nearly had one of the goals of the tournament in a quarterfinal against Germany and was only denied by a great save from the world’s best goalkeeper. Landon was frustrated with himself for not having scored that day when he felt he should have. He had two very clear opportunities. Reyna and Pablo played particularly well that day. It would be very difficult to find many other examples in the history of international soccer where a 20-year-old had such a dramatic impact on his team’s attacking play at such an important tournament. I mean Mbappé two years ago was 19...
The finishing definitely could have been better I always give a foward credit for getting into spots to have chances
I thought we were just talking about the germany game. He made some basic runs where his speed was exploited. There were no great saves and doesnt matter who made it. His influence after 30 minutes was pretty non-existent. That doesnt change he had a good tournament in an ideal situation as a role player. Mbappe, Mueller, Podolski, and Owen all did more for better teams. I am sure there are quite few more that could be found with a little effort.
I’ll give you Mbappé for sure, he won a World Cup and is his way to multiple Balon D’Ors. The Germans Podolski and Müller were fantastic, particularly Podolski although he really was transcendent in 2010 four years later. And Müller won a Golden Boot. Hard to argue. Michael Owen scored one of my favorite goals of all time. But he hardly played outside of the Argentina defeat in that World Cup. 2014 I can’t really think of anyone who was exceptional. Memphis Depay? Pogba? Christiano Ronaldo was 19 and took Portugal to the 2004 final at home. That’s one. The best young player in the 2002 World Cup was on our team and he was a total roll player you’re right. A team that had Reyna, O’Brien, McBride, Friedel. Mathis. Sanneh playing out of his mind. That team out-played Germany, clear to the eye. We would have had South Korea next up. Pablo Mastroeni was passing around and through Hamman, Zeige and Frings. The only other time I’ve felt that proud and devastated after a loss was 1994 against Brazil. You don’t think Oliver Kahn’s save on Donovan was a great save? A foot off the ground at full extension on a curling ball that would have hit side netting?
I think it is a save that any professional goal keeper would be expected to make. The ball wasnt hit with any pace on it which is why Khan was able to comfortably make the save.
See Kicker's post-game summary: https://www.kicker.de/562245/analyse/deutschland/usa-941 Kahn (1), Reyna (2), and Donovan (2.5) were Kicker's three highest rated players that day. Kahn received a perfect score (1), which is very rare for Kicker to hand out. That is essentially consistent with almost all the major match reports I've seen from that game. Here's a typical example from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/matches_wallchart/germany_v_usa/default.stm The USA dominated large chunks of the first-half and Oliver Kahn pulled off a series of world-class saves to keep his team on level terms. . . . Donovan was particularly threatening and broke down the left after 17 minutes before forcing a brilliant save from the superlative Kahn.
I just watched the game and all that sounds like a bunch of hyperbole.... with the exception of the rating of Reyna. One of the best performances of USMNT player ever!!! I'd love to see an all touches video of LD next to this one of Reyna.
I have never seen such obvious bias. Oliver Khan had such an amazing tournament he won the Golden Ball in 2002 as its thought he almost single-handedly carried Germany to the final, one of the best GKing performances of all time. His save on Donovan's left-footed shot is considered one of the best of his tournament (THE best according to this list)
Fully-extended fingertip save in a quarterfinal is a bit better than routine. Had that went in the commentators probably would've said Kahn "had no chance."
Didn't want to start a new thread vut did want to know if anyone watched the U.S.A. vs Jamaica WCQ from October 7th 2001 that our Fed website streamed tonight? The date our boys solidified qualification for Japorea2002. The match was old Foxboro Stadium and Sam's Army in red n songs were terrific that day! A month after 9/11 and our people suffering still. A bit of joy when our National Team was still a blip on the sports radar of our culture. Reyna and Joe Max Moore played well that day. So did John O'Brien and Tony Sanneh! Donovan finally started at 19 and showed what we would witness just months later at the World Cup. Reggae Boyz were stout opponents back then if one recalls. Just good memories of qualification when our world had been turned upside down. 19 years on and here we all are in a similar situation of people dying and sports is a place to go to to unify and celebrate our nation Our flag.
I was in college and soooo mad that the game got bumped for war coverage, lol. Me and my buddies drove to a local Greek sandwich shop and caught the second half on Univision.
Thanks for the heads up. I just rewatched the Jamaica game. (I think I was actually at that game, but I didn't really remember anything about it, other than the fact that my favorite player at the time scored both goals.) Main thing that stood out to me was just how awful the officiating was. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think CONCACAF referees have actually improved a lot since then. That crew looked like complete amateurs out there, just constantly blowing basic calls and allowing the physical play to get out of hand. Also, I kind of forgot that for a team that included such skilled players such as Donovan, Reyna, and JOB (who all played well, and JOB actually surprised me by dribbling past players more than I remembered), that really wasn't the prettiest team to watch. Maybe the CONCACAF officiating played some part in that. Much of that probably also had to do with the consistent presence of guys like Chris Armas (or Richie Williams earlier) who were definitely not in the lineup for their ability on the ball. But even the more technically competent guys were playing the ball into 50/50 situations much more than I was expecting, where the main goal was to win the second ball or capitalize on a defensive lapse rather than break down the defense with skill or precision. Nothing wrong with that, but I think that Germany '02 clip from earlier in this thread kind of obscures the reality for most of that cycle/era.
I was honestly surprised to see them taking it to Germany after having watched WCQ and the group games.
Look at this blast from the past. Eddie scored some big ones. The fact that he had to play the hero against Antigua & Barbuda in 2012 is why I don't sniff at goals against minnows. In the books it's a yawn for 2 against a minnow. In real life, we were trying to get in the Hex and demolition man came through in injury time.
All those poor, sad people who were impressed by what happened on the field in front of them didn't have the hindsight to know that Landon would have the nerve to get sick after playing 100 plus USMNT games and to be off for the time it takes a hamstring to heal. If they knew that, they would know that those saves were easy pickings.
One thing to notice on that era of our National Team is the movement off the ball and the runs made for each other, the passing was more on the deck and to the feet. Jamaica made it tough that day with their classic kick n run attack and kick anything that moves defense but our modern era boys could use some reminding of just keep it simple. Pass to what you see and hustle off the ball, open the field up. It was what Bruce would look to do against Portugal right off the bat at the World Cup. And the entire planet witnessed that day what happens when a decent Yank XI opens up their higher ranked opposition with pace and direct play. I mean our boys stepped on Figo and his Portugal buddies collective thoat! Had dem boys down 3-0 after 25 minutes! If it wasn't for Jeff Agoof who knows how that game finishes. I hear ya on that! I almost threw my TV outta the window when ABC dropped the coverage of the game for the start of the Afghan War. Which is still going on! After calming down I switched over to Univision, in Houston we have always had the local Latino TV stations, back in the 80's even so that was a huge relief but here in Houston Univison had the Mexico game on, or was it the Hondurans finding a way to lose to Trinidad after hitting the posts around 40 times that same day! Ha! Cost their greatest generation a trip to the mundial that loss. I do recall when Andres Cantor was calling the match and the result for our guys came in against Jamaica and he stated in his voice, Estados Unidos ha ganado hoy contra Los Reggae Boyz...Los Estados Unidos ya ha qualificado para el mundial. I went nuts! ABC did eventually play the match in its enterity later on, and watching the replay last night, took me right back to that day in a way that many of these rewind games have not. I chalk it up to the emotions we all probably had there after the attacks on 9/11 and then our U.S.A. boys come up good on the day. Our entire team and coaching staff and trainers went over to Sam's Army and the supporters and just celebrated together. What a terrific memory! Great seeing that again last night!
LD missed multiple excellent chances, which honestly reminds me very much of Pulisic, who, at the same age as LD, often struggles to finish consistently. We dominated that game, but Germany capitalized on a decent chance and an incorrect non-call on the handball.