U.S. Men’s National Team v. Scotland in Jacksonville, FL, 5.26.12: Take that, Clint!

The U.S. men’s national soccer team opened up an industrial-sized can of whup-ass on Scotland tonight, and Landon Donovan wielded the pressed-metal serving spoon. Donovan demonstrated his quality time and again in this game, scoring a hat trick, assisting on another goal, helping set up a fifth with a hockey assist, and for good measure hitting the far post on a skillful run and left-footed shot. His teammates Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley each scored a goal (the latter off a magnificent strike from distance) and had a hand in the others, but their stellar performances were but footnotes to Donovan’s game.

That game is particularly notable, coming as it did just a few days after an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, in which Donovan talked in general terms about the subject of fading athletic desire and effectiveness. The interview included the following quote from Donovan: “I think all players reach a point in their career where it's natural to lose some of that hunger, that desire, to sort of break out or be a star. My mindset now is I want to be successful, and I realize now that as I'm getting older I'm not going to be the guy who's scoring goals every game or making a great impact all the time.” He went out against Scotland and proved to others and to himself that he needn’t yet put himself into the category of David Robinson during his final years with the Spurs or Bill Walton with the Celtics.

Donovan also proved to Clint Dempsey that he (Donovan) is not yet ready to be put out to pasture. Dempsey, who some feel may have already surpassed Donovan as the U.S.’s greatest outfield player, watched from the stands tonight due to a groin injury. Given Dempsey’s unslaked, naked desire to be the best, I wonder if he viewed Donovan’s performance with some mixed feelings. Probably not, as the two seem to genuinely admire each other, and comparisons between them are probably just as meaningless as they are inevitable. But for the moment, let’s compare some international numbers. Donovan is the all-time leader in U.S. men’s national team goals, his three tonight giving him 49 in 139 appearances (or a goal every 2.8 games). Dempsey is fourth on the list with 25 goals in 83 appearances (or a goal every 3.3 games). Donovan is also the all-time leading U.S. assist leader with 48. No other U.S. international is even close; Cobi Jones is second with 22 assists, and Dempsey, at 10 assists, is tied for eleventh with four other players.

So those who take Donovan’s side in the Donovan v. Dempsey debate can feel some measure of satisfaction tonight. Those who are a little weary of that debate, or non-debate, are probably the mentally healthier lot, and I’d like to think I’m among them. But it would probably be naïve to think that Donovan and Dempsey aren’t aware of the legacies they’re building and of how posterity will view them viz. each other. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they have a desire to outstrip the other player while also admiring and liking him. This is what is commonly called healthy competition, which can be seen, of course, in sports, but also in business and the arts and no doubt in other areas of life.

Whenever I think of the good effects of such competition, I remember the 1980s band The Minutemen, whose album “Double Nickels on the Dime” was created in part as a response to Hüsker Dü’s album “Zen Arcade.” (The two bands liked and admired each other but were very different.) In my opinion, “Double Nickels” is a much better album than “Zen Arcade,” but then again it wouldn’t have gotten made without the impetus provided by “Zen Arcade.” Proof of this can be found in the liner notes of “Double Nickels,” where, in small letters written vertically, is the following rather flattering bit of trash talk: “take that, hüskers!”