Barring a comeback,
Landon Donovan has played his last game for the U.S. national team. I suspect
most U.S. fans wish it hadn’t ended the way it did Friday night, with a
friendly in a nondescript stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut, just a few
months after Donovan had been cut from the 2014 World Cup team. Even if Donovan
had scored the game winner, or scored at all, such a setting is not the stuff
of storybooks.
When U.S. soccer announced
in August that Donovan would make a final appearance for the U.S., he appeared
to be in a no-win situation. If he played for Jurgen Klinsmann in a meaningless
match after Klinsmann had cut him from the World Cup team—and after Klinsmann’s
son had mocked
Donovan on Twitter the day of the cuts—Donovan surely would lose face. If he
declined the offer, he’d appear petty, like a child who picks up his ball and
goes home after not getting his way.
After some initial
reluctance, Donovan of course opted to play, which speaks well of him. In the
days before the Ecuador game, he was candid about his relationship with
Klinsmann (“Well,
we don't have of a much a relationship after this summer, obviously”), but
under the circumstances he was admirably restrained, in fact the opposite of
the selfish brat many have painted him to be over the course of his career.
When he was subbed off in the 42nd minute on Friday, he shook hands
with Klinsmann, and they shared a distant, fleeting hug. Donovan’s gesture,
while obviously not brimming with affection, was far more than many of us would
have granted Klinsmann had we been in Donovan’s place. ESPN announcer Taylor
Twellman summed up the image well: “True professionals, shaking hands and
moving on.”
Before he did move
on from Klinsmann and the national team Friday night, Donovan looked as
dangerous as anyone on the field. In the 4th minute, he played an
integral part in the buildup that led to the U.S.’s only goal, breaking down
the U.S. left with the ball at his feet and lofting a pass across the face of
goal to Jozy Altidore at the back post. Altidore settled the ball and sent a
short back-pass to DeAndre Yedlin, who picked out Mix Diskerud near the penalty
spot. Diskerud’s crisp near post finish capped an excellent team goal. Though
Yedlin and Altidore got the assist, Diskerud made a beeline to Donovan and the
two embraced. They were immediately joined by their delighted teammates.
One can only
wonder what the celebrations would have been like had Donovan scored, which he
nearly did on three occasions. Just minutes after the goal, Donovan snapped a
header down into the turf but the shot was saved off the line. In the 38th
minute Altidore picked out Donovan at the top of the box and the latter dragged
a shot wide far post. Donovan’s best opportunity, though, came in the 25th
minute, when Altidore anticipated his run with a nifty no-look back-heel pass.
Under pressure, Donovan toe-poked a shot that looked to be going in but glanced
off the inside of the far post. After the ball was eventually cleared, Donovan
lay on the field, grabbing his head in dismay and disbelief as ESPN’s Ian Darke
observed, “Well, maybe it’s just not going to be.”
Altidore did all
he could to help Donovan get a goal, and in general the U.S. target forward had a
strong game. Afterwards, he remarked,
“I tried to set [Donovan] up a few times and do what he’s always done for me.
He’s such a good player, you can still see that right away, and he has a smell
for the game that other Americans don’t have. We’re going to miss that.”
Donovan has assisted on 6 of Altidore’s 23 national team goals.
Regrettably,
perhaps the most significant event in this game was an injury to young U.S.
winger Joe Gyau, a powerful speedster who grew up in the D.C. area and now
plays for Borussia Dortmund. Gyau played well in the first half of last month’s
friendly against the Czech Republic. Against Ecuador, he didn’t get much of
a chance to shine, grabbing at his knee during a dribbling run in the 13th
minute, and falling to the ground at midfield to call for a substitute a minute
or two later. Gyau was later seen on the sideline on crutches, with an ice
pack on his left knee. At the least, he will miss this Tuesday’s U.S. game against Honduras.
Yedlin and
Diskerud turned in the strongest performances of the night for the U.S. In
addition to his goal, Diskerud covered much ground and was notably effective
applying defensive pressure, winning a number of challenges in the center of
the field, as he did in the 34th minute when he dispossessed an Ecuador
player to start a U.S. buildup that ended with a Greg Garza shot.
Diskerud and
Yedlin were two of only four U.S. players to go the full 90 minutes against
Ecuador, and Yedlin was the only MLS player to do so. Yedlin’s club team, the
Seattle Sounders, are likely not pleased about their starting right back
playing an entire national-team friendly this late in the MLS season, as Seattle
is in a fight for the best record in the league, which would give them
home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. To top off the pain of Yedlin
playing the entire game, the Sounders were upset by the Vancouver Whitecaps while
the U.S.-Ecuador match was unfolding.
Still, Sounders
owners and management must be pleased with the quality of Yedlin’s performance on
Friday. He was in my opinion the U.S. man of the match. For the first time
while wearing a U.S. jersey, he played winger, not fullback. And his
performance lays a solid foundation for the case that Yedlin—who can sometimes
be a defensive liability—should play in the midfield rather than on the back
line. Apart from a bad ball right to Ecuador’s keeper in the 2nd
minute, and getting beaten by Ecuador’s left back in the 77th,
Yedlin was excellent. He was confident and effective with the ball at his feet,
and his passing was intelligent and accurate. He could have had at least two
more assists than he did on the night, one chance coming on a great cross to Bobby
Wood at the back post in the 66th minute, and another in the 74th
minute on a similar ball to Altidore. Yedlin is just the kind of electric,
smart, and technical young player the U.S. needs now that Donovan has retired.
I thought it might
be fitting to end this post with a quote from former MLS MVP and Guatemala
international Carlos Ruiz. Ruiz’s quote may never have been transcribed before,
and occurred on a March 7, 2013 MLS Extratime Radio podcast, about five months
after the U.S. had eliminated
Guatemala from 2014 World Cup qualification. The U.S. had struggled somewhat in
the semi-final round of CONCACAF qualification, and Donovan was in the middle
of his hiatus from soccer, so his future with the U.S. team was uncertain.
Ruiz’s comments show the respect Donovan commanded from one tough CONCACAF
competitor, someone who (like Donovan, coincidentally) scored 57 international
goals. Ruiz said: “Definitely it’s not the same like, a couple of years ago. It’s
not the same. Landon is that piece in the national team, and nobody is going to
play like he plays in the national team, you know. So, I hope Landon is healthy
and can play with the national team. But it’s not the same. You know, the
respect, like in Central American players we have for the United States in the
past is not the same in this moment.”
