For American soccer fans, Landon Donovan occupies a central role in our fragile sports psyche. It’s not nuanced enough to say that we have a love-hate relationship with him. No, it goes deeper than that. Our relationship with LD is much more akin to that an overzealous parent with a precocious child. We scream at him from the sidelines, even though he ascends to heights we could never dream of accomplishing. We scorn him, despite the fact that he is, almost without question, the most accomplished American position player in history.[1]
We’ve laid insecurities on him, trying to channel our frustrations on him in hopes that it makes him reach for greater things.
Dedicated American soccer fans have known about Donovan since his teenage years. Since then, he’s built up a proud resume. In 1999, he led the US to a 4th place finish at the FIFA under-17 championships, which immediately led to skyscraper expectations. Shortly thereafter, he signed for Bayern Leverkusen, a team that was a couple years away from reaching the UEFA champions league final, losing to Real Madrid. But he floundered at Bayern, and he got a reputation for being soft. He then returned to the United States, played in the MLS for a couple of years, and led the national team to an excellent result in the 2002 World Cup, crushing cup darlings Portugal in the first game and losing only to eventual runners up Germany in the quarterfinals. He was on his way again, but his best years had some bumps. He went abroad to Germany again at Bayern Munich, but never stuck with the team. He’s played well in the MLS throughout his career, but it’s a second-tier league. Somewhere along the line he got the nickname “Landycakes.” I can’t imagine he likes it.
He was invisible in the 2006 World Cup, but came up big in 2010 to take the US to the Round of 16.
But the Round of 16 isn’t as sexy as the 4th place finish in 1999. Hmph.
Yesterday, MLS and Donovan drew criticism when they announced Donovan will not be playing on loan at Everton in the English Premier league during the MLS this off season. Again, as if we were his parents, we overreacted. It’s as if our collective soccer pride was on the line, and Donovan has no choice but to spend his off season defending it.
To American soccer fans, many of us view Donovan as the country’s first near-elite position player. But his career, though impressive, has yet to fully leave the imprint that many had hoped on the international soccer community, where Donovan is viewed as good, but not great. We feel as if his career has been a B-plus career, despite the fact that he’s accomplished more as a soccer player than anyone in this country’s history.
But maybe Donovan doesn’t feel the need to prove himself any longer. He’s had an excellent career, and he’s not done yet. Perhaps he doesn’t need to spend every month of his life trying to prove to “the World” that he’s good enough.
Maybe he just wants a few months off.
Any maybe American soccer fans need to take a deep breath and realize that it’s his decision to make, not ours.
[1] The United States has produced at least three international-class goalkeepers. Most notably, Tim Howard, Brian Friedl, and Kasey Keller. All three, I would argue, have performed better on the international stage than Donovan. Yet, for whatever reason, none of these players have suffered from the same kind of scrutiny as Donovan.
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