When my editors here at The Yanks Are Coming requested (nay, demanded) that I write a quick, personal eulogy on Landon Donovan’s career in advance of his last USMNT match on Friday, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
It wasn’t so much the weight of the moment regarding Donovans’ last game. Rather, the blatant workers rights violations and countless hours of unpaid labor I’ve been coerced to devote. Seriously, I wish @nwb_USMNT would let me out of the TYAC HQ basement. Or at least bring me down a beer…
I jest, of course, but I thought it appropriate to highlight the degree of sentimentality with which I’m approaching LD’s last match. That is to say, not much.
This may come as a bit of a surprise for those who have followed me for the last year or so. I’ve been a strong proponent of Donovan on the National Team and was one of the harshest critics of his exclusion from the World Cup squad. With months to reflect, I still think the US team would have been better in Brazil with Donovan in the 23. Further, I still believe that TODAY, Landon Donovan is among the top 10 American soccer players in the world. Currently in my mid (read: late) 20’s, my soccer career coincided with the rise to super-stardom of Landon Donovan.
And super-stardom it was. Care to test this? Head out on the street today in your town and ask the first ten people you see, “What name first comes to mind when I say ‘United States Men’s Soccer’?” Care to place a wager on what percentage of the responses will be “Landon Donovan”? I’m putting the over/under at 80%.
I don’t want to focus on solely the stardom itself though, because that runs the risk of detracting from how entirely deserved it was. Landon Donovan is the most important and most accomplished player in the history of American soccer. He made by far the most starts, scored by far the most goals, and dolled out by far the most assists in United States Men’s Soccer history. Of course, for every example of statistical dominance, there’s another example of that intangible ‘winner’ quality. There was the 2002 World Cup, 2007 and 2013 Gold Cups, 2009 Confederations cup, and of course that 2010 moment against Algeria that no American soccer fan will ever forget.
Even outside of his performances on the field, Donovan was in many ways a trailblazer for United States soccer. Somehow, Donovan manged to have an impressively successful run in the English Premier League with Everton while still spending the vast majority of his career growing the game in Major League Soccer. It’s easy to forget that Donovan was part of the inaugural class at the US full-time residency program in Bradenton, FL. Followers of MLS might even take for granted now that their clubs have developmental academies that are churning out young talent like DeAndre Yedlin or Bill Hamid.
So why am I not sobbing over a bottle of Johnny right now? To paraphrase Lt. Gordon, Landon Donovan was the hero we deserved, but oftentimes not the one we needed. He was largely emotionless. He was cagey with the press. His media appearances oozed sarcasm and betrayed the cynical nature of a man who grew tired of the game he so excelled at before many of us were ready to let him go. In a sense, he was the antithesis of the sporting hero that American audiences have come to demand.
I’d love to pontificate here as the voice of soccer reason. “Every American should be tuned in to watch the US’s greatest soccer player and one of the greatest athletes of a generation play his final match for our country!” ‘This is a moment that any sports fan will tell their children about for decades to come!” But I can’t, because in truth, that’s not the way I feel.
Landon Donovan was the greatest of a generation. He was the greatest of all generations. Every great American soccer player for the rest of my lifetime will strive to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Landon Donovan. Yet for everything he’s done to deserve the role of American hero, it’s clear to me at least that he was never someone who particularly wanted the title. So by all means, tune in on Friday night to watch one of the greatest of all time play his last match for his country. I’ll be glued to my TV. He deserves every plaudit and every gushing tribute he receives this week.
Don’t expect many tears from me though. I’ll have moved on to the Yanks’ next match in Boca Raton on the 14th and will perhaps be keeping an eye out for the hero we so desperately need.
Andrew Marcinko is a staff writer for The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at ajmarcinko@gmail.com and you should follow him on Twitter at @FootyAmerica.