More on Landon Donovan's Goal

First Andres Cantor's radio call.



Let me take a moment to recommend Andres Cantor's excellent history of the World Cup, titled - oddly, if not surprisingly - Gooooal!.

And stirring reactions from across the United States.

Clint made a good run in the middle, the ball fell to me ... time kind of stopped," Donovan said. "You can't miss from there."

"We're not done yet," Donovan said. "We believe, man. We're alive, baby."

England vs. USA Part 4: This Time It's Personal...

The Spirit of '50

You may have read somewhere in your history books that the US has faced off against England a number of times throughout history.  In most of those encounters, the Yanks have been prohibitive underdogs.

The Revolutionary War (1776) - granted we had home field advantage in this one but if there were bookmakers in international conflicts at this point in history we would have looked a lot like North Korea going up against Brazil in the opening round of this World Cup.  No chance.  As it turns out, we did slightly better than expected.

The War of 1812 (well, 1812) - Washington, DC was burned to the ground and my soon-to-be hometown of Leesburg, VA (a bucolic town about 30 miles up the Potomac River) was briefly the center of government for the United States.  That said, home field advantage still held and we actually built a winning steak against the highly favored Brits.  Let's just say that we became their "bogey team" well before they started losing grip of their empire.

1950 World Cup - Could the magic hold when we didn't hold a decided home field advantage? Well, in 1950 we produced an incredible upset that, until we hosted the Cup in 1994 and started what I like to think of as the modern era of US involvement in the world's game, was without question the high water mark for US Soccer.  It may still be the single greatest accomplishment in the US game but since 1994, we've certainly had our share of moments that at least approach it (draw vs. Italy in 2006, beating Spain in Confederations Cup, etc.).

Since 1950, there have been friendlies between the two countries but there haven't been many moments that mattered.  The friendly matches have, as you might expect, been dominated by the more talented English squads.  So, where does all of this leave us? Well, I'm not a huge fan of sequels but let's see how this one is likely to play out...

Our Man in South Africa, Part 1 - USA vs. Australia Warm-up

Like all great news organizations, we here at the blog have a worldwide network of reporters and affiliates dedicated to bringing you the best from the world of soccer.  With fantasy and/or the Premier League usually being our major focus, that usually means that we have people stationed in front of televisions and computer screens in the US (birthplace of fantasy sports) and the UK (home of the Prem).  With the World Cup the major event of the day, we have spared no expense to bring you live coverage from the venues.  This coverage comes in the form of one Jamie Harper, a business school classmate of Neal's, member of the legendary Emory business school intramural-championship winning squad of 1997-98, soccer fanatic, and ex-pat living happily in South Africa.

Given that you can get a run-of-the-mill match report from the Associated Press or Reuters anywhere on the web, I have asked Jamie to give his impressions of the things you won't likely get from those match reports.  His impressions of the crowds, the flow of the match, the manager's decisions, and the overall experience.  So, with that typically lengthy introduction, here we go with our first installment of our live coverage from South Africa.  Take it away Jamie...

Sports Guy Doubles Down on Donovan

From Friday's chat with Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy:

Dan (NJ)
Landon Donovan playing great for Everton. Ready to jinx it for him?

Bill Simmons (12:19 PM)
It's very tough to root for anyone but Everton right now in EPL when they have Donovan and Tim Howard. I am an EPL sports bigamist - like Everton and Spurs.

And then Lando goes out on Sunday and hit Rodwell's cross wide of an open net.  It was so bad he had to apologize to the team after the match.

Landon Donovan issued an apology to his team-mates in the White Hart Lane dressing room after missing an open goal against Tottenham yesterday and costing Everton a point.

The United States forward, who came on as a substitute, admits he cannot understand how he stabbed his finish wide after being picked out by Jack Rodwell at the far post.

"Landon said sorry to us afterwards," said midfielder Mikel Arteta.

This of course after Simmons famously had a long discussion with Donovan about his cool under pressure in taking spot kicks days before Donovan missed his penalty in the MLS Cup shootout with Real Salt Lake.

Oddly enough, he's also being blamed for Canada beating the USA in Olympic hockey.  Fun!

MLS Interlude

[08:29] JSpitzberg: i have NO interest in MLS anymore

That's how I started my converstation with Neal this morning.  And I really don't.  With the Premier League gearing up it's hard to keep the enthusiasm for what I call my methadone, which I use to bridge the gap between English seasons.  But that being said, and I'm sure to jinx it here, I'm well placed in the overall standings and I have a reputation to uphold.  And a trophy to win back from Neal.  So here we go again.

This week the clear pick is Colorado hosting the Red Bulls who are just DIRE on the road.  I had Connor Casey on my team but he is suspended due to accumulation so I had to make some other moves to afford Omar Cummings.  Here's hoping he can come good.  I've also added Kimura to the backline as I have more fingers on one hand than the Red Bulls have road goals.  Matt Pickens would be a great, um, pick in net too.

DCUnited travel to the West Coast to play San Jose, who are struggling.  The Earthquakes are reshaping their team in the middle of the season which isn't a good sign.  Even though I don't like picking road teams in MLS - especially not those travelling from one coast to the other - I had to pick up Christian Gomez to join Chris Pontius in the midfield.  Gomez is playing really well right now and without Santino he should hold down his spot and set piece duties.

The LA Galaxy travel too, but face a Kansas City team missing their best attacker in Arnaud and starting defenders Conrad and Watson, who was red carded last week.  So Landon Donovan not only stays in the team, but keeps the captain's armband.  And as much as I want to sell Beckham, I can't.  He's cheaper than Blanco and 1) I needed the money for Gomez and Cummings, and 2) Chicago are at Seattle and Blanco is going to have Alonso on him like a cheap suit all day.  So here's hoping Beckham feels that he has something to prove after this week's incidents.

Football. Futbol. Soccer.

Time for another look at the rapidly (oops, MLS pun alert!) approaching week in MLS fantasy. The game week begins tonight at the Galaxy travel to NY to take on the Red Bulls. Of course this game is David Beckham's return to MLS after his very successful stint with AC Milan and the recent contrversy around Grant Wahl's Beckham book and Landon Donovan's statements therein.  Last time Becks had prime time in NYC he lived up to the hype in the Galaxy's 5-4 win over the Red Bulls, and I'm thinking that both he and Landon Donovan are sure things this week. And that's even though they're the road team in a league where things are always stacked in favor of the home team. To get them I've had to sell Mike Magee, whom I would still recommend as a fantasy option. Especially as he's cheaper than the two big stars and I think he'll keep his place. Kirovski, not so much. However, you can only have three players from a team on your fantasy team and I've got Omar "OG" Gonzalez as an ever present in the back line. OG is also interesting as his height makes him a target on set pieces. Look for the Galaxy to go to him or Buddle if they can.

Saturday we have the meat of the schedule, including Toronto FC hosting Houston (who are still struggling against injuries and call-ups); Chicago hosting San Jose (who just traded away another striker - Pablo Campos this time. What can they be working on?!?!?); the Crew without the hamstrung Guillermo Barros Schelotto (that's a good injury tip right there!) host RSL; and DCUnited host the Rapids. Finally Sunday sees struggling Chivas make the cross-country trip to play the struggling Revolution. I think that last one is a stay away match unless you're in for either team's defenders.

For me, other than the LA three discussed above, I'm brining in Casey to replace Montero whose Sounders have a friendly against Chelsea rather than a league match this weekend. (Will Montero remain in the MLS much longer if he can put on a good show against one of Europe's biggest clubs? I would guess not.)  Casey is on the road, but I'm going to gamble that DCUnited misses Jankovic, who is still at the CONCACAF Gold Cup with the Canadian national team.  GBS stays on the bench and Ryan Johnson (who else can San Jose run out at forward?) keeps that spot in the line-up.

In midfield, I fianlly sold Brad Davis who made me look silly in wanting to sell him last week - albeit happy I didn't - with an early goal. I also sold Marco Pappa (although I don't necessarily recommend that you do), but kept his Fire teammate, Chuatehamoc Blanco. In comes Dwayne DeRosario on the "scoring against his old team" corollary and Chris Pontius who was benched last week as DC United didn't have a league game.

In goal I'm again going with Stefan Frei over Pat Onstad. They are head to head this weekend and I just have to give the nod to Frei as he's on the home side.

Donovan returning to Galaxy after loan

The Galaxy announced Thursday that Donovan, last season’s team MVP, will return from an overseas loan to play for the MLS team this season. Donovan, who was playing with Bayern Munich of the Bundesliga, will begin training with Los Angeles on March 10...

"I am very excited to be returning home to my teammates and the LA Galaxy,” Donovan said in a written statement. “Although the results were not what we had hoped for, the time in Germany still was very positive for me. I am fit, motivated, and excited to be coming back as a better, more experienced player."

This is obviously great news for the Galaxy.  Though I'm not sure they have enough players left on their roster to fill the other ten spots - Beckham or no Beckham!  But the league starts in two weeks... time to start doing the research in front of what's sure to be another slightly entertaining fantasy summer.