Thursday, January 15, 2009

Leave Landon Donvan Be

Landon Donovan has accomplished much in his career. He has one hundred eighty-three appearances for Major League Soccer clubs San Jose and Los Angeles, scoring eighty-four goals. He has also been capped one hundred and five times for America, scoring thirty-seven goals. Landon Donovan is the all-time leading goal scorer for America, with thirty-seven goals. Although Landon has yet to earn success in Europe, it may only be a matter of time, as he is currently on loan with German club Bayern Munich, where he is on trial awaiting a contract offer. Before he began his MLS career, he had seven appearances for Bayer Leverkusen, where he had signed as a sixteen year-old after a fourth place finish with America at the 1999 Under-17 World Cup. He has won the MLS Cup three times, twice with San Jose and once with Los Angeles; he has won the US Open Cup with Los Angeles; he has won the MLS Golden Boot once; he has won the CONCACAF Gold Cup three times with America, and was named to the Best XI of the tournament all three times. He won the Golden Ball for being named the best player in the 1999 Under-17 World Cup.
Donovan is considered to be not as successful as some of his American teammates who have achieved success in Europe and Britain. This stems from the fact that Landon's club accomplishments have occured in MLS. MLS is not considered to be a competitive league compared to most other major soccer leagues in the world. But if you stop and think about it, the true abberation is that most players that comprise the American senior men's first team in major international tournaments DON'T play their soccer in MLS. Donovan plays for the country in which he plays league soccer, which would be considered absolutely normal in either England, Spain, Italy, Germany, or France countries considered by many to have some of the world's most competitive soccer leagues.
I don't know what it is with this guy, but everyone seems to have an opinion about what Landon Donovan should be doing and how he should be doing it. He has more critics than an actor on hard times trying to make a comeback.
I am tired of hearing Landon Donovan roundly criticized from all ends. "Landon Donovan was whiny and homesick when he was a teenager in Germany." "Landon Donovan isn't a success because he doesn't play first team soccer in Europe." "Landon Donovan stole my tractor." Whatever, get over it, he's a grown man, seems to be a decent person, works his ass off, and has scored more goals than anyone ever to wear a United States shirt. It should be enough. Would I like America to win the World Cup someday? Of course. Do American supporters and journalists as a group need to constantly vilify Donovan? Of course not. The criticism stops here. Leave him be and let him do his job. If it works out at Bayern Munich - great. If it doesn't - well it's Bayern's loss then, isn't it?