Landon Donovan starts road back with U.S. national soccer team
SAN DIEGO — If Landon Donovan had it to do over again, he would.
He would give up his place on the U.S. national soccer team 18 months before what would be his fourth World Cup. He would surrender the captain’s armband and part of his $2.5-million salary with the Galaxy.
And those are just some of the things Donovan lost when, exhausted by a dozen years of nonstop competition, he walked away from soccer for three months last winter.
On Friday he’ll take what he hopes will be the first steps on the road toward regaining his berth on the World Cup team when the U.S. plays Guatemala at Qualcomm Stadium in a tuneup for next week’s Gold Cup tournament.
And U.S. Coach Juergen Klinsmann promises he’ll be watching closely.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Klinsmann said Thursday. “He had his break. He had his reasons for it. And we are thrilled to have him back.
“But now it’s all about your performance. The players know this is an opportunity for every one of them to make a strong case toward Brazil 2014.”
Donovan would seem to have little left to prove. The national team’s all-time leader in goals and assists, he is arguably the best player in U.S. history. In most other team sports, a player of his stature wouldn’t have to win back his uniform.
Donovan said he has accepted the challenge. “This team always moves forward. And if you’re not on the train, you’ve got to find a way to get back on,” he said. “That’s what I’m hoping to do.”
At 31, Donovan may be a step or two slower than in his prime. And as Klinsmann has repeatedly pointed out, he needed time to find his game after returning to the Galaxy and Major League Soccer in late March.
What may have most hurt his standing with the coaching staff, though, was the fact he walked away from the national team just as it was preparing for the final round of World Cup qualifying. But Donovan said that although he and Klinsmann appear to share little more than a frosty détente, their relationship is actually quite good.
“A lot of times people have relationships where on the surface everyone thinks everything is great but you don’t say what you mean and what you feel,” Donovan said. “And him and I have been honest since day one. We don’t always necessarily agree on things, but we’re very honest with each other and we know what the other is feeling.”
DaMarcus Beasley, a teammate of Donovan’s since 1999, when both played for the U.S. under-17 team, said players accepted Donovan’s decision.
” I understood exactly why he did it,” said Beasley, whom Klinsmann chose to captain the Gold Cup team. “You know he’s had a lot of weight on his shoulders the last six, seven years. Being the face of MLS, being the face of U.S. Soccer. He needed to take a little break.
“The guys that understood where he was coming from gave him the opportunity to do that, to sort out what he wanted to do. Whether that was keep playing, whether that was stop playing. But at the same time I’m glad he’s back. It’s good to see his face in camp again.”
Whether he’ll be invited back ahead of the fall round of World Cup qualifiers will depend on Donovan, Klinsmann said.
“If you want to play for the national team, you’ve got to be in full swing. Because we can’t afford to have players not coming off a game rhythm,” he said. “It’s down to Landon now to pick up the pace here. So we’ll get a lot of answers over the next couple of weeks from a lot of players.”
