| 23.11.2008 |
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| I’d been trying to contain my excitement over Landon Donovan’s potential return to Germany for a couple weeks now. But when news came this week that he’d inked a deal to stay on loan at Bayern until mid-March at least, I felt it was time to open up. Donovan is the best all-around soccer player that my country, the United States, has ever managed to produce. You can make your arguments for Tab Ramos or Claudio Reyna -- capable players both, but not in the same game-breaking league as Donovan. You can also hold out hope, with some foundation, that Jozy Altidore or Freddy Adu will soon blossom into the kind of player that will make us forget all about Landon Donovan. Wait, why would we want to forget all about him? Well...because he is not just the best-ever US player, he’s also the most disappointing. With every honey-scented memory of Donovan slicing through the German defense in Ulsan in 2002 (a game that makes any good American soccer fan incapable of bringing himself to like Torsten Frings), you are forced to remember his timid lay-offs to less-well-positioned teammates in front of goal as the US crashed out to Ghana in Nuremberg in 2006. Every dominant performance you remember of Donovan in San Jose, willing his team to two MLS titles, must be tempered by his frequent indifference since in Los Angeles, as well as that famous whiff against Liverpool in the Champions League for Leverkusen in 2005. It was that game, more than any other one thing, that cemented Donovan’s reputation as a failure on the European stage and, much worse, as a quitter. Recalled (reportedly against his will) to Leverkusen after lighting up MLS, he never shined there. After just seven appearances for the pharmaceuticals, he announced he was leaving, and slunk back to the US. The US soccer community, a small-but-growing one that has all the tight-knit comforts and neuroses of many an embattled subculture, turned on him, big-time. Columnists criticized, bulletin boarders ranted, and most memorably, a pair of Los-Angeles-based satellite radio show hosts popularized a nickname for him that had been bubbling up for a short while: Landycakes. The name was meant to embody Donovan’s every expression of surrender to the cold dark German winter, his every statement of devotion to his television actress wife over his career, his every wuss-out on the pitch. For a time, during the run-up to the 2006 World Cup especially, to refer to Donovan as anything other than Landycakes seemed an absurd bow to formality. In Germany, Donovan did play well in the drawn ultimate fighting/soccer match against Italy, but not really otherwise. He was headed for the well-trod oblivion of wasted potential, another player of the golden-ball-at-the-U17-World-Cup- followed-by-not-very-much school, a type of player anyone from Spain, Portugal, or half of South America will be more than a little familiar with. So the news that Donovan is coming back to Europe with an alleged new thirst for achievement is doing my heart good. Having been in Germany for a few years now, I have missed his rejuvenation with the Galaxy, where his partnership with God’s Gift to Soccer(TM) saw him score 20 goals this past season, his best ever tally. If that’s an indication of what Donovan is now prepared to do with world-class service, then I say Bayern may well like what they get Sure, the timid are already lining up to say that Bayern, a mega-club with mega-club pressures from the practice field to the press room to the pitch on game day, is a step too far, that it’s going to eat Donovan alive. They say he’d be better off moving into some sort of footballing starter home, something along the lines of Hanover, Valladolid or Fulham. A modest place, but built solidly enough; a place where he could get more steady playing time and stay out of the spotlight. I’m glad he resisted that temptation and reached for the brass bier stein. This is a guy who appears to be aware of his place in American soccer history, and knows that he’d instantly put himself at the top of the heap should he break into the Bayern side. For all the United States’ success at placing players abroad in recent years, no outfield player has ever been a regular at a big, Champions League-contending club in a top-five league. (That definition allows me to discount DaMarcus Beasley’s run to the CL semis in 2005, as it was with PSV. gotcha.) Succeed at Bayern and all is forgiven. There’s plenty to say that his ride on the Saebenerstrasse won’t be an easy one, but there may be a way in for the guy. Let me explain. Bayern already has one unhappy striker who can’t seem to get into the side no matter what he does. But while Donovan can no longer match Podolski’s explosiveness and has never been as ruthless a finisher, his tactical understanding dwarfs that of the little Kölner. Having been pampered in Cologne and surrounded by those who could cover for his mistakes with Germany, Prince Poldi has been at sea with Bayern. Mostly, I reckon, because his coaches are just plain fed up trying to teach the little brat to track back effectively or stick with a defensive assignment. For Donovan, that’s no problem. He’s had to be mister all-around-everything so many times in a career in the often woeful MLS, that there is no other way to play for him but two ways. What’s more, the finishing rate he achieved in 2008 suggests Donovan may even be able to light a fire under the errant Miroslav Klose’s kiester. In the attacking midfield, where Donovan often finds himself assigned on national team duty, the situation at Bayern is more complicated. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Franck Ribery have their places on lockdown, as they should. But the other competitors, Tim Borowski, Jose Ernesto Sosa, Hamit Altintop, and Toni Kroos, are a mixed bag. Toni Kroos is by a long stretch the most talented of the bunch -- hell, aside from Ribery, probably the most talented player at Bayern. But he’s already losing patience with the team and his stage-mom dad is angling to get him a loan move. Jose Ernesto Sosa has shown flashes of brilliance, but more often has appeared indecisive and has not settled at Bayern. He’s expected to leave sooner rather than later. Hamit Altintop is a quick, mentally tough player I like very much, and one who I would see as Donovan’s biggest competition in midfield. Unfortunately he’s been rather injury prone lately, which makes it tough to hold down a place at a club like Bayern. Which brings us to Tim Borowski. Through a number of solid substitute performances, he’s deservedly played his way into the first-man-off-the-bench status. But rumors out of the Bayern camp would have it that he’s a prima donna jerk, constantly whining after more playing time and winning little love from his teammates. This chemistry factor is, I would hope, one of Donovan’s aces in the hole. It’s tough to say what kind of impression he will make on his teammates but he already has the hierarchy of the Bayern coaching staff on his side. Both Jürgen Klinsmann and his top assistant Martin Vasquez know Donovan well from their mutual days on the SoCal soccer scene, and I can’t help but believe that won’t give him a leg up. (When I watch Vasquez standing on the sideline giving last-minute instructions to the likes of Christian Lell, as the defender prepares to enter as a sub, what can the guy really say to him, in his halting German? Or, if it’s the other way around, How much can Lell understand with his schoolboy English?) Much as I have looked on in disappointment at Landon Donovan -- and that is MUCH -- I really think he has a great chance of hacking it at Bayern. I can’t wait to find out. |
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| 1 Comment |
| I am on the fence about Landycakes playing at Alianz. The whole prima donna attitude of his is still fresh in my mind. I really wish him well and hope he can succeed with MY team. My mother comes from outside of München and myself, being brought up in the States, have a strong love for this club. Landon says he is ready for Deutschland now. Physically I can see this since the US has one of the best fitness programs in football. However, for the mental aspect of the Bundesliga, let alone at Bayern, I still wonder on this. I agree with you on the position he will face against some players in the club but I think you might be a little harsh on Poldi. He is a bit weak on tacking back but my comments on why he shouldnt is another story. If you look at his efficiency while on the field during WC2006 and at Euro08, I'll take a brat that can finish in big matches anytime. Obviously there is a huge difference between Bundesliga and MLS, perhaps even Bundesliga 2 and MLS. I guess we will see what happens with Landon's mental game when they play big matches. | ||
| Tomas | Homepage | E-Mail | 02.12.2008, 18:00 | ||