To Landon Donovan's many critics, Sunday's 3-1 victory over Ecuador proved nothing. Meaningless friendlies, even ones that contain hat tricks like the one Donovan notched, are easy to dismiss. But when you combine Sunday's performance with his play last month against Mexico, you begin to get the feeling that perhaps the American captain has emerged from last summer's World Cup funk, and is now truly ready to lead the U.S. national team to better things.
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2 comments:
Bobbie's thoughts on the match:
Landycakes did a nice job out there in attack. I hope that getting the old guard cleared out will give him some more confidance so he can play like this when it actually matters. If he's going to play second forward it's got to be with a target guy like Ching as but his and Rolfe's performances when paired against Mexico were dire. There's no reason why Jimmy Conrad should start at CB over Bocanegra. Eddie Johnson looked finished, he would have helped himself more by staying with his marker and avoiding the ball entirely. Freilhaber and Bradley looked good together, better than the Clark/Mastroeni combo that Bob's been using. Benny was especially impressive. Dempsy sure can disappear from a match. Why do no pundits seem to give a crap about his lack of defense? He's not wide right up top in 4-3-3, he has obligations that he ingores. No wonder Chris "Sandy Cohen" Coleman hasn't given him a whiff of the Fulham first team.
I think Arena made a comment about The Duce's lack of defense but it may have been the PBR talking - not sure. I won't be convinced that Landycakes is anything but a SoCal Softy until he plays well in a match that matters. The last time he did that was 2002.
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