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 Thursday, April 12, 2001
The future of American soccer lands in San Jose
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
Landon Donovan looked out of place sitting among a few dozen soccer writers nearly three years ago when the anonymous 16-year-old was introduced to the crowd by then-U.S. National Team head coach Steve Sampson before a pre-World Cup friendly in Washington D.C. With an awkward half-stand and lazy wave from the front row, the youth star's face turned a reddish hue with embarrassment after Sampson said he'd be a player we'd all be hearing a lot from someday.
Talk about an understatement.
|  | | Landon Donovan holds up his jersey during a news conference announcing his allocation to the San Jose Earthquakes. |
Though he hasn't yet left his face on a World Cup qualifier or smelled success in a full-throng professional soccer league, there he sat on a dais inside San Jose's Compaq Center last Thursday with enough of a résumé to back up the Earthquakes' lofty claims for their newest addition.
"The acquisition of Landon is an extremely positive step for the Earthquakes, MLS, and U.S. soccer," said Earthquakes general manager Tom Neale. "This signing represents another example of MLS' ability to bring the top, young American players into the league."
"Once we knew there was a chance we could get him, as a coach I was thrilled to get a player of his caliber," said Earthquakes coach Frank Yallop. "Although he's a young man, he's proven that he's a very good player. He's going to be a great asset to us and the league, and I'm sure he's going to be a bright star of the future."
His international career with both the youth and senior U.S. National Teams as well as his performance in Germany for Bayern Leverkusen's reserve squad has given all parties involved ample reason to celebrate the league's latest and perhaps grandest coup in its six-year history. So what if his four-year contract with the league is part of an agreement with Leverkusen that could land him in the famed German Bundesliga in two years? Though sitting on the bench for one of the world's top clubs is an accomplishment in itself whether you're 19 or 29, Donovan wasn't going to break into Bruce Arena's starting 11 by playing in reserve matches in Germany's lower divisions 10 months out of the year.
"Maybe I wasn't ready yet, too inexperienced, not grown up enough to be playing at the highest level in Germany," Donovan said at his press conference. "It was becoming pretty obvious that if I wasn't playing this year, my immediate future with the national team would be pretty much in limbo.
"I'm just at the point now where I want to play, and that's why I originally went to Germany."
For the type of quiet, sensitive and reserved young man that Donovan is, one imagines he'll flourish in an environment where he's around family and friends on a consistent basis. It was no secret to anyone who spoke to Donovan while he was in Germany that missing home weighed heavier on his mind than his reserve team status.
"Coming back to the States to play is close enough so that my friends and family can still come and see me play as much as they want," said the Ontario, Calif. native, who was a high school All-American at Redlands Valley High School.
During his several lonely nights in Deutschland filled with marathon e-mail sessions to people back home, he knew that Major League Soccer was always an option. But it wasn't until he started inquiring his friends from the Olympic National Team that he became certain that the league was at a high enough level to help him further develop his game. The words of another one of America's bright young stars stayed in his mind.
"I talked to Chris Armas for a while, and he told me that the league has been great for him and that the league is a lot more competitive than people give it credit for," said Donovan, who scored 35 goals and 16 assists in just 41 international matches with the U.S. under-17s. "Chris was U.S. Soccer's Player of the Year this past year, and he played more minutes than any player on the team, so he's faced the best international competition. The league has good teams and good players and it's good soccer."
San Jose and MLS officials tried to downplay their expectations only minutes after trumpeting his arrival by dubbing him the "quintessential future of American soccer." Yet, anyone who has watched this multi-talented goal scorer blossom over the past two years knows that his presence in the lineup should immediately improve a team that was last year's cellar dweller in MLS.
"He's a proven player, he's played at the national team level and had no problems there, so I'm expecting him to come in and make an impact on this team and help us along the way," Yallop, in his first year with San Jose.
|  | | U.S. striker Landon Donovan (22) moves in front of Colombia's Freddy Grisales (8) during a friendly in Miami on this Feb. 3. |
The 5-foot-8, 148-pounder can play at either striker or at offensive center midfielder serving as a playmaker. He has exceptional quickness and possesses a kind of one-on-one ability that has rarely been seen from an American player. He can turn on the ball in a flash and has the type of creativity in the final third of the field to be able to find enough space between his man-marker and the goal to unleash his wicked shot, which separates an average front-runner from a brilliant goal scorer. What might be his greatest gift is his one-touch ability both in setting up his teammates (see his blind, outside of the foot stab to set up a goal for Brian McBride against China on Jan. 27) and in finishing crosses in the 18. It's something he demonstrated particularly in scoring many of his nine goals for the U-23s last year.
That was reason enough for Yallop to announce that he'll be playing as a striker for his side this year.
"I'm looking to play up him up front where he can be dangerous," said Yallop, who plans to pair him with El Salvadoran national team standout Ronald Cerritos. "He's a goal scorer, and goal scorers need to play up front.
"We'll be playing good on the ground soccer to his strengths, he's got pace and we'll be serving balls to him so that he can capitalize on his ability."
An already much-improved side on the attack with 2001 SuperDraft top pick Chris Carrieri and Canadian international Dwayne DeRosario coming in to aid a finally-healthy Cerritos (who only played in nine matches last year), Donovan's presence in this offensive mix gives Quakes fans hopes of making a playoff run this year. And with a locker room/on-the-field voice like U.S. international Jeff Agoos making his way across the country to the Left Coast, the young striker won't be counted on to fill such needs, which certainly isn't his style.
Once he takes to the field with the Quakes -- possibly in time for their home opener against Dallas on April 14 -- after recovering from two fractured ribs he suffered two weeks ago in a match with the U-20s in Trinidad, Donovan doesn't expect to be overwhelmed in the least bit. After all, this is a kid who has thrived every time the stakes have been upped every time in his young career.
He was at his best (two goals in a 4-0 victory) last April in Hershey when a berth in the Olympics was on the line in a do-or-die match against Guatemala. Just a few months before, he tallied three goals as a heavily marked man to lead the U-17s to a fourth place at the 1999 FIFA U-17 Youth World Championship in New Zealand. And when Bruce Arena gave him his first chance to sink or swim with the big boys, he came through with a goal in a 2-0 victory over hated rival Mexico in Los Angeles last October.
This is also a kid who traveled alone to a foreign land where American soccer players are looked at with disdain. It was a place where he didn't speak the language or share the age bracket with many of those on a roster loaded with German and Brazilian millionaires who had been playing for their country longer than he'd been playing video games.
So, expectations being what they are, this 19-year-old isn't going to be blinded by the limelight or feel any more burdened than the normal goals he sets for himself.
"I don't see any pressure at all," Donovan said. "I just see it as fun. I'm going to be loving every minute of it."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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