U.S. could struggle without iconic Donovan

Published 9:02 pm Friday, May 23, 2014

Landon Donovan is American soccer and the face of the U.S. Men’s National Team.

At least he should have been for one more World Cup.

I understand Clint Dempsey is the captain, but ask anyone in this country — and especially around the world — who they think of when discussing the U.S. and Donovan’s name is the first one mentioned.

I just want to express my extreme displeasure of Donovan not being a part of the final roster that is going to Brazil.

This guy has basically bled red, white and blue now for 15 years. He deserved the dignity of being able to complete his U.S. career on the pitch in Brazil — not walking out of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s office Thursday after being told he was not part of the team.

My first reaction on seeing that come across Twitter bordered on astonishment, thinking there must have been a mistake or incorrect report.

Please tell me how there are 23 American players better than Donovan.

I had the privilege of watching Donovan carve up Honduras this past summer in the Gold Cup semifinals at AT&T Stadium. He was responsible for goals Nos. 2 and 3 of an eventual 3-1 win.

Side note: The only reason Donovan was playing for the U.S. in the Gold Cup was because Klinsmann left him off the World Cup qualifying roster and he had to do that to get back in his good graces after Donovan took a soccer sabbatical.

But those Gold Cup tallies are just two of the countless goals and big plays Donovan has provided for the U.S. — the biggest of course coming last World Cup in the final group-stage win over Algeria. Donovan’s last-minute goal produced the call heard around the world by ESPN’s Ian Darke and the highlight that went viral almost immediately.

This nation was soccer crazy for days thanks to Donovan.

He had an opportunity to be a four-time World Cup participant and potentially score a goal in three different World Cups.

He joins familiar names like Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride and John Harkes as Americans that pushed the sport of soccer to new heights during their tenure on the national team.

Just for the record: Donovan has more World Cup goals (five) than the combined World Cup totals of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Donovan is also responsible for a goal in the U.S.’s only Round of 16 win against Mexico.

His first World Cup “goal” is my favorite. It was later ruled an own-goal by Portugal, but the ball did come off his boot and end up in the back of the net.

But this one is my favorite because of the story associated with it. The 2002 World Cup was played in South Korea and Japan, with the U.S. opening up group play against Portugal.

It may have been the afternoon in Suwon, South Korea, but that game did not kick off until 3:30 a.m. here in Texas.

The U.S. took an amazing 1-0 lead over the heavily-favored Portuguese and my friend Jimmy Hudson and I just went nuts. We were jumping up and down and screaming at the top of our lungs in jubilation.

The match continued and soon there was a knock at the door. I opened it to find two police officers shining a flashlight at us.

“We have a report of a domestic disturbance,” one of the officers said.

Of course, all they found was Jimmy and I decked out in U.S. soccer gear with my 50-inch television showing the game in the background. Both officers tried not to start laughing at the ridiculousness of this, but not before one of them said, “I think we just scored again.”

Jimmy and I immediately whipped around to see the U.S. celebrating a 2-0 lead after a cross by Donovan ended up being a goal. Instinctively, Jimmy and I started hugging and jumping up and down in front of the officers.

Even they joined in a little.

But not before they asked us with grins on their faces to keep it down and they don’t want to be called back over here.

That is the kind of moment Donovan provided.

But now he has been unceremoniously dumped.

He will now be forever grouped with Harkes as current/former captains to be left off the World Cup roster.

If you can believe it, Harkes was the U.S. captain at the time he was cut in the final days before the 1998 World Cup in France.

This was back before social media, so it barely caused a ripple except among incredulous soccer fans like myself who were wondering what head coach Steve Sampson was thinking.

Want to know how that turned out?

The USA lost to Klinsmann’s Germany, Yugoslavia and — it’s hard to even admit to this — Iran to finish 0-3 in group play and finish dead last in the entire tournament.

I guarantee Harkes would’ve helped the U.S. beat Iran at least.

So I hope Klinsmann knows what he is doing.