After Lackluster World Cup, Donovan's Focus Is Galaxy

By Steven Goff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 26, 2006

On the short bus ride from practice to the team hotel in Crystal City yesterday, Landon Donovan and a few of his Los Angeles Galaxy teammates playfully speculated about the makeup of the next U.S. World Cup squad.

Sure, the next World Cup is a full four years away. But there may be no player who would like to ditch the past and begin embracing the future more quickly than Donovan. His self-acknowledged sub-par play made him the target of intense criticism and, to many, a symbol of the Americans' futility during a winless campaign in Germany this summer.

"For me, that was the first time I had really been criticized like that -- it's a little eye-opening," Donovan said yesterday as the Galaxy prepared for tonight's MLS match against D.C. United at RFK Stadium.

"The human psyche is [conditioned] to find blame somewhere and I realize that a lot of times when the team does well, I get credit I shouldn't get, and a lot of time when it goes bad, I get criticism I don't deserve. A lot of the criticism after the World Cup was fair, too. I know I didn't play well."

In the buildup to the tournament, expectations surrounding Donovan and the U.S. squad soared. Despite being just 24, Donovan was projected as the attacking leader of a confident program attempting to replicate its 2002 quarterfinal run in Japan and South Korea.

Instead, Donovan's play was strangely tepid. He seemed to overanalyze developing situations and did not take initiative. His free kicks were off the mark, he was often overmatched in one-on-one confrontations and his energy level appeared low.

"I should've been more aggressive," he said. "I just felt like half the time I was out there I was just going through the motions. What's the point of being there?

"That's really disappointing for me because I thought I was smarter and I thought I would realize that more. I didn't until it was over, and that's frustrating because you can't go back."

Bruce Arena, who coached the United States in the last two World Cups, said he thinks too much was expected of both Donovan (who scored twice in the 2002 World Cup) and the team.

"In 2002, there were other players expected to pick up the load," said Arena, whose contract was not renewed in the aftermath of the team's 0-2-1 record and its failure to advance past the first round. "In 2006, there was a lot of responsibility on Landon's shoulders and that's still a challenge for a young pro in our country.

"Having said that, most of the players around Landon didn't play that well either. It's easy to point fingers in those situations. He's one of the targets, I'm one of the targets, but that's all part of it."

A difficult first-round group played a part in the U.S. demise, Donovan said, but so did the team's lack of hunger.

"In Korea, there was a sense of urgency that never seemed to get there [in Germany], even after the second game," a 1-1 tie with eventual champion Italy, he said. "We said the right things in the locker room, but you never had that sense that if we don't win, we're done. There was always a feeling of: 'Oh, we're going to be fine. We're a better team.' "

Since returning to the Galaxy, Donovan has inherited a new responsibility: turning around a last-place club. Los Angeles won the MLS Cup last year but started slowly this season and, while Donovan was away, fired Steve Sampson and hired Frank Yallop, Donovan's coach in San Jose when the Earthquakes won two titles in three years.

After the World Cup, Yallop sat down with Donovan to gauge his state of mind and reassure him of the club's faith in him.

"He didn't like the fact that they didn't do well in Germany," Yallop said. "It hurt him. He took a lot of criticism, unfairly I thought, but you expect a lot from Landon. He likes to be challenged and that's what is happening now. When he's on, he's the best player in our league, and he's in top form right now."

Donovan scored the opening goal in the Galaxy's 2-0 victory over West-leading Dallas last weekend and struck twice in overtime during a 3-1 win over Colorado in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal Wednesday. His appearance at RFK tonight will be his first here since a two-goal performance against United last summer.

In a strange way, the Galaxy's pressing situation has helped him take his mind off the World Cup failure.

"I don't have a choice to reflect too much," he said. "We've got to win some games. We put ourselves in a bad hole, really bad. We're scrapping to make it up, but it's hard, man."

Meantime, Donovan dismisses suggestions that he needs to return to Europe -- where he had two previous stints with German club Bayer Leverkusen -- in order to refine his skills and make him a better player with the national team on the world stage.

"Not to say it will never happen, but I have no interest in that," said Donovan, who lives on the beach south of Los Angeles and, with a salary of $900,000, is MLS's second-highest paid player behind Chivas USA's Juan Francisco Palencia.

"My world, I'm not on this Earth to go be in Europe and become the best soccer player in the world. My life is about being happy. I want to enjoy it, and I think I can balance all of that and still be a good soccer player."