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Landon Donovan Hangs Up His Cleats For US Soccer

Darian Nourian |
October 12, 2014 | 1:44 p.m. PDT

Staff Columnist

October 25, 2000 will always resonate a great amount of significance with me for a couple different reasons. 

I was only five years old when I attended my first ever soccer game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum between the U.S. Men’s National Team and rival Mexico. 

When U.S. player Chris Henderson went down in about the 30th minute, Landon Donovan stepped on the field in an American uniform for the very first time.

Little did I realize then that I was witnessing history when Donovan wasted no time making his mark on U.S. Soccer by scoring his first ever goal for our country. 

Behind Donovan’s stellar performance, the U.S. would go on to beat Mexico 2-0 - or dos a cero

14 years, 57 goals and 152 national appearances later, we bid farewell to the face of American soccer and arguably the greatest American to ever play the game, who lifted the spirits and emotions of a country not only with his goal-scoring ability, but with the grace and class he played with.

While Donovan did not play his last game entirely as a professional, the United States’ exhibition match against Ecuador last Friday was his last on the international stage for the red, white and blue. 

SEE ALSO: Disappointing, Yet Optimistic: A Eulogy For Team USA

Since Major League Soccer (MLS) has TV ratings that are embarrassingly lower than even the WNBA, averaging about 220,000 viewers for every nationally televised game, this was probably the last time the vast majority of people in the U.S. would ever see Donovan play. 

It’s a shame that most Americans won’t witness the end to such a wonderful career as Donovan leads his Los Angeles Galaxy into the MLS Playoffs, but the fact is that we will remember him most for all the memories he gave us wearing the No. 10 kit and the captain’s armband for the U.S. Men’s National Team. 

After not being selected to the U.S.’s 2014 World Cup roster by head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, with whom Donovan always had a shaky relationship, it was unsure whether Donovan would even play in one last game for his country after announcing his retirement from the game of soccer in early August. 

It’s safe to say now that Donovan, who is the U.S.’s all-time leading goal scorer (57) and assists (58), received the proper tribute as he exited for the final time in the 40th minute in front of thousands of fans in East Hartford, Conn. who gave him a well-deserved and euphoric applause. 

A lot like Jeter’s exit, it was a delightful one for Donovan as he exchanged hugs with each of his teammates before embracing with Klinsmann on the touch line, which just goes to show the great amount of mutual respect they had for each other, even though they didn’t always see eye-to-eye. 

It’s too bad that Donovan had to hit the post of the goal just a minute earlier because that really would have been the proper way for Donovan to go out: with a bang, with a goal.

We will always remember Donovan for the balls he put in the back of the net when his country needed it the most on soccer’s greatest stage. 

None of us who witnessed Donovan’s game-winning goal against Algeria to send the United States into the knockout stages of the 2010 World Cup will ever forget what is the most iconic goal in U.S. Soccer history. 

A goal that will always give us goosebumps and cheerful sentiments for years and years to come. 

And it may be an end to all the goals, all the goosebumps and all of the memories that Donovan has given us on the international stage, but there’s no doubt that those images and the raw emotion of it all will resonate with us for a lifetime. 

And for that we say, thanks LD. 

Reach Staff Columnist Darian Nourian here



 

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