Landon Donovan Has High Expectations
June 30, 2009 – 6:30 am by Lance ZimmermanTeam USA’s advancement to the finals of the Confederations Cup with an improbable win over the number one team in competition, Spain, was the biggest moment for stateside soccer fans in over a decade and definitely advanced it’s popularity.
Team USA took a 2-0 lead into halftime on goals from Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. The upset was in the making. Unfortunately, Team Brazil, the second ranked team in competition play, wasn’t in the mood to give the U.S. a storybook ending. Brazil came out and scored three goals, one coming within the first two minutes after halftime. Their second half attack was relentless, and Team USA could do nothing but play defense during the second half of the match.
A competitive final however gives Team USA an abundance of hope heading into the 2010 World Cup. The team’s win over Spain shows that this team is capable of beating top competition, and that soccer here in the U.S. could start to flourish in terms of popularity.
Landon Donovan joined The Dan Patrick Show to elaborate on what it was like making it to the finals of the Confederations Cup for the first time in Team USA history.
Landon was asked if they reached the point to where they were ok with the loss after all they had accomplished:
“Well, I still felt proud of what we did. We’re just competitive. We do that for a living so it sucks to lose. When you think about what we did and who we lost to, and the way we lost, its disappointing but we can still be proud of how we did.”
On the second half onslaught that Brazil mounted:
“Yeah, its like they just keep coming. You turn one way, there’s a guy, you turn the other way and there’s the same guy. You turn around and there’s another guy. That’s why they’re Brazil man.”
On what the team thought going into the locker room up 2-0:
“It wasn’t one of those things where we were like ‘oh my god I can’t believe we’re doing this’, it was ‘we’re playing well, lets make sure the first part of the second half that we’re smart about how we play’. Obviously, they made a good play and we weren’t sharp enough and then the game turned within a minute. Once they scored the first one we did a good job to weather the storm for awhile but it just kept coming. You kind of sensed eventually that eventually they were going to get some good chances, and they finished us.”
On what this does to his expectations heading into the World Cup:
“It probably raises them. Just from our belief standpoint it helps a lot. We’ve had a few World Cup’s in a row where we’ve been pretty competitive, but now we realize these are games we can win. If we play Brazil 10 times, are we going to play that well and beat them, three or four or five times? Probably not, but we can compete with them and if we keep getting better, that’s all we can ask for, right?”
Listen to Landon Donovan on The Dan Patrick Show
Tags: 2010 World Cup, Confederation Cup, Landon Donovan, USA loses to Brazil 3-2, USA Soccer
