stating the obvious

And repeating myself, as well. Watching the U.S. Men’s National Team defeat El Salvador 5-1 in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, I was reminded of why it’s more difficult to hate individual soccer players than it is in other sports.

A Dodger is a Dodger, always the enemy. But soccer operates on two levels, club and country, and that complicates things. Yes, I’m aware that there are various outlets for national team solidarity in the major sports … the Olympics, the World Baseball Classic or whatever they’re calling it. But at least for me, those events are not very noticeable compared to the regular seasons for those players. I don’t care if a Dodger does well for the U.S. in the Baseball Classic.

The current squad for the U.S. includes three San Jose players: Chris Wondolowski, Clarence Goodson, and Alan Gordon. Goodson scored a goal, Wondo had an assist, Gordon didn’t play. Among the other players who had key roles in today’s 5-1 win, Landon Donovan was the best, with a goal and three assists. Landon was, of course, a member of the two San Jose Earthquakes MLS championship teams, after which he took a circuitous route to play for Los Angeles, which made him Public Enemy #1 for San Jose fans. But he has also scored many memorable goals for the national team, most famously this:

Really, how can any American soccer fan hate Landon Donovan?

Joe Corona scored for the U.S. against El Salvador, as well. Corona plays for a club in Mexico. Mikkel Diskerud scored … he plays for a club in Norway. Eddie Johnson scored after he’d only been in the game for 14 seconds, and later added an assist … he plays for Seattle, a team that has a bit of a rivalry going with San Jose. The team’s goalkeeper Nick Rimando plays for Real Salt Lake, as does midfielder Kyle Beckerman. Defender Matt Besler plays for Kansas City.

All of these guys will be booed when they come to San Jose on the visiting team. But we also spend time cheering for them when they play for the USA, which removes a lot of the hate. It clarifies things: it’s the jersey that gets fans riled up, not the person.

I suppose I should include a video of what Landon Donovan did to make all of those people go bonkers, especially since it is probably the most famous goal call in U.S. broadcast history (Ian Darke at the mic).

Props to Tim Howard for that outlet pass.

Might as well add Darke’s second-most famous goal call for the U.S.:

Ah, what the heck. Andres Cantor is probably the most famous soccer announcer in the U.S., especially for the casual fans. Here’s his call of Landon’s goal: