ATLANTA — U.S. men’s national team great Landon Donovan has warned that Saturday’s 5-2 defeat to Belgium has the potential to do “psychological damage” to Mauricio Pochettino’s team ahead of the World Cup, and he also questioned whether the current squad is showing enough “pride” in its performances.
Donovan, who represented the U.S. at three World Cups and is tied with Clint Dempsey as the team’s all-time leading scorer, spoke to The Athletic on Monday, less than 48 hours after the team began the March international window with the heavy loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The U.S. will play Portugal at the same venue on Tuesday night.
The Athletic asked Donovan whether pre-tournament warm-up games could have a serious impact on a team’s momentum and confidence ahead of a World Cup.
Donovan, reflecting on his own period as a player, said: “No — but I’ll tell you why. We were very clear in our identity. We were never worried about conceding five goals – that would never, ever have happened. We might have lost games and we did. But that was never in the conversation — ever. For this team, I am concerned. There’s no question that conceding five goals at home three months before the World Cup is going to do psychological damage to the team and the players.
“The good news is they have another chance to get rid of that result quickly. The bad news is they’re playing Portugal and so we’re going to learn a lot about this team. ”
The U.S. actually took the lead against Belgium in the first half through Weston McKennie but was pegged back before the interval. Then, between the 53rd and 68th minutes, the U.S. performance deteriorated and the team went 4-1 down. What does it feel like for a player when a game spirals out of a team’s grasp?
“I will never forget we played an MLS game with the (LA) Galaxy away in Houston. It was one of those August days, 97 degrees, and after 23 minutes, they were up three goals. I pulled everybody into the field and nobody wanted to hear it.
“They’re all looking away and I said, ‘Look at me, if we lose today, we lose, but we’re not getting embarrassed, have some personal pride, care about what you do.’ We ended up losing 3-0. Tim Howard and I did our podcast (Unfiltered Soccer) this morning and the part we cannot figure out is why it seems like nobody cared. They’re running around and they’re trying. But there were no yellow cards. Nobody got kicked.”
Does he really believe the USMNT players do not care?
“Care’s not the right word,” he clarifies. “It’s not that they don’t care, but maybe they don’t have enough pride. Maybe that’s the way I need to say it. Fair point. But I would have been mortified to be losing a home game three months before the World Cup with 70,000 people there. I would have been unbelievably embarrassed losing 4-1 and 5-1, forget it. I probably would have got sent off. I’m just trying to figure out why is nobody yelling at each other? Why is nobody getting a yellow card? Why is nobody stopping (Jérémy) Doku after he’s terrorized us for 70 minutes? Why is this not happening? I can’t figure it out. I don’t know if it’s generational or if it’s this team in particular, but that just doesn’t happen. And it blows my mind.”
One of the more unexpected and bizarre storylines on Saturday emerged due to a uniform clash between the USMNT home kit and the new Belgian away kit, and neither side had a spare stock of their alternative kit at the venue. The jerseys were approved in advance by the match commissioner and the referee also did not appear to take umbrage. Afterwards, players including USMNT forward Christian Pulisic and Belgian pair Senne Lammens and Amadou Onana complained about the challenge it presented to those on the field.
Landon Donovan (left) with USMNT fans. (Johnnie Izquierdo / USSF / Getty Images)
Has Donovan ever experienced such a clash? “No,” he says, laughing. “In fact, one of the first things you’re taught when you’re a pro, and it only happened to me once, I didn’t have my studded cleats and it started to rain. The coach said if you ever show up without both pairs of cleats, then I would not play ever again. ‘I was like, OK!’
“It is beyond my imagination how that is allowed to happen, the amount of people that had to get through and the amount of processes that had to happen. It just blows my mind. But in the end, the referee makes the final decision on all these things. At some point the referee had to say, or maybe they didn’t, that this is not OK. It was bizarre and probably fitting for the night.”
The U.S. was missing key players in central defense, with Crystal Palace’s Chris Richards a particular blow – though he said Monday he “is available” to face Portugal. Saturday’s goalkeeper, Matt Turner, is not expected to be the starter at the World Cup, where Matt Freese is thought to be in pole position. Yet it is clear that the U.S. has a weakness at the heart of the back line, and Donovan says it is only through making the team collectively harder to beat that this can be managed.
“I’ve said all along that when we play real teams, this is an issue,” Donovan says. “It just is what it is.”
“We still don’t have a lot of answers on the back line. All of that can be solved with a spirit and a fight that helps you compete, making the sum of the parts way better than the individual. If you’re playing a team like Belgium, with real world class players on the field, you can get embarrassed. So at a minimum, forget about the formation or tactics or who is playing, if you can’t compete man to man against somebody, you have no chance. They’re just better players. So we have to get that part right first.”
