You're Not Going Anywhere

The big question for US Soccer after the World Cup ended was what was going to happen to some of the stars of the US team. A couple were already on loan in the European leagues and simply returned to them, but most were in the MLS, which is pretty much seen around the world as the AA-level of soccer. Despite some of them having weak resumes, a couple of the more prestigious International leagues started sniffing around the roster for players they could transfer to Europe. The big star for the team, Landon Donovan, had been on loan to Everton from his MLS team and he returned to the Los Angeles Galaxy after the World Cup ended. But when Everton came calling about extending Donovan's loan with the team, they were told by MLS officials that Donovan was staying put for the foreseeable future. Now, normally I would be annoyed about any league trying to tell a single team or player what they could or could not do with their playing career but, frankly, its soccer so my ire isn't nearly what you would expect it to be. I'm actually fine with MLS deciding that in this case the good of the many outweigh the good of the one and that the best thing for the league as a whole is to make Donovan stay put, because actually I agree with them completely.

People who didn't watch soccer before the World Cup and have never seen an MLS game in their lives are going to scream that this is a waste of Donovan's talents and no way to grow US Soccer Internationally. Here's the question I have for them: who cares what the rest of the world thinks of our soccer reputation? You know what would raise our International profile the most? Winning during the World Cup. We're not going to get better at doing that by impressing the next generation of kids in other countries who won't be able to play for us anyways. What the sport most needs to happen is to find a way to convince all the 9 and 10 year-old kids who play soccer now to not move to another sport once they get to high school. And as marketing plans go, using the well-spoken, newly-minted national hero with the hot (ex?)wife, who makes pretty good money and gets to live in LA as the face of your league is a fairly solid starting point. Also, I wonder if they have thought about the flip side of that argument: what if Donovan flops in Europe? If he's supposed to be the best soccer player the United States has to offer, shouldn't he have had more than two goals the first time he was loaned out? What if goes over and lays an egg? It does far more harm than good.

There is actual momentum in this country for soccer for the first time in a decade. The fact Donovan's goal versus Algeria won a fan's choice award for Best Moment of the Year is proof of that (sure, it was an ESPY, but it's still better than the alternative of not winning it). However, this is a 'see it today, forget it tomorrow' world. The best way to keep that momentum going is to keep Donovan in MLS and playing in one of the biggest markets that the league has on a team that seems to have fans who actually care. It is not sending him overseas to randomly show up on SportsCenter twice a month while playing games that are on a Tuesday at 11 AM (if they even get to be broadcast over here at all). They do that and people will have forgotten all about him by Christmas. Besides, Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey are doing very well over in Europe (admittedly, I'm taking my friend who watches a ton of soccer's word on this): they could be the ambassadors that US soccer needs. I'm sure that Donovan isn't happy about having to remain in the US and not getting to test himself against the best of the best, but I'm also sure all the money he is about to make on a fat new contract and endorsement deals will help him get over it. Still, they had better do it quickly, because NFL training camps start in a couple weeks and once those start up everything else gets pushed to the back burner.