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The crazy life of Landon
One of the biggest effects of Wednesday's U.S. men's Olympic roster changes -- goalkeeper Adin Brown and overage midfielder Chris Armas are officially out with injuries; forward Sasha Victorine and overage keeper Brad Friedel are in -- is that 18-year-old sniper Landon Donovan is much more likely to start for coach Clive Charles now that another field position has opened up for an under-23 player. Look for John O'Brien to slide back to defensive mid in place of Armas, which means Donovan, the Golden Ball winner at last year's U-17 world championship, could play either at forward or at attacking mid. Though Charles cautioned on Tuesday that he'll need to evaluate Donovan during training next week in San Diego before he makes any decisions, the coach sounded awfully bullish on the youngster. "Every time I see him he's bigger, stronger and more experienced," Charles told me. "When I get him back he could be a totally different player from what he was in Hershey [Pa., during Olympic qualifying in April]. If he was 27, he'd just be five months older. But an 18-year-old is five months better."
Keep in mind, Donovan did just fine in Hershey, starting and scoring two goals in the Americans' Olympic berth-clinching win over Guatemala. Since then, Donovan tells me, his weight has spiked from 150 to 157 (due in part to lifting weights), and he'll surely benefit from training the past two months with Bayer Leverkusen's first team in the German Bundesliga. "I'm learning more and more all the time," he says, "from reading the game faster to not making bad passes and giving the ball away." There's just one thing missing in Germany. Donovan hasn't suited up for Bayer's first team yet in league play, and he's getting increasingly discouraged that he'll never be a starter there. Though Bayer needs more depth this season for the Champions League, Donovan says he's "number 24 or 25" on the team and doubts he'll see any action. "I don't feel like I have a real chance with the first team," he says. "Everyone just says, 'Wait two years.' Well, I can't wait two years. That's horrible for me. I want to play now. You train with the first team every day and see their level and know you can play with them. It's frustrating." While Donovan still thinks he made the right choice going to Germany -- "Maybe I shouldn't have signed for so long [four years]," he allows -- he regrets that MLS refused to work out a loan deal when he and agent Richard Motzkin approached the league in April while Donovan was playing for Leverkusen's reserve team in Germany's Regionalliga league. "It's hard to be in Germany when you're playing on a crap team in a crap league, and that led to me getting mad and wanting to come home," Donovan says. "I couldn't see why MLS said no. Bayer said it would be a free loan, and I would have gladly played for less money." (His current salary is $200,000.) Donovan says he'd still like to play on loan in MLS, preferably for his hometown L.A. Galaxy, but just about anywhere would do. (One presumes that difficult-to-please L.A. coach Sigi Schmid would find a way to complain about getting Donovan, too.) In any case, don't count on MLS changing its policy against accepting young Americans on loans from Europe. But we digress ... For now, the Olympics are the thing, and Donovan is hoping Charles will call on him to help the U.S. get past the opening round for the first time. Actually, he's hoping for even more. "Saying you just want to make the second round is limiting yourself," Donovan says. "I want to win a gold medal." The Sakiewicz Files, take twoReceived an interesting call from the MLS office Tuesday morning. The league office was investigating the story reported here three weeks ago, in which the MetroStars' Petter Villegas revealed GM Nick Sakiewicz had told the team that he would cover any fines handed down by the league for overly aggressive play. Anyway, the crack MLS investigator asked me if I would name the second (unnamed) MetroStars player who said Sakiewicz had paid one of his fines. (Duh.) No, I said. Later the investigator interviewed Villegas, who (surprise!) had changed his story. Bottom line: Despite Villegas's proud, on-the-record proclamation to me that Sakiewicz was reimbursing players for their fines, and despite a second independent confirmation from a teammate, Sakiewicz will face no punishment from the league. "The allegations were serious enough that they required an investigation," MLS commissioner Don Garber told me Tuesday. "We interviewed the players, you and Nick, and we determined there wasn't enough to go any further. Case closed." Imagine that. Sakiewicz and the MetroStars denied any wrongdoing. Great investigative work, guys. One MLS team exec doesn't buy any of it. "I'm 99.9 percent sure it happened," he says. "There are 20 guys on that team, and they can't all cover it up. I'd even heard about it from a different source before the MetroStars' game with Chicago that weekend." McBride's Rangers dallianceIn a conversation with me on Tuesday, Columbus Crew forward Brian McBride confirmed the report by ESPN's Jeff Bradley that Scotland's Glasgow Rangers was interested in pursuing McBride if he could have been acquired before the upcoming deadline for Champions League eligibility. According to McBride, his England-based agent Paul Stretford informed him of Rangers' sudden interest on Aug. 19. "The fact that it was Rangers sent my head spinning," said McBride, who was nearing completion of a loan deal with the English first-division club Preston North End. McBride said he called U.S. teammate (and Rangers midfielder) Claudio Reyna "and asked if [Rangers coach Dick] Advocaat was serious. Claudio said, 'He's a soccer junkie. He watches everybody, and he knows about players.'" Advocaat first saw McBride when Rangers scrimmaged against the U.S. in Florida two years ago. Alas, the deal never became serious enough for MLS HQ to get involved. Not immediately, at least. "Paul said we couldn't get it done quickly enough for me to be ready for Champions League," McBride said, "so it would be better to hold off and they could look at me some more." They'll have plenty of opportunities once McBride joins Preston, as planned, five days after the end of his MLS season. Game of the weekUnited States vs. Guatemala, Sun. Sept. 3, 2 p.m., ABC. Forget the 7-0 thrashing of Barbados. The U.S. faces a must-win against the visiting Guatemalans in the most important World Cup qualifier since the Americans beat Costa Rica in Portland in 1997. Call it a hunch, but I sense that a rejuvenated Tab Ramos will be the central figure on Sunday, just as he was on that memorable day in Portland. Prediction: U.S. 1, Guatemala 0. CORRECTION The quote from L.A. defender Greg Vanney about Project 2010 that ran in the original version of my last column did not come from Greg Vanney, but rather from George Cuddy, who runs Vanney's official Web site and who had assured me he was sending responses directly from Vanney's mouth. Such was not the case, it turns out. I have an e-mail list of 60 MLS players, of which Vanney was the only one who used a third party to respond to my poll questions. For the record, Vanney disagrees with the quote attributed to him. Meanwhile, for his exploits Mr. Cuddy has earned himself an emeritus position in the Relegation Zone. Apologies for the mix-up. Lastly ... Thanks for the big response to my query about soccer-friendly bars in my new home of Seattle. For anyone at the George and Dragon who doesn't recognize me from my glorious photo above, I'll be the guy at the bar wearing the Marcel Desailly Chelsea jersey. (Insert mocking reader response here.) And apologies this week for no poll and no Garth. My bad. The move out to Seattle has been a royal pain, seeing as my things are still in New York (Thank you United Van Lines!) so I just haven’t had as much time as usual. We’ll be back up at full speed next week. Sports Illustrated staff writer Grant Wahl will keep you up to date on
U.S. soccer teams and players each Wednesday. To send him a question or comment
click here.
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