Landon to Everton..good idea or not?

[thebes20]

Just curious as to what you think. 3 months is a very short time in order to prove oneself. He has failed in Germany before for a number of reasons, so I think he is taking a chance.

It is good that he MIGHT get a chance to start and be in form for the WC. On the other hand, what happens if he does not get a good shot, meaning that he is on the bench for a couple of weeks and then only gets into a game, for a few minutes and does not shine? Does Moyes, who is a friend of BB let him sit, or does he play him more?

LD has recently been resigned to the Galaxy for a large sum of money. Is this to up the ante to the foreign teams that might come sniffing? Or does he really want to play in the states?

[Unregistered]

Just curious as to what you think. 3 months is a very short time in order to prove oneself. He has failed in Germany before for a number of reasons, so I think he is taking a chance.

It is good that he MIGHT get a chance to start and be in form for the WC. On the other hand, what happens if he does not get a good shot, meaning that he is on the bench for a couple of weeks and then only gets into a game, for a few minutes and does not shine? Does Moyes, who is a friend of BB let him sit, or does he play him more?

LD has recently been resigned to the Galaxy for a large sum of money. Is this to up the ante to the foreign teams that might come sniffing? Or does he really want to play in the states?

The questions you ask are the typical ones someone might have for a young prospect making a risky career move. Isn't it sad that the #1 player in the US program is still treated with such kid gloves? When people say that the best athletes in the US are not playing soccer, LD is the player that immediately comes to my mind. I'm not trying to insult him by saying that. It's just that he is the #1 guy, and he is such a softie. Can you imagine the #1 guy in ANY other sport on this continent having this persona?
The #1 football player would certainly be a killer.
The #1 basketball player would have ice in his veins.
The #1 baseball player would at least be as clutch as they come.
Heck, the #1 tennis player (white shorts, country club membership and all) would even be ruthless.
And we have to worry about our #1 soccer player being cuddled at night. Sigh....

[Unregistered]

Dude, You are so spot on RIGHT......... I hope he shines at Everton....and on another note Dempsey at Fulham has been doing well so maybe the same will happen for Landy Cakes.

[Unregistered]

Dude, You are so spot on RIGHT......... I hope he shines at Everton....and on another note Dempsey at Fulham has been doing well so maybe the same will happen for Landy Cakes.

Here is my recommendation for the entire USSF budget next year. As soon as they get the boys back from South Africa:

1) Fire everyone. Wipe the slate clean.
2) Hold open tryouts in all 50 states to determine the top 100 U17 field players. (We could hire the Dutch to run the tryouts.)
3) Give them all expense paid tickets, including room, board and travel to Europe for 2 years.
4) They spend their time trying out for any club they can make. Some will succeed, some will fail.
5) In 2012, the 10 who have been the most successful are now the USMNT.
6) Optional: Let them pick their own coach when they get back.

[Unregistered]

Landon at Everton? Gonna be ugly!
Jozy is a fiasco at Hull (and previously in Villareal and Xerex), so don't expect too much from oldie Landon in Everton.
They should stay in a league at their level: the MLS.

[Unregistered]

Here is my recommendation for the entire USSF budget next year. As soon as they get the boys back from South Africa:

5) In 2012, the 10 who have been the most successful are now the USMNT.

Won't that leave the team 1 man short?

[Unregistered]

Landon at Everton? Gonna be ugly!
Jozy is a fiasco at Hull (and previously in Villareal and Xerex), so don't expect too much from oldie Landon in Everton.
They should stay in a league at their level: the MLS.

Jozy is hardly a fiasco at Hull. Yes, he hasn't scored a goal yet but then again, Hull hasn't scored many goals period, with or without him. He has done some good things on the field and it's just a matter of time with him. As far as Landon goes, I hope that the 3rd time is a charm. I cannot believe there is a single fan of US soccer that isn't totally geeked up to see Landon in that Chang kit on some Saturday morning on FSC soon. This guy has really matured and over the last several years gotten a lot of experience against really high level international competition, with some success, so I think the time is now right for him. He has seasoned up sufficiently.

[Unregistered]

It is a good deal all round. Landon can do some spying from the bench on the English. Seriously I hope he benefits.

[thebes20]

News that Los Angeles Galaxy forward and U.S. captain Landon Donovan would join Everton on a 2 1/2-month loan was generally relegated to the "in-brief" sections of English sports pages. In a nation which devotes acres of newsprint to soccer, it barely registered, even as the media is full of potential comings and goings in the January transfer window, one of two periods in the year when clubs are allowed to acquire players.

U.S. national team captain Landon Donovan starts a 2 1/2-month loan to Everton of the Premier League next month.
.While Mr. Donovan may not be an A-list superstar like Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo or even a household name like his Galaxy teammate, David Beckham, he is indisputably the U.S.'s best soccer player right now. He is not just the national team's all-time leading goalscorer and assist leader (and, at 27, will probably add to those totals), he has also been voted its best player in six of the last eight seasons. And while Euro-soccer snobs may sniff their nose at all that, one would have thought that the arrival to the Premier League of the best player on a national team ranked 14th in the world might have merited something other than the ho-hum treatment.

In fact though, Mr. Donovan's tale neatly summarizes the way many American players are perceived in the Old World. It is not that there is an automatic bias against U.S. players. After all, three Premier League teams boast American starting goalkeepers: Marcus Hahnemann at Wolverhampton Wanderers, Brad Friedel at Aston Villa and Tim Howard at Everton (And Mr. Friedel and Mr. Howard are considered among the best in English soccer today). Another U.S. player, Clint Dempsey, plays an important role for Fulham, an overachieving mid-table club. And, in years past, the likes of Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna and Kasey Keller all made an impact in the Premier League.

The difference, perhaps, is that all of the above players earned their stripes playing in Europe, whether in England or elsewhere, giving them instant credibility in the eyes of many. Mr. Donovan has yet to do that. Heavily scouted from a young age, he joined Bayer Leverkusen, in Germany's Bundesliga, at the age of 16, playing first for the youth side and then the first team, but failing to make an impact, to the point that the club sent him back to the U.S. on loan, where he joined the San Jose Earthquakes and, later, the Galaxy. He had another shot at the European big-time last January, when he joined Bayern Munich on loan, but again failed to make his mark, making just seven appearances without a goal.

Compounding the problem -- and perhaps underscoring just how oblivious European soccer can be to events outside its borders -- is that Mr. Donovan has failed to shine in the kind of international games of which Europe would have taken notice. Apart from a spectacular game against Mexico in the 2002 World Cup and some fine performances in last June's Confederations Cup against Spain and Brazil, he has not really given Europeans a chance to admire his skills. As far as public perception is concerned, his solid outings for the U.S. in CONCACAF games and his efforts in Major League Soccer are the equivalent of solitary trees falling in the forest. Few take notice, even fewer care.

Mr. Donovan, like many talented American players, has had to wrestle with the dilemma of which side of the Atlantic to ply his trade. He has elected to stay home, apart from these brief "on-loan" stints, prompting some critics to accuse him of choosing to be a big fish in a small pond. It's difficult to say definitively whether, as some predicted, his career choices thus far have stunted his development. While he no doubt would be more of a household name (and probably would earn far more than the $900,000 he made last season in MLS) if he pursued a European career, it's equally true that he has blossomed into one of the better forward/attacking midfielder hybrids around and seems content and settled in Southern California. And while it may be difficult for him to make a name for himself in what is likely to be a short, on-loan cameo at Everton, he will get another chance where it really matters a few months later, at the World Cup in South Africa.