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Presented the chance to demonstrate some enthusiasm for Bob Bradley and the direction of the U.S. national team program this week, Landon Donovan took a pass.There may be nothing to it, but given the opportunity to offer some complimentary platitudes when asked about Bradley's contract renewal by Goal.com in Los Angeles, American soccer's greatest star was aloof and unenthusiastic, saying he was "happy for Bob."
Donovan had hinted on FOX Soccer Channel recently that he didn't think Bradley would be back. We doubt that was wishful thinking, but the lack of obvious support from Donovan this week is interesting.
"For us, we weren't sure which way it was going to go. All we wanted was resolution, so we can now know and we can now move forward. Especially when we play a game, like the Brazil game, and you don't know what's going on, it makes it very awkward," Donovan said.
"Finally, we have resolution. I'm looking forward to when Bob gets back and we can sit down and talk and move forward, finally."
All he wanted was a resolution? Didn't matter who it was? Didn't think it was worth the effort to say something nice about the past four years and that he hoped for more of the same during the next four, etc.?
Donovan is usually very media savvy, and well aware of how his comments come across in the press and with fans. Perhaps he's in a bad mood because of the freefall his Los Angeles Galaxy are suffering, or perhaps there was more to the interview that wasn't published. Either way, the lack of overt support for the national coach from the national team's best player is somewhat surprising.
Donovan has offered more emphatic support for Bradley in the very recent past. After returning from the World Cup, he said:
"Bob has done a fantastic job with our group, and I think we've grown a lot in four years. The most telling thing about Bob's tenure with the national team is, and we talked about this, all the players talked about this after the game, that there's no game where we went into that we were in awe of or feared our opponent, and for the first time in a long time that's true.
"I remember when I came into the national team, there was a lot of teams we played against that you could see it in guys' eyes where we were almost scared, and that's never happened with Bob as a coach."
Perhaps Donovan thought that despite those positives, a change was needed for change's sake. Perhaps he was just caught on a bad day. But other than Jonathan Bornstein, whose loyalties are a given, it's been hard to find any current national team players who've gone out of their way to express or tweet support for Sunil Gulati's decision to rehire Bradley. Maybe they're just busy.
Regarding the Galaxy's aforementioned slide (a 3-6-1 slump that's seen L.A. eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League and U.S. Open Cup while its lead atop the MLS standings has been trimmed to two points), Donovan said the club is excited about David Beckham's imminent return from his Achilles injury.
"We need to liven things up a little bit," Donovan told the Daily Breeze. "I think David will help a lot. We need some fresh energy."
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said Beckham is week-to-week.
"He's in uncharted territory. Nobody really knows. You see certain estimates of how long it takes to come back from this kind of injury and most of that comes from other sports. Soccer's a lot different than other sports. We're really not that clear on what the timetable is. We're very close to it, we know that. We just need to see how he reacts every day when we get real soccer movements in. And that means playing," Arena said.
"You can't mimic what you do on a soccer field off the field with the trainer. We're putting him through the actual parts of playing soccer now and having a little contact and seeing how he reacts to it."
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