For your viewing pleasure... In recent threads the debate about Donovan's on-going role with the USMNT continues to... well... not "rage", so much as sputter along. One refrain is often that Donovan is a one-trick pony, who relies on speed to score, and create chances on the counter-attack. As such, as his speed diminishes, he should see less playing time. In response to this argument, I went back and compiled video of all of Donovan's assists with the USMNT. Another YouTube poster had done his goals around the 2010 WC, but I updated that video as well. Please note... I'm not making an argument here, just posting the videos so those of you who are arguing can refer to them. I'll post each video in a separate post below.
Last little bit of info: Of his assists: 36 were in the run of play (11 left-footed, and 25 right-footed) 6 were on corners and another 6 on free-kicks Of his goals: 34 were in the run of play (14 left-footed, 16 right-footed, and 4 headers) 12 were on PKs and another 3 on free-kicks
Ghosting, you rock. Thanks for doing this. 72% of his goals and assists were in the run of play. Wow.
Here's the other thing that's impressive. The beneficiaries of his assists are all over the place - as in he finds many many feet (and heads). I couldn't identify everyone, but here's who I could: Jozy (6) DMB (5) Bocanegra (4) Dempsey (3) Bradley (3) Wolff (2) Lewis (2) Conrad (2) Johnson (2) McBride Mathis Ralston Ching Klein Hejduk Gooch Davies Clark Casey Gomez Jones
I was worried when I saw this post, as I figured I was beaten to the count. But I had kept the post-2006 ones so I only had to look up several earlier match reports of the earlier ones. 6 – Altidore (34, 35, 36, 40, 43, 46) 5 – Bocanegra (8, 12, 18, 27, 29) 4 – Beasley (7, 10, 19, 32) 3 – Bradley (31, 33, 37), Dempsey (39, 44, 47), E Johnson (14, 17, 25), Onyewu (20, 28, 30), Wolff (1, 4, 11) 2 – Lewis (15, 16), McBride (2, 3) 1 – Casey (42*), Ching (13), Clark (41), Conrad (24), Convey (9), Davies (38), Gomez (45), Hejduk (26), J Jones (48), Klein (21), Mathis (5), Olsen (23), Ralston (6), Twellman (22) *my favorite assist
Thanks for posting up the final list, I couldn't identify everyone with the blurry screens and I didn't want to go back and look - was lazy. (And I got Conrad and Twellman confused. Hilarious.)
Yeah... that assist to Casey is just beautiful. Casey does a nice job with his first touch, but the pass really creates the space out of nothing.
If you open them in YouTube, you can watch in HD... although most of the videos are in lower resolution. I was surprised that I was able to find half-way decent video for some of the ones that I hadn't seen before. Those internets are something else...
Donovan may actually have 49 assists. US Soccer gives Donovan the assist on Cobi Jones's last minute equalizer against Panama in the 1-1 away WCQ in 2004, and judging by Youtube it seems the right call to me.
The man is a genius. Sadly, even a football genius depends on the guys around. Fate gave Zidane the likes of Henry and Lizarazu in front and in back. Fate gave Donovan Ching and Bornstein.
Fascinating. Here's the list of assists that I found going through the USMNT game write-ups (I posted it on my blog because, apparently, I'm not smart enough to put a table in a BS post): http://danhaug.net/2012/06/18/landon-donovans-assists-with-the-usmnt/ The one not on my list (from your post above) is documented here: http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-N...-With-Last-Gasp-Strike-To-Tie-Panama-1-1.aspx So interestingly, the second assist on my list (against China in 2001) has no write-up on the USMNT website - the first match on this page: (http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/US-Men/Schedule-Results/2001.aspx) I was compiling my list by going through the USSoccer matches, starting with the Scotland match and working backwards. Apparently I missed the 2004 Panama assist, so I started looking up matches with no write-up to see if I could find other documentation. I found the video of the assist in 2001 against PRC on YouTube. It's possible that this was not a FIFA sanctioned match, and that this assist does not count towards his total. Does anyone know how to check on this?
FIFA lists only the friendlies sanctioned by them. To find a list, you go here: http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/results/index.html You can select USA and China, then select ALL in range, and you'l get: 27/01/2001 Oakland USA 2:1 China PR Friendly Which means the match was indeed considered an A-friendly by FIFA.
So I've checked all the matches on my list, plus the one that schrutebuck lists above, and they are all on the FIFA sanctioned list. There is one discrepancy with my list that I need to fix:the match that I have listed as 2/7/07 against Mexico was actually played 7/2/07. So who wants to tell US Soccer that Donovan actually has 49 assists?
I can't remember the exact number..................but a ~year ago somebody calculated the percentage of USMNT goals since his inclusion in the squad that LD has either scored or assisted on. It was a higher number than most people would realize................ Some recent games, such as the Italy friendly, gave me hope that we may not be as reliant on him as we have been in the past.
You must do it. You deserve to, since you're the one who gathered the evidence. I'd say it's quite solid. State it's with reference to their Records page, "Career Records" section: http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/US-Men/Records/MNT-Records.aspx And point them to this thread, as well. To contact them, try this: http://www.ussoccer.com/About/Federation-Services/Resource-Center/Contact-Us/Contact-Us.aspx And send it twice, to Web Site Feedback (since it's a mistake on the web site), then again to the Communications/PR, since his number of assists/goals is released to the media.
Very good work sir. Thank you. If you want to rectify the Panama assist maybe I could help you. (After all, it is your find ) Send me a PM.
What other soccer players have scored 50+ goals and assisted on 50+ goals for their country? I'm curious to see the list. Either way that's impressive and it's clear to see even with Dempsey overtaking LD as the best player on the USMNT, that Landon Donovan is clearly the best American Soccer player to ever lace 'em up. I just wish he wouldn't had wasted his prime years in the MLS.
It seems that assists weren't tracked until recently, so I couldn't find that list. However, there or only 36 players who have scored 50 or more goals in international play (obviously not including Donovan... yet). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...l_players_with_50_or_more_international_goals In addition, Donovan is currently tied for 16th all-time in international caps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_football_players_with_100_or_more_caps Finally, he's one of only 84 players (by my count) who has scored 5 or more goals in the World Cup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cup_goalscorers#Overall_top_goalscorers
It seems that my goals video has been blocked for copyright infringement. I think I know which footage is causing the problem, so I will remove/replace it and try to re-upload. Sorry about that.