Landon Donovan joins Wambach in crusade against players who aren’t American enough (for them)

by Brooks Peck

There have been two notable responses to Abby Wambach’s declaration of distaste for “foreign guys” playing for the U.S. men’s national team. One was an impassioned and thoughtful defense of such players by someone who falls into that category and the other was a seconding of Wambach’s opinion by a fellow retiree who seems to still be feeling personally aggrieved by the foreign guys she was talking about.

First, there’s Mix Diskerud. Born in Oslo, Norway, Diskerud played for his birth country up to the U-19 level, then switched to the U.S., where he has carved out a spot for himself since making his debut in 2010. On Instagram, he wrote the following:

Wow Abby,

I guess there are pros and cons in limiting the base for selection.

You have just singled out a few of us. But why? Why are we your single oddballs?

Think about who you try to disenfranchise. Because if you see us as the group to disenfranchise, then at least let it be known who we are.

Stats and history will show – “our group” has more than others produced volunteer and defending soldiers for what, by us, is willingly chosen and gathered to be worth protecting: Your nation.
Wish you would accept it as ours too.

I know we’re not quite equal. From “your group of people” the country’s Commander in Chief need to be selected. However, other than that – you and I share something not unique, but constitutionally earned, a birthright to defend this nation as an American. Wherever we go. Led by whoever has earned, by democratic process, his/her right to lead, on or off the field, in peace, in war, in practice, or in any other kind of pursuit of your happiness.

Enjoy your retirement. But stay active. We all need you. Oddballs or not.
Mix

That should have been enough to show the error in Wambach’s way of thinking and put the matter to bed, but former men’s team captain and famed exclusion from the 2014 World Cup squad Landon Donovan decided this was his chance to remind everyone that he’s still upset about missing out on one last World Cup.

In an interview with Sirius XM radio (via Sports Illustrated), he said:

“I wouldn’t feel as good about it if we had a team full of players that didn’t really grow up or didn’t really identify as being American,” Donovan said. “It’s nothing against them. Fabian Johnson is as good a player as there is maybe in the Bundesliga right now and I love him and he’s a nice kid. I love Jermaine (Jones), really nice kids and they’re good teammates and I like having them on the team. But if we had a team full of players like that it just wouldn’t feel the same as if we developed a team then that went on and won a World Cup. There’s just something more special about all of us being a part of it and growing it and building it. If it’s win at all costs, that’s fine, but in my opinion it’s not win at all costs, it’s win in a way that makes us feel proud of it.”

Donovan also said that he told Klinsmann, when he was cut from the 2014 World Cup team, that, “There’s at least a few players that are on your World Cup roster that are going that don’t care in the same way that I do. I grew up as a part of this whole system. I feel like it is a part of me and I think there’s players in that locker room who if you go three and out in the World Cup they’ll go back to their club teams and won’t even blink twice, whereas if we go three and out I’ll be devastated and I think that’s a piece that’s important.”

He then carried the discussion over to Twitter, where he got a bit more specific.

It’s difficult to see Donovan’s words as anything but the position of an embittered man who refuses to come to terms with the realities of the world. Players born and/or developed abroad have been playing for other nations since the early days of international football. The United States’ first last goal in the first World Cup was scored by Jim Brown, who was born in Scotland and didn’t move to the U.S until he was 19, three years before the tournament took place. Argentina born Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano played for three different national teams and most of his caps were with Spain.

Nations big and small do this on the regular. The rules allow for it and now regulate it, forcing players to eventually commit to just one nation. It’s not something Jurgen Klinsmann invented to corrupt the sanctity of the modern U.S. national team and its youth development program.

But as Donovan said on Twitter, he’s not against ALL foreign born players wearing the shirt. Just those who don’t identify as American. It’s unclear how he wants to sort out those two categories, though. If he thinks players should take an exam to determine their Americanness or if he wants them each to care for a bald eagle for a month before they can make their debut. It’s also unclear if he wants to be the one who tells American service members stationed abroad that their children shouldn’t play for the country they risk their lives to defend. Or if he thinks only people who identify as American should be allowed to live in the United States, a country built by immigrants.

As for his point that teammates have told him they’re only in it for the World Cup opportunity, again, this is just sour grapes. The claim that he wants it more than other players is the irrational argument of someone who can’t accept that things didn’t go their way. That’s just not how it works. The coach decides which players will give him the best chance to win out of those available to them and that’s who they take. Don’t like it? Tough luck.

If a goalkeeper wanted to prevent a goal Donovan scored more he wanted to score it, would he agree that it shouldn’t count? If he studied all night for an exam but got a worse grade than someone who didn’t study at all, should the grades be changed? Who gets to quantify each person’s level of caring? Someone competing with them for the same position?

Despite what Donovan says, it is win at all costs. The game doesn’t award points for which team is the most patriotic or developed the most players within its own borders. If you’re not sufficiently proud of a team that uses the best players at its disposable as effectively as possible, then that’s on you.

And if this thought process is eroding the chemistry of the U.S. national team, then it’s xenophobia and other personal biases, not identity politics, that are the problem.

12 comments

  2. Jennifer says:

    Landycakes always was a self-absorbed arsewipe. Wanting it more has never been and never will be the basis for the selection of a national team in any sport, nor does it have anything to do with who wins or loses. Did Germany want to win the World Cup more than Argentina? Who knows, but they won it no matter the inspiration, and with at least two players who were born in another country (Podolski and Klose), never mind players like Ozil and Khedira who possibly could’ve played for other countries based on their family histories/ethnicities.

    Plus, coming up through the US youth system is part of why our national team is mostly at a disadvantage against the best teams in the world. The US youth system is the biggest part of the problem, not something to be required for national team membership.

  3. Carl Schulze says:

    Well laid out, Mr Peck. The notion that the inclusion of “overseas Americans” on our team undermines our domestic development is silly; it does the opposite. It only fosters greater competitiveness on our part to increase the quality of our youth system.

  5. sa says:

    Sour grapes or not on Landon’s part what Abby was saying is that not enough is put into developing players here in the States and that is true. The reason these “foreign guys” are better than homegrown talent is because they were developed in countries with a good youth system. The “hey but Sydney Leroux is Abby’s teammate” is not a completely valid argument because she was a part of the U.S system since she was 15.

    • bvb09 says:

      Nonsense. Abby’s diatribe was perhaps alluding to the sorry state of American youth soccer, but it is clear from her comments that she squarely places the blame for this on Klinsmann and those “foreign guys”.

      AW: “First of all, [Klinsmann] hasn’t really focused, I feel like, enough attention on the youth programs.”
      – I’m not sure exactly how things are run by US Soccer, but “youth programs” are generally 0% of the job description of the senior men’s national team manager. There is a reason that tiered systems are supposed to be put in place. It’s so that each manager is only responsible for their own squad, and not thousands of kids in youth academies across the country. If anything, the fact that few if any “real” young American’s (in Abby’s view) are good enough to make it into the senior squad is a reflection of the poor quality of American U-21 and U-19 teams.

      AW: “Also the way that he has changed and brought in a bunch of these foreign guys is just not something that I believe in wholeheartedly.”
      – Here in Canada, we have a word for these “foreign” people with passports and citizenship. We call them “Canadians”. This part of her rant has nothing to do with the American youth setup anymore. It is just straight-up xenophobia. As the national team manager, Klinsman’s one and only job is to win games, and not to protect the “purity” of American national identity.

      The uproar over these “foreign” players is also particularly ironic given the anger that was expressed among many US soccer fan’s when players like Rossi and Subotic refused to play for them.

      As for Leroux… if you can really call 2 years of highschool (while still playing for the Canadian U-15 and U-19 teams) followed by collegiate play a youth “system”, well then I guess there’s no arguing here

  6. Brooks Peck says:

    Thinking more about this, it’s disappointing that Donovan would judge the intentions/commitment of others in this way after all the criticism he went through around the time of his sabbatical from the U.S. team. I thought he was wrongly judged for that, too. Obviously not exactly the same thing, but I see similarities in the perceptions.

  7. Artur B. says:

    THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE EXPLANATION FOR THE RECENT SPIKE IN INFLAMMATORY AND DELUSIONAL PSEUDO-AMERICAN NATIONALISM!! THIS IS OF COURSE THE COBBLY HANDIWORK OF THE EVIL CORN MENACE!!! FIRST THE CORN INFILTRATED OUR BREAKFAST CEREALS, AND NOW THIS!!! WHY, LANDON?? WHY?!?!??! YOU ARE QUIET WHILE THE NATIONAL TEAM DOES WELL, BUT AS SOON AS RESULTS TAKE A BAD TURN, IT IS BECAUSE THE PLAYERS ARE NOT AMERICAN ENOUGH?!?! THIS IS WHY YOU CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!!! THE NEXT TIME THE CORN TRIES TO MAKE YOU SAY SUCH NONSENSE, JUST THINK OF THESE TWO WORDS: BOB BRADLEY…. THE ILLUSTRIOUS AMERICAN THAT LAST GUIDED YOUR TEAM OF AMERICANS TO A LAST PLACE FINISH IN A WORLD CUP GROUP STAGE, FOLLOWED 4 YEARS LATER BY A LAST 16 ELIMINATION BY GHANA!!! MAYBE IT IS TIME TO ADMIT THAT AMERICANS, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE BORN, ARE JUST NOT THAT GOOD AT FOOTBALL???

  8. Evan says:

    Great column. Mostly come here daily for the videos (and the nonsense), but I also find your work incredibly entertaining. This post resides squarely in the serious part of the blog, and it’s filled with clear-eyed truth. First time I have ever posted a comment. Keep up the great work on this site.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.