Landon Mouths Off

In a recent article in Soccer Capital News, Ian Plenderleith chides Landon Donovan for mouthing off against his LA Galaxy teammates. The question is: was Landon justified in castigating his teammates? Plenderleith doesn't think so. What particularly irritates him is that Donovan singles out a particular teammate, Ugo Ihemelu. Here's what Landon said:

"You don't go sliding into a tackle on the edge of the box against Justin Mapp. It's just stupid. You get away with that in college. You get away with that in high school because guys aren't good enough.... We were able to hide things a lot last year because we put together four good games at the end of the year, but it doesn't hide the fact that we have some issues."

Landon, of course, is smart enough to not single out Ihemelu by name, and perhaps it was wrong of him to call the action "stupid," but that doesn't take away the fact that Landon is doing something we've rarely seen him do, which is expressing his feelings about his situation with the Galaxy in such an impassioned and serious way. Whether it was right of him to do this in such a public format is irregardless to the fact that he did it, which is the most important thing. Certainly, Landon could've been wiser in his choice of words, but simply in the act of publically chastising his teammates for their performance, Landon displays a leadership quality we have rarely seen from him in his time in MLS.

Plenderleith interprets Landon's comments as a frustration with the quality of play in MLS. Plenderleith writes: "The third issue that comes out of Donovan's comment is: what the hell else did he expect when he came back to Major League Soccer from Europe? Did no one tell him about the college draft, and about how players go straight from the college game to the professional game and still have a lot to learn? Did he think they were all Champions League standard, like the teammates he left behind so soon at Bayer Leverkusen?" This is hyperbole (or sarcasm), because of course Landon understood all this when he came back from Leverkusen. Landon wants to raise the play of his teammates, win, and have fun. He's frustrated, not with playing with these young players, but with how they've been playing, an important distinction. He cares more about raising the game here than he does about his own image as a soccer player, or status as a "superstar" (which Plenderleith apparently thinks is very important to Landon). Plenderleith is right to criticize Landon for not showing enough tact in his comments, but he's wrong to get all over him over the nature of what was said. He should be commending him for showing a little more bite and a little more passion than we've seen from him since his return from Germany.

No, Plenderleith is just another fan angry with Landon for not challenging himself enough by staying with Leverkusen in Germany. That's his opinion, and that's fine. Certainly, I hoped that Landon would stay there and fight for a starting spot. However, I realize that it's Landon's life to live and if he's happier playing at home in California near his girlfriend, while also trying to raise the image of the game here in the United States, that's fine with me. A happier Landon means a more productive Landon when it counts the most. To see him so impassioned about so apparently meaningless thing as the second game of the apparently meaningless MLS regular season is exciting. Rather than chastize Landon Plenderleith, perhaps you should be commending him.