Down to Donovan?
HAMBURG, Germany — Landon Donovan kept getting advice, not goals.
U.S. coach Bruce Arena criticized his play in the opening loss to the Czech Republic, and there was no shortage of teammates and staff who spoke with him, attempting to prod the prodigy back on track.
Donovan responded in last weekend's exhilarating 1-1 tie against Italy, and now heads into Thursday's must-win game against Ghana with the confidence he lacked against the Czechs.
"I think he emerged in this game and demonstrated to the world, but more importantly to his teammates, that he's a great player in any kind of game," Arena said Monday. "Landon did things against Italy I've never seen him do before. He was a warrior on the field."
It's a pretty easy formula that will get the Americans to the second round: win and get help. The simplest scenario would be a U.S. victory coupled with an Italian win over the Czech Republic.
So, as far as Donovan is concerned, all the fouls in the tie with Italy Saturday night are forgiven.
"Listen, I'm rooting Italy for the rest of the week," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, they're the nicest guys in the world."
At times it's hard to forget that while he's a two-time World Cup veteran, he's still just 24. His 25 international goals are third in U.S. history, behind Eric Wynalda (34) and Brian McBride (30), but he's been blanked in 17 national team games since last July 9 against Canada.
Scoring has proved to be troublesome at this World Cup for the Americans, who lost to the Czechs 3-0 and came from behind against Italy when Azzurri defender Cristian Zaccardo flubbed a clearance attempt into his own net.
After two games, the Americans' shots-on-goal total stands at one.
