Landon Donovan: A genuine U.S. star

American soccer no longer is an oxymoron, its practitioners greeted only by deafening silence from a few mournful optimists. The Yanks really do belong in this World Cup with the sport's elite.

Dilettantes no more, with high expectations and an exponentially greater public awareness, the U.S. players intend to rattle some cages among the globe's best. And, more than anyone else, 27-year-old veteran Landon Donovan embodies the new respect they command.

It is Donovan, whose sparkling play during a 10-week loan to Everton in the sport's Mother Country earlier this year, opened the eyes of hidebound English soccer aficionados to the existence of American skill at the highest level. It is Donovan who, counterintuitively, brought his game to its high polish by staying home most of his career, against the generally inferior depth of talent in Major League Soccer.

As the sport made its measured progress toward professionalism in the States during the past two decades, the MLS served mostly as a steppingstone toward player opportunity overseas. Far from the 1990 U.S. World Cup team, essentially a jury-rigged group of collegiate all-stars, this year's Cup roster features the majority of its players - 19 of 23 - gainfully employed abroad.

Yet Donovan - nine times an MLS all-star - is the undisputed star of the national team, with 122 appearances going back to 2000 and an all-time record 42 goals. He wears uniform No. 10, traditionally awarded a soccer team's virtuoso.

Dangerous as a striker, he is even more threatening in roaming the midfield, where his slashing runs and deft passing serve both him and his forwards well.

"We feel it's necessary to use Landon on both sides of the field," national team coach Bob Bradley said. "More on the left, where he has played a lot, but not 100 percent there. He comes off a very good stint at Everton, where he was used mostly on the right. And Landon's smart. He knows when to push."

Still, as with the competence of the U.S. team in general, Donovan for years faced doubts about his three uneventful tours of the German pro league. First hired by Bayer Leverkusen at 19 - then the youngest American ever to sign a pro contract overseas - he never was used in a game and negotiated a loan to the MLS. Six years later, he again went to Bayer Leverkusen, but again saw only limited duty.

Having settled in with the Los Angeles Galaxy, for whom he scored 20 goals in 2008, Donovan tried playing in Germany a third time in 2009 on a three-month loan to the top Bayern Munich club, then coached by former German World Cup star Jurgen Klinsmann. "He took a big risk then," Klinsmann said, "and he made a lot out of it. I told him then, 'Take it as a positive, an experience, and risk it again when you get the opportunity.' I was really pleased he went to Everton this year.

"Munich had 20 national-team players. They don't tell you, 'It's good to have you here.' They tell you the opposite. Now, it's time, time for him to step up. And he can do that."

For the 2002 World Cup, having just turned 20, Donovan started all five U.S. games, scored two goals and was as much a soccer revelation as his team's surprising advance to the quarterfinals (a 1-0 loss to eventual runner-up Germany). The 2006 Cup was a disappointment - Donovan was scoreless and the Americans were out after a tie and two losses - but he was one of three Yanks to play all 270 minutes, and continued to build on his unquestioned leadership.

"Anytime you get him the ball," forward Robbie Findley said, "He does the right thing with it."

For Donovan and his fellow Americans, this World Cup is time for some serious fun.