Landon Donovan: Finally a household name

[MY VIEW] If there’s anything American soccer needed badly, it’s an American superstar. He has arrived and his name is, of course, LandonDonovan.

In stoppage time of the USA’s must-win clash with Algeria, Donovan sparked an attack at the halfway line, passed off to Jozy Altidore, and followedup to bury a rebound to send the USA to the second round of the World Cup.

It was Donovan’s second clutch goal at this World Cup and its replays will be shown endlessly over the nextfew days. His name will be known to all Americans.

While Mia Hamm, who retired six years ago, captured the imagination of American girls as no other female athlete everhad, the men’s side had never produced a true soccer hero.

Alexi Lalas attained some mainstream fame during the 1994 World Cup, but that was due more to his off-fieldcharisma. The goateed defender could barely fill a short highlight reel.

Cobi Jones, who also played in his prime in the 1990s, made a connection to youngsters and did playexciting soccer, but his achievements pale in comparison to Donovan’s.

Neither Jones nor Lalas were near world-class, and while Claudio Reyna may have been the mostaccomplished American of that generation, his greatest achievements went unnoticed outside the small circle of fans who followed the careers of Americans abroad.

Of the three World CupsReyna played, he and his team shone at just one, in 2002, when a 20-year-old Donovan started every game and played a key role in the quarterfinal run.

Donovan’s brilliance has been ondisplay for years within our shores, as he led teams to three MLS titles. He entered this tournament, his third World Cup, as the USA’s all-time leading scorer, with 42 goals.

ButDonovan came short of yielding adulation outside the soccer community and he even had his critics within it: The Eurosnobs who don’t consider a player successful unless he stars on the otherside of the Atlantic.

Donovan silenced those detractors somewhat with an impressive loan stint at Everton earlier in the year. But I never believed that Donovan needed a European address tobecome a world-class player. And certainly he has proved that in South Africa.

He may have a had quiet performance for much of the Algeria game, but Donovan demonstrated true superstarqualities when he saved the USA’s World Cup campaign with his last-gasp effort.

And it should be noted that the high-scoring Donovan plays in midfield, where he must defend as much asattack. Yet he scores and creates at a forward’s pace. (He helped set up Michael Bradley’s game-tying goal against Slovenia and the Maurice Edu strikethat was called back.)

Donovan has now scored 44 goals for the USA and they come in all the various forms. Right foot, left foot, long-range, off the breakaway, short-range poaching — andeven four from the head of his 5-foot-8 frame, most famously against Mexico at the 2002 World Cup.

Skill, soccer smarts, speed – not the brawn that our youth coaches so often look for– are the source of Donovan’s splendid game. That makes him the perfect role model for young American players.

That he’s an entertaining player and a goalscorer make himjust the right player to represent the face of American soccer during a World Cup that is getting unprecedented attention in the USA.