Landon Donovan capped off one of the better nights in U.S. soccer history by scoring his third international hatter. |
Sporting the freshest red & white striped uni's, USA went out last night, took Scotland behind the woodshed and beat them like a rag doll. Landon Donovan once again proved to me that I shouldn't automatically give Clint Dempsey the title as the United States' best player; he had one of those hat tricks. Landon controlled USA's offensive flow from the kick-off and Michael Bradley added a bomb in the 11th minute to secure what was a rare easy 5-1 victory for U.S. Soccer.
After Scotland scored to cut the lead to one, USA went on the offensive. The second half proved to be their half as they scored three goals en route to a rout of the Scots. Without striker Jozy Altidore and attacking midfielder Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan took it upon himself to lead the Americans and did so in vintage LD fashion. He made scintilating runs left and right and simply commanded the ball all night. On his first goal he simply wouldn't be denied after he placed a rebound in the top of the net. On goal two he executed a give-n-go with Jermaine Jones that ended in a wide open Donovan shredding twine. On his hat trick goal, he finished off a beautiful Michael Bradley through ball. This hat trick was the third of Donovan's US career once again making him the only American with more than one hat trick on his international resume. On the fifth USA goal LD added an assist to his silly night by lifting a ball over the Scotland defenders right onto Jermaine Jones' head for a beautiful cap to one of the better nights in U.S. Soccer history. I just wonder why this guy still plays for the Galaxy when he had been tearing it up for Everton, but that's for another time.
This was the biggest win in the Jurgen Klinnsman-era, besides maybe that 1-0 victory over Italy earlier this year. I don't expect the good times to end anytime soon under the German. Next up on Wednesday comes a major test as the Brazilians roll into town looking to embarrass the Americans, I have a good feeling U.S. will have something to say about that.
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