How surreal would it be to go to your local Buffalo Wild Wings for some food and have Landon Donovan, the greatest male soccer player in U.S. history, stop you at the entrance and challenge you to a game of one-on-one?
Recently, at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Los Angeles, the above scenario played itself out. Would you have the guts to jump in the net and try to stop the all-time leader in goals and assists for both the U.S. Men’s National Team and MLS? The answer may not be so easy after you watch this video:
We had the opportunity to speak to Donovan about his experience making the video, hanging out with fans and life after retirement. Read the interview here.
Since Clint Dempsey and the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team were knocked out early in the World Cup four years ago in South Africa, he’s been on a mission to DO:MORE so he could ultimately IMPROVE and lead the team farther during this summer’s matches in Brazil.
To help tell his personal IMPROVE story, Degree Men enlisted the help of ‘Mad Men’ star and soccer fan, Jon Hamm, to direct the short film, “On The Move.”
Here’s a behind the scenes look featuring Hamm and Dempsey:
1. Talk about your partnership with Degree: DO MORE and how one lucky soccer fan can win a trip to Brazil in June to support you and the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team.
Degree is working with soccer and promoting the game. And also they’ve got the new deodorant now out with Degree Motion Sense technology where the more you move the more protection you get. The cool thing about it the campaign is, if you go to degreesoccer.com, a fan can win a trip to Brazil to join us at the World Cup this summer, so that will be exciting.
2. Is scoring a goal the hardest thing to do in sports?
At times, it feels like that, but other times, it feels like luck is on your side. It is a great feeling. For me growing up, whether I scored a touchdown or hit a home run, or scored a goal, scoring a goal is the greatest feeling to me. It gave me such a rush you want to keep doing it over and over again. That’s the reason I love the game. I love that it’s continuous, there aren’t that many stoppages, and scoring a goal is why I fell in love with it.
3. What does it feel like to be the captain of the American team?
One, it puts more pressure on me to try to will the team on. At the same time, there are a lot of players on the team that have played in World Cups, and will be ready for that challenge. We have a lot of leaders on this team; not just myself. Michael Bradley, Tim Howard and plenty of others that have that experience and really helped the team out in tough times. We’re a team that’s in good hands and we’re looking forward to the challenge, and I’m excited about that opportunity.
The World Cup was a huge hit last year with the men’s tournament, and now the women have their turn. The US women are much more competitive than the men, so I think this tournament will be very popular. The Germans will be tough to beat on their home turf, but if the US women can win this one they can set up a rivalry of soccer powerhouses with Germany. Check out some of their training methods in this video.
Pressure was there from day one. Preparing to conquer it started 279 days ago. Join in the USWNT quest towards the title.
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Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (06/25/2009 @ 5:32 pm)
Spain’s national team, the No. 1-ranked professional soccer team in the world, had been unbeaten a world-record-tying 35 games in a row. They had also won a world-record-tying 15 games in a row. But then they met the United States in the 2009 Confederations Cup. They met the Americans and the Americans beat them. This is the same U.S. National team that has never won a World Cup, a Confederations Cup, or made any FIFA records of considerable note. Nevertheless, they outplayed their Spanish opponents on Wednesday, defeating them 2-0 in front of a shocked South African crowd.
Although Spain outshot the U.S. 18-9, nothing could get by goalkeeper Tim Howard who was solid the entire game. Goals by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey were enough to propel the U.S. into the finals.
Now the Americans will face Brazil, a team they have only beaten once in national competition. Earlier today, Brazil defeated South Africa 1-0 in a hard fought contest. But just because Brazil is in yet another final does not mean they are unstoppable. It took 88 minutes for Brazil to score, when Daniel Alves knocked a direct kick into the net against a highly underrated South African squad.
Although the ripple effect may, unfortunately, not be as large here in the U.S., the fact that Spain’s national team was beaten buy a bunch of Americans is making news around the world. Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected this to happen. I didn’t, sports critics didn’t, the handful of American soccer fans didn’t, Spain didn’t, and even the irritating ESPN2 commentators didn’t (it’s OK to show a tad bit of nationalism, you bozos).
Jim Rome was right in his telecast today: this victory won’t put U.S. soccer on the map. Still, it’s amazing.
You can watch the U.S play Brazil in the Cofederations Cup final on Sunday at 11 AM on ESPN.
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Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (06/21/2009 @ 11:59 pm)
At the Confederations Cup in Rustenburg, South Africa, the U.S. National Team is continuing to surprise everyone as earlier today they beat Egypt to advance to the semifinals.
The Americans had looked to be heading out of the tournament after losses to Italy and Brazil, but Charlie Davies, Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey scored in a vastly improved performance to edge the African champions for a place in the next round on goal difference.
“All of the critics in America who said we were no good after losing to Italy and Brazil, let’s see what they say now,” Bradley said. “We had to play 90 of 180 minutes against two of the top five teams in the world with 10 men.”
The United States kept 11 men on the field all game after a red card in each of its previous two games and it showed. Where the Americans had labored previously, they shone throughout and could have scored even more.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, expected the United States to go far at all in this tournament. The Confederations Cup started, which is held every four years, pits the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships (CAF, CONMEBOL, UEFA, AFC, OFC, CONCACAF), along with the FIFA World Cup winner and the host country. The U.S. National Team is playing great soccer right now and hopefully they will continue with this energy up till next year’s World Cup.
They will face Spain in the semifinals on Wednesday.
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