Hard-working Donovan gets what he deserves at World Cup

Feel good for Landon Donovan today. There isn't an American sports star -- Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter included -- who has worked harder to achieve greatness in the past decade.

The difference is, you know everything there is to know about the other guys. More than anyone should, really.

Most know little about the face of American soccer and the all-time leading scorer in U.S. history.

Football in the United States has nothing to do with stoppage time and red cards and corner kicks. The celebrity status doesn't translate to our best soccer players. It never will. Not like elsewhere around the globe.

It makes Donovan's goal on Wednesday all the more meaningful, the deciding shot of a 1-0 victory against Algeria that allowed the Americans to win a World Cup grouping for the first time since 1930, since milk cost 14 cents a quart and the average household income was $1,368 annually.

Since relief camps housed thousands and thousands of the unemployed and desperate.

"This team embodies what the American spirit is about," Donovan told reporters in Pretoria, South Africa. "We had a goal disallowed the other night; we had another good goal disallowed (Wednesday). But we just keep going. And I think that's what people admire so much about Americans. And I'm damn proud."

It's almost too perfect a story. That it was Donovan who netted the score in the 91st minute that advanced the U.S. as the top team from Group C into a knockout match against Ghana on Saturday is beyond fitting.

He spent years trying to prove himself in the world's best leagues, mostly earning the label of a soft player who liked contact about as much as one would hair lice. He was a bust at 17 in Germany, unprepared for that big of a stage.

No one, though, now can deny Donovan's rise and the hard work it took to earn.

The international soccer community still views the U.S. system with a condescending glance, and for the most part it's a deserved reaction.

Major League Soccer isn't close to the best leagues Europe offers, and it's no secret that for American players to earn respect abroad, that's where they must prove themselves.

It wasn't until the 2002 World Cup, when he scored two goals and the Americans advanced to the quarterfinals, that Donovan gained the confidence needed to compete alongside the world's best players.

But then came the 2006 World Cup, when he went scoreless and the Americans didn't survive group play. He responded by becoming an MLS fixture and has played well enough in the English Premier League while on loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy that clubs and fans alike overseas want to see far more of him. His resume no longer lacks in their eyes.

Donovan believes American soccer is at its best now, that had it not advanced out of group play this World Cup, it would have been a gigantic failure. He's right.

It's not important where the line between fact and fiction lies. It's not crucial to how the story ends. Whether this U.S. team indeed is fueled by some extraordinarily unique sense of spirit and determination or simply is conditioned well enough to save its best for last is irrelevant.

But when you score nine goals from the 86th minute on in qualifying, when you rally for a World Cup draw against Slovenia after trailing 2-0 at halftime, when you miss chance after chance after chance when needing a win to advance and finally stick one home in stoppage time against Algeria, people begin to wonder if there is more to your fortune than merely wanting it so badly.

Think about it: The U.S. before Wednesday never had won a final group game of a World Cup. It had managed only two wins in 17 group games since 1990. And as the minutes passed in this latest roller coaster of emotion -- 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 -- the reality that America wouldn't advance out of one of the easier groups in this tournament seemed more and more likely.

But then Jozy Altidore hit a right-footed cross and Clint Dempsey crashed into the Algerian goalkeeper and the ball fluttered to about 8 yards from the goal.

And the face of American soccer, the nation's all-time leading scorer, the superstar most sports fans here know little about, secured his legacy by driving home the game-winner.

"The moment kind of slowed down for me," he said afterward. "It was as much a reaction as anything."

Feel good for Landon Donovan today.

No one has worked harder.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.