Open Thread: On the best memories of Landon Donovan with the USMNT | Armchair Analyst Thursday Q&A

With one game and one half in the books, it looked very much like the US national team was going to head home early from the 2010 World Cup. Yeah, they'd gotten a point off of England in the opener – and to this day, I feel like US soccer fans should tithe 10 percent of their earnings to Robert Green – but they followed it up with one of the worst halves of soccer we saw from any team at that tournament, and headed into the break of Game 2 down 2-0 to Slovenia.

This was crushing me at the time, because I truly believed that 1) We were better than Slovenia; 2) that we should advance out of the group, and that 3) Landon Donovan was the best player on the field. But for the second World Cup in a row, he wasn't playing like it.

Two minutes into the second half, this happened:

Here is what I wrote about that goal, and that particular game, for Howler Magazine back in 2012:

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Whatever the case, by shifting from an “empty bucket” 4-4-2 to a 4-1-3-1-1 after going down 2-0 to Slovenia in the second group game, Bradley un- leashed Donovan to become a U.S. legend. Unshackled on the right flank, Donovan took control of the game. Minutes after the formation switch, he dummied a Slovenian central defender, took two touches and fired the ball directly at Samir Handanovic’s head to slice into the lead. It was a blast that seemed filled with all the angst and agitation of the previous four years, and it woke the U.S. up. Benny Feilhaber, a halftime sub, raised hell up and down the left flank, Altidore carved as wide a swathe as McBride ever had, and Michael Bradley did the running of three men. They didn’t quite reach the anarchic élan of the 2002 team against Germany but—finally—this was a U.S. team that could use the ball to both generate chances and snuff out opposition momentum.

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Everybody remembers Donovan saving the US from Algeria in the final group stage game. Few remember that he'd saved himself just days before.

That's the Landon Donovan moment that'll be running through my head as I watch him take the field in Red, White & Blue for the final time on Friday vs. Ecuador (7 pm ET; ESPN). Forget the incredible runs, and seeing-eye through-balls, or the counterattacks that even Brazil couldn't contain.

I'll remember the time he got so fed up with himself, his opposition and the weight of expectations among US soccer fans that he fired a ball as hard as he could at the goalkeeper's head. It was one of the few times that America's greatest and most complex soccer player seemed entirely free to enjoy the moment.