A Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From pro football’s Super Bowl to baseball’s World Series, from dynamic soccer’s World Cup to golf’s and tennis’ U.S. Open, major auto racing, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, more major tennis like Wimbledon, tiny connections to that NBA and a little NHL, major college football, Kentucky Derby, aquatics and Olympic Games, that sparkling little city sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10. – Obrey Brown
It was July 6, back in 2018. A World Cup quarterfinals day took place. France had just beaten Uruguay, 2-0. At 11 a.m., Pacific, Belgium took on Brazil for a spot in the Cup semifinals.
American soccer icon Landon Donovan had made a bold prediction a few years earlier. He talked about Belgium in 2014. By 2018, that European nation was bidding for a Cup.
Flashing back, it’s a distant memory in days when Landon, a young teenager at that time, flashed up and down high school soccer fields, darting in to take a pass, dribble upfield, set up a teammate, or launch a shot into a soccer goal.
In years ahead, he wasn’t worried about playing Rialto Eisenhower, San Gorgonio or Victor Valley from that Citrus Belt League.
What was on his mind that summer of 2014 is Group G — Germany, Ghana and Portugal. plus his American side. America’s coach at that moment was German legend Jurgen Klinsmann. He’d have a choice on whether to pick Donovan or not.
America had been in such a state of disorganization as a soccer side. Team USA went international to hire that coach. Klinsmann, a goal-scoring superstar for Germany, was brought over to direct that American side.
Donovan would eventually feel a sting.
In reality, his days at Redlands High as a freshman – when he was Most Valuable Player for his high school league in 1996 – and his half-season at Redlands East Valley, was just miniature soccer.
He was an IMG Academy (Fla.) kid playing for club and national youth teams, plus prepping for a remarkable career that was about to unfold. Leaving REV midway through his sophomore year (1997-98) to play professionally overseas, Donovan’s touch seemed magical.
Magnificent Donovan, an L.A. Galaxy/U.S. World Cup player, has scored an American record 57 international goals – and likely would’ve added to that mark in his fourth Cup appearance in 2014.
“I hope so,” he said over such hopes. As of April 22, 2014, Donovan claims he didn’t have a clue if he’d be included on USA’s roster. “We’ll find out in the beginning of June.”
Was he being coy? After all, he’s one of USA’s greatest USA scoring threats ever. Donovan shrugged.
“You never know. I hope so – yes.”
DONOVAN: MESSI, RONALDO BEST IN THE WORLD
It’s amazing that such a remarkable talent as Donovan grew up back in that Redlands area. Klinsmann, though, didn’t pick him.
Asked to identify this world’s best players, Donovan pondered for just a few moments. No American players came from his lips.
“Cristiano (Ronaldo, of Real Madrid) and (Spaniard Lionel) Messi.”
That pondering, perhaps, came just because he was trying to separate those two between No. 1 and No. 2. It’s impossible. “They’re both good for different reasons,” says Donovan, who may have settled on Messi being best-on-the-planet.
Donovan’s been on the pitch, playing against both players, incidentally. Don’t forget: Messi’s a goal-scoring legend. Truthfully, Ronaldo wasn’t far behind.
Said Donovan: “He gets himself into position better than other people can. He’s more of an individual talent when he gets the ball alone.” Messi might be five or six inches shorter than NBA great LeBron James, “but it’s the same athleticism.”
The 2014 World Cup was wide open. Donovan was hoping to play. It would be one last hurrah.
Germany, he said, “is emerging. A lot of people are talking about Belgium.”
Belgium? Four years later, Belgium was on a threshold of winning that 2018 World Cup. They’d taken down 5-time Cup champion Brazil, 2-1, in St. Petersburg, Russia. In that year’s semifinals, however, France ended Belgium’s run with a 1-0 outcome.
Team USA wasn’t in that 2018 field. Neither was Donovan on Team USA’s side.
DONOVAN’S GOAL-SCORING WAS PHENOMENAL
Four years before, in 2014, Donovan’s name wasn’t on Team USA’s roster. It might’ve been a breakdown of America’s side. By 2018, Team USA couldn’t even qualify to be among that year’s 32 World Cup teams. Donovan, by then, was gone.
You have to wonder, though: If Klinsmann hadn’t taken him down in 2014, would Donovan, at age 36, have lasted through a 2018 attempt?
USA’s Donovan side shouldn’t be taken for granted, though. An eventual USA World Cup triumph, though perhaps unexpected, would be a great story. In 2014, he said, just getting out our group “would be good. Getting out of our group would be success. Anything after that is icing on the cake.”
Soccer fascination growing in the USA, he says. “Our young kids now are passionate about it.”
Team USA goalkeeper Hope Solo, meanwhile, said there’s too much club, too many parents paying for their kids’ involvement. The inference seemed to be that toughness is limited.
“A rich white kid sport,” she called it.
Donovan: Interest level is high. “It takes time,” he said, referring to growing that same fascination between USA soccer and the European Premiership.
Part of an answer, perhaps: Grow up USA players on European rosters. There were, of course. Gaining toughness. To gain experience. To gain international flavor. Donovan had pulled it off.
During qualifying, those USA players would reassemble for their national team. Donovan did it. As a teenager who trained for Bayer Leverkusen, a Bundesliga league side, he trained — rarely appeared — before being “loaned” to USA’s Earthquakes for 2001-2004.
There were 11 seasons in Galaxy colors. On loan to Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, Donovan’s cap time started coming to an end. By age 32, retired after a World Cup. Perhaps, but only as a Cup player. “We’ll see,” he said at the time.
By 2016, Donovan retired as Galaxy striker. Playing for six Major League Soccer Cup championship teams, four in L.A., two in San Jose, that onetime Redlands kid was a goal-scoring dynamo — 160 connections in MLS matches, plus those 57 international net-finders.
Briefly, he returned to play for Leon, a Mexican team, but Donovan’s contract was terminated by June 2018. As a U.S. player, he played in more international matches than all players but one by that moment.
It’s kind of cool, isn’t it, that Donovan sprung his worldwide legend from Redlands?
