Landon Donovan: The End of an Era

 

Maybe yesterday's announcement of Landon Donovan's retirement at the end of this MLS season shouldn't have come as a surprise to any of us. Though Donovan is just 32 and could conceivably still have some very good years left in him, we have borne witness to his sometimes fluctuating passion for the game and his longing for a meaningful life that exists well outside of the bounds of white lines on a field.

It is indeed a seminal moment in American soccer, this retirement of a player who, over the span of more than a decade, was often able to transcend the collective gaze of soccer fans in this country and, in doing so, became something of a household name even amongst those sports fans who knew next to nothing about soccer. In a crowded American sporting landscape in which soccer has, in relative terms, only recently begun to captivate the multitudes, such an accomplishment only serves as a microcosm for what he has meant to the sport here.

Life With Jason Smith: So Far, So Good

As is the case with any managerial change, regardless of circumstance, there is a certain pause that supporters take in assessing just how a change at the top will affect a club's fortunes going forward. Fans of struggling teams hope that a changing of the guard brings a reversal of fortunes, fans of contenders pray that the upward trajectory continues, while all fear that it will all go wrong and that their clubs will have to start again from square one in order to get it right.

While two games may serve as a rather small sample size by which we can assess the success of the decision to bring Jason Smith back to the helm of Atlanta Silverbacks, the initial returns are promising indeed and certainly give Silverbacks fans that glimmer of hope that begins to suggest the possibility of sincere competition for fourth place in the overall table and a potential spot in The Championship, the NASL's four team postseason.