Donovan (1G, 2A) Turns Back Clock

[Gurleyman]

Grain of salt department, of course, since it was only one night, but he dominated the Sounders in a 3-0 win (all goals in first half). He matched up on Yedlin's side and took the kid to school. Made a run past him to set up the first goal (Yedlin stopped to try to get an offsides call and let Donovan in alone, where he laid it off when he frankly should have shot). Then totally caught Yedlin ball watching and snuck in behind him for a sitter on a rebound. Yedlin was 10 yards away going "whoops". They weren't always head to head and neither really took the other on 1v1 much, but Donovan would often track him on outside runs and was right with him. At least until late - in the interest of full disclosure, Donovan started limping around in about the 75th minute and his work rate tumbled, so even on a good day there's a fair case to be made that he would have struggled to go 90 in Brazil.

In sort of a weird moment, Gonzalez gave Yedlin a bit of a cheap shot and then got in a tussle with Dempsey right after coming to his teammate's aid - a bit of Team USA squabbles coming to the surface. Dempsey had some good moments too - his teammates had poor finishes on a couple clever set ups and he had a really good left footed hit that was saved,

I don't think LD's performance really means anything - just one night where he found his old form (and one night when Yedlin wasn't sharp). Next time, the match up might go the other way. Yedlin strikes me as someone who is mentally tough enough to lick his wounds and come back stronger.