90 minutes was not enough time to decide the semifinal match between the L.A. Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo last night. My childhood friend Alan Gordon came on as a substitute late in the game. During the overtime period, Alan drew a penalty kick that would ultimately be taken by team captain Landon Donovan.
Here is a video of Landon Donovan’s goal, with the goalkeeper’ point of view:
From a physical perspective, it’s not really an impressive goal at all. Most 12 year old soccer players could put the ball where he put it. If the goalkeeper were to dive to his right, he surely would have blocked the shot with some part of his body. But he didn’t dive to his right. He was fooled. Donovan has become one of the best penalty kick takers in the country. What’s more impressive is that he has done this with one of the least powerful shots in professional soccer. A little glance of the eye, twist of the hip, and a fountain of confidence gives Donovan the mental edge in nearly every duel from the penalty kick marker.
Speaking of mental edges, David Beckham is now one win away from making good on his promise to lead the Galaxy to an MLS cup championship. As you may remember, Beckham was banged up when he first signed his MLS contract in 2007. Most of his appearances that season were with him battling some sort of injury or another. Now, he’s 100% and his fingerprints are all over the team. Even if the Galaxy do not win, it makes you wonder if Grant Wahl want’s to add an addendum to his June 2009 book “The Beckham Experiment”. With this excerpt entitled “How Beckham blew it“, it’s obvious that he considered the experiment to be a failure.
But Beckham paid no attention to charges leveled at him in the book. At least, he did not allow them to disrupt his objectives this season. His focus was consistent even in the face of loud fan objections, as I wrote about earlier this year. The guy is nothing if he is not resilient. Maybe more people will start believing that Beckham’s success has come more from his mental discipline than from his pretty face. We’ll find out after the final on November 22, 2009.
