Landon Donovan becomes US's all-time goal scoring leader

Mark your calendar, on this leap day 2008, Landon Donovan became the official 'king of all US male goal scorers.' Although the US did not play a match today, Donovan gets this honor thanks to FIFA recognizing a match the US played against Denmark as an official 'A' international game.

During the 20 Jan 2007 game, which the US won 3-1, Donovan scored a goal from the penalty spot in the 44th minute. US Soccer has counted this game as official all along, however FIFA wasn't so sure.

Denmark said they did not play their A team so it should not count, however US Soccer pointed to contracts the FAs signed that recognize the match as an official game.

After much negotiations, Denmark decided to fess up to it being an official game, thus it is in the FIFA books, thus Landon Donovan has more goals then previous all-timer Eric Wynalda.

Congratulations to Donovan.

US 3-1 Denmark

It has been a long time coming, but the US men returned to the win column yesterday in LA, however, that victory looked unlikely in the first 45.

Even with all the offense on the pitch, the US came out looking flat. Donovan was timid, Eddie Johnson was lost and the general intensity was very low. Denmark was able to take the ball again and again towards the American goal, but thankfully were denied good final chances.

When Denmark got the first goal, I was thinking it was going to be a long night, however, an extremely fortunate call gave us a penalty kick right before the half (yes, it was Ghana in reverse). Another dose of luck allowed Donovan's attempt to deflect off the keeper and into the net.

All tied at 1 going into the break.

Then there was the second half and the fresh faces started earning their keep. The second goal by Jonathan Bornstein was amazing, but it was Justin Mapp that did all the work. He beat six or seven defenders to place a great centering pass that Bornstein happen to get under. It really was a dream goal.

Finally, Kenny Cooper finished up the scoring with a great run and a smooth finish.

Wonderful work out there, but there is still much to do. The team was having trouble connecting passes, covering balls sent into the box and putting sustained pressure on Denmark's defense. If this is the team that shows up against Mexico, they will not walk away with a win.

That was the game, but lets talk about the commentary. I was happy to read in the comments that a number of people felt the same way about the Arena and Wynalda. It seemed like they were talking about everything except what was happening on the pitch. There was little play-by-play and even less explanation of how the team was trying to build up play. It's great that they can joke about so many insider things, however, those sort of things should only happen when play is stopped, not when the ball is in the opposition's third.

I do like that they were calling US Soccer out for the intern title in front of Bob Bradley's name, but even those taunts got old.

How difficult would it be to call the game that's happening in front of their eyes? It really is the only way they will attract viewers who know little about the game.

Anyway, it is great to have the US playing again. Next up, Mexico.