Landon's burning ambition

By Simon Hart & Pete Sanderson

They insist on calling it soccer and it will never realistically replace basketball, baseball and American football as their national sport - but Landon Donovan is adamant that Americans are slowly falling in love with the game Europeans call football.

Football addict
Donovan himself has been a football addict all his life. When Bayer 04 Leverkusen first snapped him up back in 1999, experts believed the club had secured the services of one of the brightest talents in the game. However, his career in the Bundesliga did not go to plan. In his first season with Leverkusen he found himself playing for the reserves and failed to make an appearance in the German top division.

'Too young'
Never one to give in, Donovan returned in January, declaring: "I am ready for everything that Europe has to throw at me." Brave words indeed - but he was true to his word and has since played a key role in their Bundesliga campaign and adapted to the European lifestyle in a way he never believed he could. "I was perhaps a bit too young last time," he said. "It is a huge move across the Atlantic but I am the kind of person who does not like to fail at anything I do and I owed it to myself and the Leverkusen fans to give it another shot."

Winning philosophy
Donovan enjoys the simple things in life. His ideal day in Germany involves a rigorous training session with his club before spending some quality time trying to steer the United States to victory in the FIFA World Cup on his games console - a feat which eluded his country at the 2002 World Cup after they were knocked out by Germany, the country where he now resides. The good news for Leverkusen though is Donovan subscribes to the same winning philosophy on the pitch as he does on his computer game.

Liverpool defeat
"America is a nation of winners - there is no doubt about that," said Donovan. "That's why it hurt so much for me when we lost to Liverpool [FC] in the first leg of the [UEFA] Champions League round of 16. In all honestly, we got beat pretty badly. We had a great chance at 1-0 to equalise through [Dimitar] Berbatov but we didn't take it and we paid for it. I thought Liverpool played really well though."

Late strike
The 22-year-old was only given a 21-minute cameo role at Anfield as his side crashed to a 3-1 defeat. But his introduction seemed to inspire his team-mates and he was instrumental in the build up to França's last-gasp goal - a strike which kept hopes of a last-eight spot intact. And Donovan admitted after the game he would like nothing more than to get the opportunity to start the second leg.

'Early goal'
"The second leg will be very interesting," Donovan told uefa.com. "It will be a great game. At 3-0 I think it would have been a lot different but to have scored is very important. If we score an early goal it will be very interesting."

American input
Even if Leverkusen fail in their quest for a quarter-final spot, it will still be regarded as a successful year for America's European representatives. With Tim Howard back in favour at Manchester United FC and DaMarcus Beasley playing regularly at PSV Eindhoven, the US can boast three players in the Champions League's knockout stages. And, with his country well on course for Germany, perhaps Donovan's computer dreams can become a reality.