Lincoln City and the World Cup don’t have a huge history. We’ve borrowed some players who have appeared, such as Brennan Johnson and Joe Morrell, but only had one player who has belonged to us and gone to a World Cup.
That was Frank Sinclair, at the 1998 tournament with Jamaica and later appearing for us in League Two. Aside from Johnson and Morrell, part of Wales’ 2022 World Cup squad, there is also David Campbell, a Northern Ireland international who went to Mexico 86 and joined us on loan for a month eight years later.
Even our international managers didn’t get to a World Cup – in fact, the last two England managers to fail to get to a full tournament were Steve McClaren (Euro 2008), a former Imps loanee, and Graham Taylor (USA 94), a former Lincoln manager.
Former Imps manager Allan Clarke did appear in the 1970 World Cup, making his international debut against Czechoslovakia in the group stages, while Chris Sutton, another former boss of ours, was snubbed for the 1998 World Cup by Glenn Hoddle, and binned off international duty after that. It’s an inauspicious collection of World Cup connections, hardly worth a mention.
However, we do have a strategic advisor helping build our brand over in the United States who can lay claim to being an all-time World Cup great, certainly within the context of his own country. I thought it might be interesting this morning, as we try to get excited for the 2026 World Cup, to celebrate the exploits of Landon Donovan.
Landon Donovan at the World Cup
I think it is important to remember the context for the United States at the World Cup. They played in the first competition in 1930, but prior to 1994, perhaps their best result was the Larry Gaetjens-inspired 1-0 victory against England in 1950, which was regarded as a misprint by the British press and reported as 10-1. They were minnows, with their expertise lying in baseball, basketball, and their own version of football, where you can carry the non-ball-shaped ball.
1994 came at a time when ‘soccer’ was experiencing a real push. I use ‘soccer’ as if it is an Americanism, but it isn’t, it was called soccer here for a long while. Still, after the NASL collapsed, it took the 1994 World Cup to ignite football in the United States. They had been the second-worst team in 1990, and even after 1994, they were the worst side, finishing with the 32nd-best record out of 32 in 1998, including a defeat against Iran. Ouch.
By the time 2002 arrived, six years after their hosting of the tournament in which they emerged from the Group Stage by finishing third and then being beaten in the last 16, the impetus had stalled somewhat. The United States is a country that loves its heroes, more so perhaps than its teams. They love Babe Ruth, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, and William Perry. They love an icon, and while that 1994 side had good players, John Harkes and Alexi Lalas, they didn’t stick in US consciousness. They finished third in a group with Colombia, Romania and Switzerland, it just did light the fire.
Then came 2002.
Japan & South Korea 2002
Donovan’s first World Cup came in 2002, when the United States arrived in South Korea and Japan with little expectation outside their own camp. That changed quickly, and while the narrative of the tournament is dodgy officials helping South Korea, Landon Donovan began writing his own story here. He started in the opening group game against Portugal, a fixture few gave the Americans much chance of winning, and was involved in one of the defining moments of a remarkable 3-2 victory. His cross was turned into the net by Jorge Costa, putting the United States 2-0 up against one of the pre-tournament favourites.
It was not officially his goal, but it felt like an introduction. Donovan was quick, fearless and direct, everything a young player should be on that kind of stage. He did get his own World Cup goal later in the group, scoring in a 3-1 defeat to Poland, before adding another in the round of 16 against Mexico. That one mattered more: a header in a 2-0 win over their great rivals helped carry the United States into the quarter-finals, where they were eventually beaten 1-0 by Germany.
By the end of the tournament, Donovan had been named Best Young Player. It was a personal honour, but it also carried something wider. The United States had shown they could compete properly at a World Cup, and Donovan had become the symbol of that progress.
Germany 2006
The problem with bursting through at a World Cup is that people expect the same again. Four years later, in Germany, Donovan was part of a United States squad that never really got going. They were eliminated in the group stage, and Donovan, who had been so sharp and decisive in 2002, did not register a goal or an assist.
It was not just a quiet tournament. It was treated as a disappointment because of who he had become. By then, Donovan was not merely a promising player. He was expected to carry the side, to make the moments, to be the difference. When the United States fell flat, criticism came his way, and perhaps that was the first sign of the strange position he occupied. Donovan was a player American football needed, but he was also one it could be unusually hard on.
We see it in England: the biggest names are lauded when they do well, but the first to be battered after a failure. Think David Beckham and effigies being hung from lampposts in 1998, then the whole country applauding when he scored the free kick against Greece four years later.
What followed for Landon was important. He did not disappear, and he did not become a footnote. He rebuilt his standing in the years between Germany and South Africa, helped the United States win the 2007 Gold Cup, became the country’s all-time leading goalscorer, reached 100 caps at 26, and played a major role in World Cup qualification for 2010. By the time the next finals came around, Donovan was no longer the kid from 2002. He was the senior figure, the reference point, the player everyone looked to.
South Africa 2010
South Africa was the tournament that made Landon Donovan a legend.
He played every minute of the United States campaign in 2010, and his first goal of the tournament came against Slovenia. That came after they shocked England in the Three Lions’ opening fixture. Against Slovenia, the Americans were 2-0 down at half-time, drifting towards a damaging defeat, before Donovan smashed in from close range to spark a comeback that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was a goal with a bit of anger in it, the sort that suggested he was dragging the team back into the game by force of will as much as technique.
Then came Algeria.
It remains one of the great World Cup moments, not just for the United States, but for the tournament itself. Deep into stoppage time, with the match still goalless and the Americans heading out, Donovan followed in after Clint Dempsey’s effort was saved and turned the rebound into the net. One touch, one finish, and years of frustration seemed to pour out in the celebration. The USA topped their World Cup group for the first time since 1930, at the expense of a pre-tournament favourite in England.
They were beaten by Ghana in the round of 16, but Donovan still scored from the penalty spot, taking his South Africa total to three and his overall World Cup tally to five. That made him the highest-scoring American man in World Cup history, and the leading male World Cup goalscorer from any CONCACAF nation.
The Ending That Never Came
The obvious ending would have been Brazil in 2014, a swansong and a fourth World Cup, more than many players dream of. Donovan was named in the preliminary squad, went into camp, and seemed to be moving towards one last World Cup appearance. Instead, Jürgen Klinsmann left him out of the final squad.
It was a decision that still follows both men. Klinsmann described it as one of the toughest calls of his coaching career, but for many it felt abrupt, cold and difficult to square with Donovan’s place in the history of the national team. He had helped the United States qualify, having scored and assisted in the decisive win over Mexico in 2013, and had responded to previous doubts with a strong Gold Cup campaign that same year.
Instead of one final World Cup, Donovan’s international farewell came later in 2014, in a friendly against Ecuador. It was arranged as a proper send-off, but it could not quite replace what had been taken away. For a player so closely tied to the World Cup, missing Brazil became part of the story.
Conclusion
Landon Donovan gave the United States moments that travelled far beyond the usual audience for the sport in his country. The header against Mexico, the finish against Slovenia, the penalty against Ghana, and, above all, the last-second goal against Algeria are not just entries on a Wikipedia page, or quiz questions for World Cup buffs. They are the moments by which a generation of American supporters measured their relationship with the World Cup.
For some countries, five World Cup goals might not sound like a national monument. For the United States, Donovan’s five told a bigger story: of arrival, expectation, frustration, redemption and controversy. He was not just there when American football had some of its most important days on the global stage. He was usually right in the middle of them.