Our Athlete’s Voice series gives athletes a forum to talk about how technology has impacted their careers and their lives away from sports. This week, USMNT and MLS star Landon Donovan talks about how VAR has improved soccer, and how he is using technology now that he has retired from playing.

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Landon Donovan had one of the most successful careers in U.S. soccer history. He is the all-time U.S. Men’s National Team leader in assists (58) and is tied with Clint Dempsey for the most goals (57). He’s the only American men’s player to have broken both the 50 goals and 50 assists marks, is a four-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, and helped Team USA win four CONCACAF Gold Cups.

During his club career, Donovan played 11 years with the Los Angeles Galaxy, but also spent four years with Northern Californian rivals the San Jose Earthquakes and short spells at Bayern Munich and Everton. He is the only player to have won the MLS Cup six times, twice with the Earthquakes and four times with the Galaxy.

Donovan, 37, retired after the 2014 MLS season, but rejoined the Galaxy for the second-half of 2016 after the team suffered a number of player injuries. He came out of retirement again to play a half-dozen games for Club León of Mexico’s Liga MX in 2018, and played for the San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League in 2019.

The U.S. soccer star joined the ownership group of English Football League Championship team Swansea City in 2016, and this summer, he co-founded a United Soccer League expansion team in San Diego alongside Warren Smith, who also co-founded rival USL team Sacramento Republic FC. The new franchise is due to begin play in either 2020 or 2021, and Donovan is now EVP of soccer operations.

On using technology to scout soccer talent …

“I’ve spent the last month-and-a-half of my life [scouting using apps]. An agent brings you a player and in the past you’d say, ‘OK, tell me more about this player, get more information about them.’ But the only way to see them would be to travel to Panama, Africa or Asia, and you’d have to go see them in person, which is not cost-effective. Now an agent says, ‘I have a player,’ and you can say, ‘OK, send me information on the player and I’ll look them up on one of these scouting platforms.’ ”

“I spend 60% of my working day now as we try to build a team in San Diego trying to do just that. I’m on the computer all day watching these players play. It’s helpful because it narrows the scope of what you’re looking for, and then you can more efficiently scout a player in person if you’d like. That’s why I’m going to Japan. I saw three players at a club I liked.”

On player tracking …

“There are so many ways to use data to analyze your performance, to analyze where you are physically, to prevent injury. Having the ability to, instead of guessing if a player is tired or had a good game, have technology that tells you statistically what happened, which complements what you see with your eyeballs, gives you a lot of hard data.”

“I’m all for it as long as it’s not distracting or taking away from the game in any way. What I mean by that is you don’t want, for instance, spying on the opponent. But if you use it for your own, that’s very helpful. If we had the ability to track our players physically, and where they are in a game, that’s really helpful because if you have a player who’s only at 60% of their capacity left, and another is at 80%, it makes your decision a lot easier. That would be extremely valuable for subbing.”

“For a long time we used Omegawave technology, where you’d lay down with detectors on your body and have the ability to gauge your stress levels, how much sleep you’ve had, how your body is recovering. That was a good indication, and it’s improved significantly since then. Now you can wear sleep watches that track how well you sleep at night, we wear devices from a company called STATSports that track all your movement on the field, track all the data so you know how much a player is running, what kind of load they’re putting on their body every day so you’re able to understand physically what that player has gone through. It helps you in your preparation.”

“VAR has been fantastic. You want to make sure that the call on the field is right. In the 2002 World Cup, we played Germany in the quarterfinals. We were down 1-0 and had a corner kick. It hit the defender’s hand. With VAR, it would've been a penalty kick. It would’ve totally changed the game.”



On esports and fantasy sports …

“That’s how I learned about soccer: I was playing FIFA when I was younger. I didn’t know anything about world soccer because I didn’t have a TV at home. The way I learned about players and teams was through FIFA, through video games.”

“And, candidly, fantasy football is how I learned about a lot of players in the NFL. I am supportive of it, I think there can be an abusive quality that you need to be careful with, but as a general statement, I’m a supporter of it. If it gets people involved in our sport, I think that’s great.”

On integrating technology with the soccer experience …

“[Video assistant referees have] been fantastic for the game and for the sport. At the end of the day, I put in 25 years of work and effort to get to a certain place in my life. And you want to make sure that the call on the field is right. In the 2002 World Cup, we played Germany in the quarterfinals. There was a spot in the semifinals of the World Cup on the line. We were down 1-0 and had a corner kick. It hit the defender’s hand on the goal line—it would’ve been a goal but the referee didn’t see it. In today’s world, VAR would have looked at it, and it would’ve been a handball and a penalty kick for us. It would’ve totally changed the complexion of the game.”

“It’s a tricky balance in soccer. In other sports you’re accustomed to having all the bells and whistles because you have a lot of stoppages. The ball is out of bounds for 20 seconds in basketball and they have time to play a song. In soccer you have 45 minutes straight of soccer. So it’s a balance and traditionally, people for soccer are there for the game. Whereas in baseball, a decent amount of people aren’t there for the sport, but just for the experience. It will evolve a little bit but I think you’re still going to see traditional uses for the most part. I think technology will be used in different ways, maybe in bringing replays to a fan’s seat on their phone so the experience is more interactive.”

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