Column: Landon Donovan seeks better from SD Loyal in third season

The job could’ve flattened Landon Donovan, like a soccer ball to the chin. The skeptics would’ve pounced, saying he didn’t pay his dues, that he was arrogant to think he could pull it off.

Donovan had no experience as a coach or roster-builder when, three years ago, along came Andrew Vassiliadis, a newcomer to soccer-team ownership and a fellow San Diegan.

Vassiliadis, funding a new San Diego club in the second-tier United Soccer League’s top division, bet that Donovan could learn fast. That the former star player’s career as an attacking midfielder would translate into new successes, even if he’d never worn a coach’s whistle.

He hired Donovan, and not only as head coach but as the top executive of soccer operations.

“I understand very clearly this is a risk in a lot of ways,” Donovan acknowledged in November 2019, five months before San Diego Loyal‘s first match.

Two seasons and 48 matches later, Donovan’s record shows a .541 winning percentage and a playoff berth.

It seems Vassilaidis, the youngest owner in the league, wasn’t a star-struck naif.

Now comes SD Loyal’s third season, starting Saturday at USD’s Torero Stadium, where a crowd projected to exceed 5,000 fans will get its first good look at the “Torrey Green” uniforms and a retooled lineup.

A big test looms across a season that won’t end until early October: Can SD Loyal meet the twin standard — score a lot of goals, win the USL title — Donovan set upon taking the two jobs?

Put another way, can Donovan’s players begin to perform more like Donovan when he was amassing 57 goals and 58 assists with the U.S. national team and leading five Major League Soccer clubs to the trophy in America’s top men’s league?

Notwithstanding bright moments, SD Loyal has skewed toward the USL’s middle in goals scored. Lengthy scoring droughts stalled both teams.

“One of the hardest things to do in sports, if not the hardest, is to score a goal in a soccer game because there’s so many moving pieces,” Donovan said.

SD Loyal was shut out, 2-0, in its playoff defeat. That game and a regular season that produced a 14-12-6 record informed an offseason in which Donovan added six players to a core headed by 13 holdovers.

It’s expected that three new forwards will invigorate the offense.

Evan Conway, 24, arrived from Nebraska, where the lefty’s goal-scoring led the Omaha-based club to the USL’s second-division title. “He’s very talented,” said Donovan.

USL Championship veterans Thomas Amang, 24, and Nick Moon, 25, were added to improve the front line’ speed and versatility.

In addition, along with his left footedness, central defender Kyle Adams, 24, brought a knack for winning balls in the air.

A Spaniard, goalkeeper Koke Vegas, was signed for more than his defensive prowess and 77-match experience in Spain’s professional divisions. “He’s very good technically with his feet,” Donovan said of the 27-year-old.

Donovan said piecing the personnel puzzle together began with deciding upon the team’s core style.

Last year’s team led the USL in ball possession, an emphasis Donovan mentioned entering last season. Lacking explosive playmaking to mount or finish an attack, retaining the ball went only so far.

“Our biggest takeaway is that we just needed to get more athletic and get more pace on the field,” the coach said. “So, we needed to be able to really hurt teams athletically.”

Evaluating the offseason player market, Donovan and staff drew upon film study, reports from in-person scouting, filtered statistics, reference checks and interviews. If a player’s soccer prowess was up to par but his personality wasn’t, the coaches vetoed him.

The shopping will continue. Both SD Loyal teams benefited from players obtained on loan from the MLS during the season.

On the field, tweaks could be coming to Donovan’s primary formations: some version of 3-4-2-1 on offense and 4-4-2 on defense.

What fans won’t see is a constant embrace of defense-first soccer. Donovan isn’t keen on turtling. He said his DNA remains offense-first. Shame on us, he has said, if fans are bored.

Some 80 miles north, an Irvine-based USL team took the opposite approach last year. Defense was Orange County’s calling card. And it produced an USL title.

“The way you ultimately win is by being really good defensively,” said Donovan, who has bruising memories to prove it.

He added: “If you don’t give up goals, you’re always going to have a chance to win. They were really resolute defensively, and that got them a championship. I view the game differently. But, there’s a lot of different ways to do things and be successful.”

Rewewing his support of Donovan, who turned 40 on Friday, Vassiliadis this offseason signed him to a two-year extension with a team option for 2024. He said he took into account MLS overtures toward Donovan in both offseasons.

“It’s a tremendous win for me personally but I also think it’s a tremendous win for San Diego,” said Vassiliadis, who at 38 is still the USL’s youngest club owner. “When he puts his mind to something, he’s going to be successful. He works tremendously hard. Of course, MLS teams are gonna come calling. I will not stand in Landon’s way if he did want to take one of those jobs. But I will always make the case for why San Diego Loyal is the perfect place for him to be.”

Are future MLS forays coming, only to poach on Vassiliadis’ turf and plant a team in San Diego? Will City Hall choose a Midway District development plan that — no sooner than 2024 — envisions a 10,000-seat modular soccer stadium? Or will SD Loyal try to fill the 18,000-seat lower bowl at new San Diego State’s stadium, come 2023?

Too soon to hazard a guess, said Vassiliadis.

For now, the attention is on Landon Donovan’s team trying to send the ball into the net.