USMNT spirit – Landon Donovan, a modern-era U.S. World Cup standout, says the current U.S. squad is starting to show the “emotion” and “attitude” he associates with past American teams. After a 3-2 friendly win over Senegal on May 31, he pointed to goals from Christian Pulis
When Landon Donovan watches the U.S. men’s national team right now, he doesn’t just see tactics. He sees faces reacting to big moments—the kind of shift that, in his mind, separates a World Cup run from a tournament that ends early.
Donovan. who was part of the Americans’ deepest run in modern World Cup history. said the current group is beginning to carry the same fighting spirit as the U.S. teams that came before it. He linked that feeling to an energetic 3-2 friendly win over Senegal on Sunday. May 31. a match in which Christian Pulisic. Sergino Dest and Folarin Balogun each found the net.
“Get USMNT World Cup tickets!” Donovan said he was pleased to see the echoes of past U.S. teams reflected in the mindset of this squad as the World Cup returns to American soil for the first time since 1994. He described the emotional reaction during the game—especially when goals changed the pace.
“The quality, in that way, is better than we’ve ever had. The spirit was there yesterday, too. You could see the emotion on their faces,” Donovan said. “When Christian scored, you could see what it meant. When Sergino scored, you could see what it meant to him. If that’s the attitude and the spirit with this team. I’m not saying we’re going to win a World Cup. but there’s nobody we can’t compete with.”.
His confidence isn’t built on sentiment alone. Donovan knows what U.S. teams can look like when the stage gets bigger. As a player at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea/Japan. a young Donovan played every minute of the U.S. men’s national team’s 2-0 win over rival Mexico in the Round of 16. a result that moved the Americans into the quarterfinals.
That history of grinding through pressure is part of why Donovan is watching this cycle so closely. He said the group is showing “old-school” grit and spirit, and he tied that to the way the team is responding when the match swings.
The conversation also turned to how the U.S. coaching staff is setting the tone behind the scenes. Donovan contrasted U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino’s approach to cutting players from the roster—delivering the bad news to those who didn’t make it by email—with the way he was told during a different moment of his career.
Donovan said he remembers then-manager Jurgen Klinsmann informing him of the shock decision to leave him off the 2014 roster. The comparison underscored how selection decisions can land differently on players depending on how they’re communicated.
Jozy Altidore joined the show as well. He reflected on suffering an injury during the 2014 tournament and the kind of leadership that can still matter even when a player is sidelined. Altidore pointed to the leadership he sees in the current U.S. team—captained by former teammate Tim Ream.
Donovan and Altidore weren’t trying to predict outcomes. They were describing something closer to a feeling: the emotional cues of games, the weight of roster decisions, and the leadership that players carry when the World Cup is finally close enough to touch.
The current squad is preparing for a home World Cup—an environment with its own pressure—and Donovan said the spirit he noticed on the field after Senegal is the kind that can keep the U.S. in any matchup. “There’s nobody we can’t compete with. ” he said. after seeing the team’s attitude show up in the moments that mattered most.
Landon Donovan USMNT World Cup 2026 Mauricio Pochettino Jurgen Klinsmann Christian Pulisic Sergino Dest Folarin Balogun Tim Ream Jozy Altidore Senegal friendly May 31