Pretty certain Landon Donovan wanted Brazil to be his farewell tour, that's why he was just pushing along into as "just another guy trying to make the team" and accepting whatever coach had in store for him. If that had to be a bench spot, so be it, his final moments with the UMSNT were to be for Brazil.

Then he got cut, has stated since he has "no relationship" with Jurgen Klinsmann, and announced his full retirement shortly after.

As for this recent game, it's been stated by Roger Bennett on the Men in Blazers podcast, who's producing a Landon Donovan documentary for ESPN with Hock Films, that during their interviews around the testimonial game, Landon said he didn't want it. He was approached about it and refused. Then Sunil Gulati kept asking, his friends and family said they would like a chance to send him off, and Landon relented. It wasn't a game for Landon. It was a game for US Soccer to recognize its Magic, its Larry Bird, the superstar that helped grow the league and served as the poster child for the entire brand for a decade+.

So yeah, it was awkward as hell, and emblematic of US Soccer at the same time, played in the weird football stadium with hardly a crowd on hand, all to manufacture a narrative for the cameras, complete with the cold, opportunistic handshake from the European to close it off. Ultimately a pretty compelling mini-portrait of all that Landon and US Soccer has gone through to get here, not triumphant, but fitting all the same.

And anyway, if you've been watching the LA Galaxy lately, they've been engaged in a season long send-off for Landon ever since he got dumped from Brazil. They've already inserted themselves legitimately into the conversation of "Best MLS team ever?" with a crazy goal differential and a possibility for a good amount of hardware based on the last two weekends and postseason. So yeah, the US Soccer game was awkward, really just opened wounds, and I'm glad Soccer Don stopped just sitting on the sidelines and decided to talk back to some of the bullshit in the air.