Where will Landon Donovan for the U.S.A. next year?

I'm still smarting a little bit from the pain I had to endure as a fan of the United States men's national team over the last week. The results may be completely meaningless, but the flat performances by the Americans were so disappointing that I found myself unable to pay attention towards the end of the match against Denmark. Luckily, I found this picture and things started to turn around a little bit. After having a day to reflect on the current lineup I came to the conclusion that Landon Donovan, not Clint Dempsey as I had earlier declared, is the best option to partner with Jozy Altidore up top.

I was initially concerned that taking Donovan out of the midfield would result in a lack of creativity and would slow down the U.S. counter attack. While that still may be true in some regards, it is now painfully obvious that Donovan is the best forward that the Americans have, period. He also can stretch out opposing defenses and still drop back into the midfield to create chances for his teammates.

Donovan's potential replacements in the midfield are a stronger bunch then the other options at forward. Benny Feilhaber has played relatively well as have Stuart Holden and Robbie Rogers. Currently, Eddie Johnson, Conor Casey and Jeff Cunningham do not really strike fear in the hearts of defenses throughout the world but a Jozy Altidore-Landon Donovan combination just might. Donovan is the most dangerous player on the national team and he needs to be as close to goal as possible. And hey, if that fails we can always look at this picture and forget about soccer for a little while.