Roger Bennett of the Men in Blazers podcast duo has spoken with U.S. and LA Galaxy star Landon Donovan about a variety of topics.

Thanks to reader DM for alerting me to this.

Landon comes on around the 47-minute mark of the podcast, and does about 25 minutes.

Among the topics covered:

–His belief that the U.S. national team can go toe-to-toe with any side in the world, especially now that a higher fraction of players on the roster have played in “big” games during their career — whether overseas or in the U.S.

–His declaration that surviving the group stage is a reasonable and semi-ambitious goal for the Yanks to aim at — and remember, the U.S. group includes Germany, Portugal and Chile, making it the official unofficial “group of death” for Brazil 2014.

–His work with the Skin Cancer Foundation, which is news to me, though it makes lots of sense. His father, Tim, had a skin cancer scare, and Landon is well aware of the hours and hours he has spent under the sun.

–His “sabbatical” in late 2012 and early 2013 wasn’t just about “Cambodia”, though that seems to be settling into everyone’s consciousness. He notes that he spent time with friends and family in a way he had not done for a long time. But he did various and sundry good deeds, too, including the inspirational Soccer Night in Newtown that I wrote about last year.

–His one career regret: Not giving his first stint in Germany, with Bayer Leverkusen when he was 17, a longer try. He notes that a lot of it was about the lack of a mentor who could give him some context on what was happening to him, with the club, and why. He was one of the first Yanks (the first?) to go to a major European club at such a young age, and he was pretty much left to fend for himself.

It is worth a listen, if you are a Landon or U.S. soccer fan.