Two uplifting developments for U.S. soccer today, and after that, some video from some uplifting moments from the 2010 World Cup.

1. A 0-0 draw with Mexico, in Azteca. Leaving Azteca with a point is always a victory. Only the third time the U.S. has gotten a result there, in 25 games, and only the second time in an official game — the other was a 0-0 tie, too.

Jurgen Klinsmann’s team is suddenly on four points, after two road games and one at home, and what looked scary a week ago no longer does.

And then we had this, the Los Angeles Galaxy at the White House to meet the president and celebrate their 2012 Major League Soccer championship. And in this photo please note that Landon Donovan, to our right of Brack Obama, is back with the team. (The sabbatical is over!)

Good news for the Galaxy, and good news for the national team, if Jurgen Klinsmann comes to his senses and calls in Landon for the upcoming seven games in the final round of Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifying.

(Assuming Landon is playing well and fit, a month from now, and why would he not be?)

Two bits of video, then, on what Landon can mean to the U.S. team

Well, two bits of video embedded on two blog posts — which I wrote during the 2010 World Cup.

First, the post on the 2-2 draw with Slovenia, coming back from 2-0 down, which I believe is the greatest game ever played by Landon Donovan — which means it has to rank very highly on the “greatest game played by an American soccer player … ever” list, too.

And, here is the post on 1-0 victory over Algeria, with Landon scoring in added time, which saved the U.S. from finishing third in the group, allowing them to win it, instead, and go to the final 16.

If you don’t want to read the blog posts from nearly three years back, here is Andres Cantor’s call of the goal that beat Algeria 1-0 … and here is the longish video clip that eventually gets to Landon’s “wonder goal” (as the Brits would call it) against Slovenia.

Sometimes it’s fun to thing about the past, as well as a suddenly brighter future.