Considering the game of soccer involves lots and lots of variables, with 22 moving players and a referee and a couple of assistants, and weather conditions potentially changing from one minute to another … it was quite remarkable that in the World Cup we witnessed an episode that, far more than most, could be isolated and examined.

To wit:

Chris Wondolowski‘s shot from point-blank range in the second minute of added time in the U.S. national team’s game with Belgium. And what Landon Donovan might have done had he been in a similar position.

I have written about this for The National, and you can see that piece here.

But I will recap some points, and expand on others.

Going back to when Landon Donovan was still in the U.S. national team training camp, ahead of Brazil 2014, Jurgen Klinsmann, the U.S. coach, made clear that he considered Landon a forward, not a midfielder.

Going with Klinsmann’s definition of Landon’s potential role, that put him in competition with Aron Johannsson and Wondolowski for one of the two reserve forward spots. Landon goes to Brazil if Johannson or Wondolowski do not.

It makes most sense to say it would have been Wondolowski not going, because when Klinsmann first needed a replacement for starter Jozy Altidore, after Altidore’s hamstring blew up in the first match of the tournament, Klinsmann put Johannsson in the game. Suggesting Klinsy liked Johannsson a bit better.

So, Landon is in Brazil, instead of Wondolowski. Probably not starting, because Klinsmann doubts his ability to go 90 minutes, but on the bench, ready to go if the U.S. team has a special need for attacking elan late in a match.

Like, say, in the final half hour of a scoreless, last-16 game against Belgium.

Maybe then, with Johannsson having been found wanting when he played in the Ghana game, Klinsmann could have looked down the bench and noticed the greatest scorer in American history … the guy with five World Cup goals on his resume — Landon, that is — sitting there, looking right back at him. And asked Landon to get ready.

(And, as if Klinsmann needed a recent example, he could have done exactly what his successor as the German national coach did. Joachim Low sent on the aging but proven scorer Klinsmann could not be bothered to bring to Brazil, in the form of the 36-year-old Miroslav Klose. The latter entered the match in the 69th minute, with Germany losing 2-1 to Ghana. Klose scored two minutes later to gain Germany a draw. He has not played since, but he was there when Germany needed him.)

So, let’s imagine Klinsmann anticipated the need for a pinch-scorer, and Landon is on the bench and enters late, instead of Wondolowski.

And it goes from there. Scoreless game. U.S. down in the Belgium end two minutes into the three in added time.

Everything else unspools just as it did. Jermaine Jones’s header. Ball moves slightly closer to goal, and pretty much right in front of it and lands at Landon’s feet, and all that is between him and a 1-0 U.S. victory is Thibaut Courtois, a very good goalkeeper, granted, but Landon has been beating good keepers in tight spaces throughout his career ….

And even with the 6-foot-6 Courtois coming out fast, Landon uses his left foot to shoot right, and the ball bangs off the inside of the post and into the net.

Pandemonium! When the U.S. players are finally done celebrating, the game kicks off, the Belgians get in one more scary effort, stopped by Tim Howard, and the whistle blows.

U.S. 1, Belgium 0. The U.S. in the quarter-finals for the second time.

Afterward, Klinsmann talks about how bringing Landon to Brazil had not been an easy decision, because he had been concerned about his form (and never liked him, but he’d leave that part out), but after waging a battle inside his head, he realized that Landon was just too valuable to leave behind, and for the sake of the team, he had to come. He would be the American version of Klose, jawohl.

And Landon, in the mixed zone, would have talked about how he respected Klinsmann, no matter what had happened in the past, because he had brought him to Brazil, and he was so proud and happy to reward the coach, and the team and everyone back home for their trust in him.

That is the alternate reality that very clearly could have been so. One substitute forward swapped in for another, one skilled shooter instead of a clumsy one … and a goal that wins it for the U.S. in 90 minutes.

But Klinsmann lacked the wit or the courage or the decency to make it so.

I guarantee he has thought about this, and more than once.

Why no one in the U.S. is talking about this … well, American soccer fans have very short memories. Too, second-guessing the coach, a time-honored practice in all other U.S. sports, apparently is no longer allowed when talking about the U.S. national soccer team.