Gloucester and former Scotland prop Kyle Traynor has announced he is to retire from professional rugby union at the end of the Premiership season.

The 33-year-old will participate in the play-offs with the Cherry and Whites after they finished third this season.

Traynor, who also represented Bristol, Edinburgh and Leicester, won the last of his four Scotland caps in 2012.

"I have experienced so many amazing and unforgettable things and made some truly incredible friends," he said.

"To represent my country was a lifelong dream and I will never, ever forget the feeling of pulling on the Scotland jersey and wearing the Thistle."

Traynor says he will now start a career in management consulting.

"It was like a rugby team, the Dothraki rugby team."

Joe Naufahu had lights in his eyes, an iconic actress in front of him, and a backdrop of the Essos desert. His past life as a Glasgow Warriors centre could not be further away.

It was through turmoil and heartache that Naufahu, a New Zealander of Tongan descent, found salvation in fitness and more bizarrely acting, a pursuit that landed him a recurring role in Game of Thrones, the television epic which is brought to a conclusion this weekend after eight series.

Naufahu tells BBC Scotland of his tale, including nights out in Glasgow, the agony of retirement at the age of 26, and how he ended up in Spain as a protagonist in the battle for the Iron Throne.

'Emilia Clarke's standing in front of me'

The third instalment of the final series of Game of Thrones was apparently the most-tweeted-about television episode in history. In America alone, it is reported that more than 17 million people have watched the army of the dead march on Winterfell.

Naufahu landed a recurring role on this mother of all shows courtesy of a self-shot tape, sent off to the producers and consigned to memory until a call from his agent and the summons to attend a beard and wig fitting in London.

He played Khal Moro in the sixth series, a horse-riding warlord of the savage Dothraki, monstrous fighters who maraud, butcher and pillage their way through the desert. A "terrible man", as Naufahu puts it.

Khal Moro met a suitably grotesque end after three episodes when Emilia Clarke's character Daenerys roasted him alive inside a temple - but only after she had been brought chained before him in her guise as heir to the throne and a Dothraki captive.

"Emilia was lovely to work with, very humble and very funny," Naufahu says. "She's a very big star, so she enjoyed her privacy when we weren't shooting, but at the same time, she was just really nice and hung out with us. That first scene where I was in my temple and Emilia was brought up to me, that was probably the most memorable one and a bit of a wake-up call - you realise, 'man, I'm on the set of Game of Thrones'.

"I don't think I realised how big the show was until I had my first day on set in Spain, the cameras everywhere, the amount of extras, Emilia's standing in front of me shackled up and it's like, wow, okay, let's go. You get flown around the world, it's a huge operation. It was like a rugby team - the Dothraki rugby team. We had guys from England, France, Brazil - all good guys. No egos, no-one above anyone else.

"One minute you're staring down the barrel of retirement from the thing you love, the next you're on a set in Spain. Crazy."

'I'll come back and have a turbo shandy'

Naufahu was a bruiser of a centre reared at the Canterbury Crusaders with age-grade caps for New Zealand under his belt. Glasgow were a pretty modest operation when he arrived at Hughenden in 2002, playing in front of little crowds but still holding their own in the old Celtic League.

He was never able to leave the mark he wanted. A degenerative knee problem saw to that. Still, Naufahu loved the city and the people, the fervour of the fans, and the parties on the cobbles of Ashton Lane, typically propelled by a hideous-sounding concoction of lager and Smirnoff Ice known as a turbo shandy.

"I will come back one day and have a turbo shandy - you don't get older and wiser," Naufahu, now 41, says.

"The weather made for a different style of rugby to what I was used to back home, where there's generally a faster track and opportunities with defences being freer, but I had mad respect for the boys playing and coaching in Glasgow. For me, it was just a case of not enjoying the rugby so much because of injuries.

"As rugby players, you have a pre-built community that you walk into. You don't really have to go outside it, but at the same time it's a little bit of a bubble and when it pops you're like, 'what do I do now?'"

'When you can't play, you don't feel like you're enough'

Naufahu loved lifting weights, but the cold reality that he would never play again left him feeling ashamed of picking up a dumbbell.

He went back to New Zealand and worked on construction sites while reviving the adolescent interest that led him to Game of Thrones, and opening a gym with no mirrors in Auckland.

"When you can't play anymore, you don't feel like you're enough, you don't want to go to the gym," he says.

"I'd done a little acting as a teen. At the time, there weren't many Polynesian actors in New Zealand, so I got a small part when I was injured.

"I never went to formal drama school or whatever. But what acting did was give me a creative outlet which had been closed when I lost the ability to play rugby."

SALISBURY, N.C. – Clark Houston has done virtually everything in Millbridge Speedway’s premier Open division, except win a top-class feature at the sixth-mile dirt oval.

He’s broken while leading, spun out while challenging for the top spot, suffered mechanical failures, missed the handling and even had plain-old bad luck rob him of a chance to celebrate in victory lane.

After more than two years of trying to break through and hoist a trophy, Houston is hoping – profusely – that his long-awaited first Open triumph comes during Wednesday night’s sixth-annual QRC Open presented by HMS Motorsport.

Houston knows he has the speed to contend up front. He’s led laps before. This week, however, it’s all about finding a golden horseshoe or something that will lead him to the break he needs to finish the job.

“I just need a little bit of luck, man,” Houston said. “It’s crazy to think about, really. We’ve had the speed, but it seems like every time we get in position to win one of these things, either I screw up or something breaks and we can’t close it out. It’s honestly frustrating, because I feel like we should have a few wins here and not even have to be talking about this anymore, but we’re still here on a goose-egg.

“Hopefully after Wednesday night, we won’t have to worry about those questions anymore,” Houston added. “We’ve got the pace and we’ve got the skills, so now we just need the right breaks.”

Houston has started the big show during the Open before – finishing 17th in the main event – but arguably his best chance at shining came in last year’s edition, when he was leading his heat race and in position to advance to the pole shuffle before the chain came off and he stalled on-track.

The teenager went on to finish ninth in the B-main and had to watch the feature from the grandstands, something he hopes to rectify this time around by making his second QRC Speed51 Open A-main start.

“We had a lot of speed last year, right around the top, and we were in position to maybe make some magic happen before the heat-race issue kind of doomed us,” Houston recalled. “We haven’t changed much since then, so hopefully we can come back and pick up right where we left off in that one.

“I hope it dusts off around the top and we can get to ripping,” he added. “If it does that, I think you’ll see us contending for the win Wednesday night just like we did last year.”

While Houston is used to contending among the track’s weekly competitors – who are no slouches in their own right – he knows that the field over the three days of the QRC Open is going to be as deep as any that he races in all season long.

“Just the competition is what makes this race so much different than a weekly show,” Houston noted. “Everyone is so good; you’ve got guys and girls with a lot of money coming out here from the West Coast and all over the country to try and leave their mark. It makes for a different atmosphere, because you know everyone has blinders on and they’ll do what they have to in order to come out a winner.

“We’ve all got the same goal this week, and I hope we can be the ones to achieve it and leave on top.”

At this juncture in his career, Houston is simply hoping to scratch out that long-present zero in his win column at Millbridge. Doing so on the track’s richest night would just be an added bonus.

“I’ve said it before, I just want to win … one race, any race,” Houston said. “But if it came Wednesday night, in the biggest-paying race we have and with the kind of attention that the QRC Open gets … it’d be awesome.

“I’m not sure I’d have words in that moment if it happens, to be honest.”

Practice for the QRC Open presented by HMS Motorsport at Millbridge Speedway begins on Monday, May 20.

Feature racing takes place on both Tuesday, May 21 and Wednesday, May 22.

SEATTLE — Top Fuel rookies Austin Prock and Jordan Vandergriff are challenging each other — and even interacting with the legends of the sport, who are still fussing with each other after all these years.

The result is a lot of juicy smack-talk.

Prock, who drives the Montana Brand-Rocky Mountain Twist dragster for John Force Racing, and Vandergriff, who wheels his uncle Bob’s D-A Lubricant-Penn Grade dragster, are the early frontrunners for the Auto Club of Southern California Road To The Future Award.

Each had an impressive debut. By the third race, the icon-centric 50th Gatornationals at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway, the naturally confident Prock was declaring he’s “ready to show these legends what this new rookie is all about.”

One of those legends made this Top Fuel career possible for Prock. Don “The Snake” Prudhomme had an unexpected conversation with an old buddy during the January’s Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., that ended with sponsorship for Prock.

“We started talking drag racing,” Prudhomme said. “I told him Force needed a sponsor. He said, ‘Hell, I’ll sponsor him!’ The kid is dynamite. I like rookie kids. I just enjoy being around rookies and watching them build themselves up.”

Prock says his hastily brokered opportunity “is all because of ‘The Snake.’ He stuck his neck out for me and got it done. I owe him the world.”

Prudhomme has been promoting Prock, saying, “I saw someone who’s a rookie that looked like a veteran today. It pumps me up a lot. I enjoy it.” And at Gainesville, he didn’t hesitate to declare Prock a legend-in-the-making.

Darrell Gwynn claimed in front of other drag-racing legends such as Kenny Bernstein, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch and Joe Amato that reigning Funny Car champion J.R. Todd is “as good as anybody in this room.” Prudhomme straightaway said, “Wait a minute,” and indicated he’s the top dog.

Todd, clearly flattered, later laughed and said, “Exactly. Snake, he’s the first one to bust your chops, for sure. He’s not going to tell anybody how good they really are. He’s always going to be better than you. That’s something he told me when we won Sonoma in 2017. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll always be second-best to me.’ If I’m second-best to somebody, it might as well be Snake.”

Vandergriff and Prock learned to drive dragsters as classmates at Frank Hawley’s Gainesville school. Vandergriff, whose style is less in-your-face than Prock’s, said he and Prock “are learning together. We’re really good friends. We started this journey together. We’ve taken every step together. We share a bond. Whatever I learn, I’m going to share with him, and whatever he learns he’s going to share with me. We’re going to bounce ideas off of each other.”

By the time they returned to Gainesville in March, they were locked in a friendly T-shirt sales contest. The driver who sold the fewer souvenir T-shirts had to wear the winner’s shirt during the NHRA round at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

All that developed during the weekend when the NHRA celebrated a handful of legends and put them on the track in Toyota Camrys for an “Unfinished Business” bracket race.

Final-round, crowd-entertaining shenanigans between eventual winner Warren Johnson, the six-time champion “Professor of Pro Stock,” and runner-up McCulloch ended the program with business still unfinished. It involved hints that Johnson doctored his car, a challenge to swap rides at the starting line and an actual swap after the official final. The legends said they wanted to do it again, next time involving money for charity.

Shirley Muldowney reveled in her first-round victory over one-time chief rival “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Prudhomme was grousing even before McCulloch eliminated him. Lynn Prudhomme had been honored with the Pat Garlits Award the night before the race during Garlits’ annual International Drag Racing Hall of Fame dinner. But “The Snake” wasn’t interested in elaborating. He said he didn’t want her to go because “I’m kind of pissed off at Garlits.”

And the beat and beating-up continued.  Bernstein said, “In any sport, in any endeavor, the pipeline always gets refilled. We’ll be gone. We’ll be talking about these (younger) guys 10 to 15 years from now.”

Lest anyone think Prock is being anointed, his own crew chief, Ronnie Thompson, has dogged him on social media. He posted a photo of Prock tipped headfirst into his chassis, installing seat belts.

“We’re calling him a prodigy, huh? Never seen anybody put the seat belts in upside down. I’m not sure where the crotch strap is going to end up … #newbie,” Thompson wrote.

That was after Thompson tweeted a roundabout compliment to Prock and Vandergriff: “Love this rivalry that’s starting up. I’ve known them both since they thought (poop)ing their pants was cool! Proud to see them both get a shot and step up.”

LE MANS, France – Marc Marquez delivered Honda’s 300th premier class victory during Sunday’s MotoGP event at the Bugatti Circuit.

Marquez started from the pole and launched away at the start, with Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller the only rider able to keep up with Marquez in the opening circuits.

Miller briefly overtook Marquez to take the lead, but Marquez responded on lap six to regain the top spot. Once out front again Marquez slowly built his lead, eventually crossing the finish line 1.9 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer.

“Of course here in Le Mans it’s always difficult with the temperature and the weather, especially today,” Marquez said after his 47th victory in the premier class. “I think this is the first time I have had a race where I had the soft tyre in the front but it was the safest option. I was focused on being consistent until I saw the gap increasing, I pushed a little bit more and into the low 32s until I saw I had two seconds. I’m happy with today’s result and it is fantastic to be able to take Honda’s 300th premier class win.”

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci completed the podium. Miller faded to fourth behind the Ducati duo and Valentino Rossi finished fifth for Monster Energy Yamaha.

ST. LOUIS -- It was Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Colorado Avalanche, and San Jose Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon was avoiding social media at all costs. Not because the Avalanche defeated his team at the Shark Tank, which no doubt perturbed him. But because the living army was scheduled to battle the Army of the Dead outside of Winterfell that evening, and the last thing he wanted to do on that last Sunday in April was accidentally stumble upon the fate of the Night King.

Like millions of others -- 18.4 million people watched the penultimate episode on various HBO platforms last Sunday, in fact -- Dillon is a "Game of Thrones" fanatic, one of more than a dozen in the Sharks' dressing room.

"It's not something I was necessarily into, with dragons and make-believe stuff. It's not really my thing. But it was so well-written," said Dillon, who began watching "Thrones" during his days in the American Hockey League, streaming it on the plane or bus.

But he's a die-hard now. On the road, Dillon and a few of his teammates -- Tomas Hertl and Martin Jones among them -- would crowd into a hotel room, plug in their streaming device to the flat screen and watch the "Thrones" together.

Then, the next morning, they have to be respectful of the viewing habits of others.

"Some guys don't watch it in the night [it premieres], so you have to be careful with what you say in the room the next day, so you're not giving away too much information," he said. "We have a pretty good setup in the hotel. We can plug in and stream it. If you wait too long, you've already heard this or seen a picture of that. In this culture, nothing stays secret for too long."

Down the hall at the arena hosting the Western Conference finals, St. Louis Blues forward Zach Sanford is also dutifully avoiding spoilers.

"I don't wait. It's definitely better at home, but I watched it on the laptop the other day," he said. "I've been trying to watch it before bed, but I keep falling asleep. So I'm more of a Monday afternoon guy. After the skate."

Like many players, he said his "Thrones" fandom was born out of peer pressure from teammates who were already into it. "All my buddies on the team watched it, and they were giving me grief for not watching it. I told them it looked dumb, and that I didn't want to watch it. But then I buzzed through the first season in a couple of days. I was hooked," he said.

Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly tells a similar story. "I started around Season 2. I did the whole first season in a couple of days. I was like, 'This is unbelievable,'" he said.

O'Reilly is another kind of "Thrones" fan, the kind who appreciates the spectacle as much as the storytelling. So while Sanford is staying caught up on his laptop, O'Reilly is willing to wait it out until he can properly experience it.

"I don't want watch it when I'm on the road, in the hotel. It's not a good enough TV. I want to watch it at home, in the dark, in my home theater, volume cranked. You need the best picture quality as possible," he said.

So what are their predictions for the series finale, which airs this Sunday?

SPOILER ALERT

First of all, the players polled weren't all that thrilled with Daenerys going all Mad Queen and having her dragon Drogon torch a bunch of civilians at King's Landing.

"I was pretty shocked. She was so great up until then, and now she's turned," O'Reilly said.

"You could see it coming. But I thought there might be something with her dying and Jon Snow wouldn't even have to tell everyone that he's a Targaryen. I thought he'd get the easy way out," Sanford said.

"I wasn't a huge fan of it, to be honest. I thought once the bell started ringing last episode, she would have a little mercy. She basically burnt down the throne she's going to sit on," Dillon said.

All three expect Jon Snow will be the one to ultimately sit on the Iron Throne.

"It's tough to say. I'm hoping Jon Snow, but that's the thing with 'Game of Thrones' -- it's never what you expect," O'Reilly said.

"I think he's the one that has to take down Daenerys if that happens," Dillon said.

As for the players' favorite character on "Game of Thrones" ... well, it should come as no surprise that a bunch of hockey players appreciate someone who's tenacious, efficient and frequently punches above her weight class.

"I like Arya [Stark]. She's a badass. She always gets the job done," Sanford said.

"She always just seems to be standing up for good. She had her list there. Had a good head on her shoulders. And the best kill of the season," Dillon said.

Game 5 of the Western Conference finals between the Sharks and Blues is Sunday in San Jose, the same day as the series finale. Luckily for these "Thrones" fans, it's a 3 p.m. ET start. No need to avoid Twitter, and plenty of time to gather teammates 'round the hotel television to see how it ends.

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has said Gareth Bale's attitude "day-to-day" meant he did not get on the pitch in what could have been his final match with the club during the 2-0 defeat to Real Betis.

Los Blancos finished the campaign in disappointing fashion but Bale was not called upon, despite being named a substitute and walked straight down the tunnel at full-time.

- Ratings: Modric and Benzema struggle

Although Bale's agent Jonathan Barnett told ESPN FC this week that his client was determined to see out a contract which runs until 2022, Zidane said the Wales international's daily work at training meant he did not deserve a chance to play.

"It is true, I did not [give Bale a chance to say goodbye]," Zidane said. "If I had another substitute to make, I would not have done anything different.

"But I have to look at the day-to-day, and make decisions. And when there is something I do not like, or does not fit for me, I must do what I think best. It might be difficult for the player.

"We cannot forget all he has done here, but I must live in the present, think of the future. We will see [if Bale continues]. I don't know what will happen, truthfully."

Goalkeeper Keylor Navas did get a chance to bid farewell to the Bernabeu before he likely leaves this summer, saluting all four corners of the stadium after making a string of saves to keep the score down.

"I don't know what will happen," Zidane said when asked if Navas would now leave. "I am repeating myself, sorry, but I don't know.

"Keylor played well today, the fans were happy, that's all. Next year, we will see when we come back here."

Madrid finish the season with 68 points -- their lowest total since 2001-02 -- and further behind champions Barcelona than any time in La Liga history. Their 18 defeats in all competitions was their highest total since the 1995-96 campaign.

"We must accept when things go badly," the Frenchman said. "I am responsible for this.

"We had 11 games, we won five, lost four, and in the end that is what it is. At a club like Madrid motivation is difficult when there is nothing to play for. This is not the first bad year in the history of this club.

"And after the bad, comes the good. But we must not forget this season, we must have it very present to prepare the next one."

There is a new goal-scoring king in MLS. Chris Wondolowski's second goal against Chicago on May 18, pouncing on a David Ousted fumble for an easy tap-in, gave him 146 career MLS goals, breaking Landon Donovan's mark of 145.

The juxtaposition of the two players couldn't be more striking. Big things were predicted for Donovan starting in his teenage years and he went on to excel for both club and country. Wondolowski? In pure soccer terms, he came out of nowhere. He grew up in Danville, Calif., went to nearby Chico State University. He was the 41st player taken in the 2005 MLS Supplemental Draft, this after 48 players had been selected in the MLS SuperDraft, making Wondolowski the 89th player taken overall.

- Report: Wondolowski becomes MLS all-time top scorer

Wondolowski didn't become a full-time starter until 2010 at the age of 27 yet Donovan has long been an admirer of the San Jose star, having been teammates at international level. With his record now broken, Donovan spoke to ESPN FC, offering his reaction to Wondolowski's accomplishment.

ESPN: What do you make of Wondolowski breaking your record?

Donovan: I think if you take a step back, and I don't have the stats on it, but the remarkable efficiency with which he's done it, in the years where he's actually played, is pretty incredible. And then to break a record like this you obviously have to be consistent, which he's been. So, I think that speaks to it as much as anything. If Josef Martinez stays in the league for another 10 years, you would expect that he's going to break it. But Wondo started really late, and was a guy that nobody had ever heard of, or nobody would have ever expected would get to this place.

I was talking to some of the guys on my indoor team [the San Diego Sockers], and they said Wondo played indoor at one point. I had no idea. That's where his career was at the time. He figured, "I'm not doing anything, I couldn't make a team anywhere. Can I try out and play indoor?" And he played indoor for a while. Actually some of the guys told me too that he went an entire year without scoring a goal. Which is really hard to do in indoor. So somewhere along the way, it clicked for him, and once it clicked, he was consistently the most prolific scorer in our league for probably over a decade.

ESPN: In your eyes, what makes a goal scorer, and how is that Wondolowski was able to put the ball in the net with such consistency? What are some of the attributes you need?

Donovan: There are a few different ways that I've seen for someone to become that kind of goalscorer. One is you're just incredibly efficient with your chances. Two is you take so many shots -- almost the opposite -- that eventually you're going to score; someone like Ante Razov comes to mind, where he led the league in shots by a mile every year and he always finished near the top of the leader board.

Wondo falls in the first category and he also falls into a third category, which is he seems to always be in the right place at the right time. Two players that immediately come to mind who best personify that are Clint Dempsey and [Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez]. Every time the ball bounces around in the box, it seems like it's hitting their head or their foot or their knee or their chest and going in. Wondo always winds up in the right spot at the right time to find the ball. And when he gets there, he scores. The combination of those two things gives you a pretty good chance to score a lot of goals.

ESPN: Every striker goes through their droughts, they go through their spells where things just aren't happening for them. What's the key to getting through a spell like that?

Donovan: Keep shooting. The confidence factor is the biggest problem, and Wondo has never lacked confidence. The biggest hit to him from a confidence standpoint was the 2014 Belgium game [at the World Cup]. He came back and he could have easily gone into a hole, and scored three goals a year for the next five years and fizzled out.

That's not the path he chose. He said, "It is what it is, we all miss, every forward has missed chances easier than that." He just kept shooting, and you keep making the same runs, and finding the same way. Percentage wise, it's going to even out. If you keep doing the right things like that, you're going to score goals, and he just kept going. I give him a ton of credit for that.

ESPN: Everyone talks about Wondolowski's movement. Is that something that is coached? How is that skill honed and developed?

Donovan: It's an awareness thing, and having the mental capacity to understand where to be, and when to be there. Mike Magee had an incredible knack for being a few steps ahead of a play, and a guy would get sprung down the right side of the field and you would look up and Mike Magee would be standing in front of the goal because he had anticipated the play happening 30 seconds before anybody else and he would have a tap-in at the back post.

Wondo is constantly waiting for someone to put the ball in the spot where he wants it. He might make a run six times in a row, and the person just didn't happen to see him to put it there, but the seventh time they do happen to see him there, he's waiting for it and he scores.

It's a different type of movement than "Chicharito" or Dempsey movement. That kind of movement is more of a gambling and putting yourself in a position in hopes that something will fall. But Wondo is playing the percentages and making the run where he thinks the ball is most often going to. You're inclined to say it's a little luckier with "Chicharito" and "Deuce." They just take a wild chance and a guess at where it's going to go. Wondo sort of knows that when a certain guy gets the ball here, most of the time, the next ball is going here. I'm going to be in that spot in case the ball goes there.

ESPN: Wondolowski, I would think by his own admission isn't the most athletic guy, but he's got to be athletic enough to get around on the field. Do you think he's underrated in terms of his athleticism?

Donovan: I think he is very underrated in his athleticism. I think he has underrated speed, he has underrated jumping ability, and the reason that all comes out is because of his fearlessness and his aggression.

When [Lionel] Messi gets the ball, it always looks like he's fast than when he doesn't have the ball. When Wondo is defending or running around the field or checking to the ball, he's at one speed. But when he sees there's a chance to score, he goes to a whole different speed and a whole different level. You're not aware of it, but all of a sudden that excitement in him pushes him up 10 or 15 or 20 percent in speed and jumping ability and athleticism and he then ends up scoring because of it, or getting in the right spot because of it.

ESPN: Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler said that Wondolowski is the only player he's played against who follows up shots 100 percent of the time. Is that something you've noticed as well?

Donovan: Yep. Wondo has a mindset that is 100 percent goal scorer, 100 percent of the time. I don't know how many assists he has (just 39 in 15 pro seasons). I think every year he has like three or five assists, right? It's not in his DNA. It's not what he's thinking about or focusing on. "What is the best way to get the ball in the net, and how can I get the ball in the net?" One way to do that, to score 15 to 20 goals a year throughout his career is to follow up every shot. It's something that all of us wish we were better at, because it just means you are mentally tuned in and aware and alert in every moment. He always is. That's why if you take a one-second break as a defender, Wondo will punish you.

ESPN: Just looking at his numbers, you guys never played together at club level, but just in watching him over the years, has he always been the same player, or were there aspects of his game that he really kicked up a notch at a certain point?

Donovan: I'm not privy to what he did or didn't do in practice or in training, but guys have told me consistently that he stays after training and shoots for 15 or 20 or 30 minutes every day, in all situations and in all types of ways. That pays off. There's no substitute for just practicing and working hard. I think he's gotten more clever over the years with his running. I think the league has gotten better so he's had better players around him who can facilitate the ability to score goals.

But then his natural instincts and aggressiveness are what have kept him consistent. There are times every goal scorer goes through where you take a shot and you think it's in and it hits the post, or you can't quite get your technique right, or you're just not feeling great on that day. But all of the little intangible things that he does kept him in front of the goal and kept giving him chances to score goals time and time again. That's what you have to do if you're going to score 10 or 15 or 20 goals a year.

ESPN: You mentioned the Belgium game earlier, it's easy to say that you have to have a short memory, but the reality of coaching your mind to put that aside, how hard is that? How difficult is it to put those moments in the past and look forward?

Donovan: In some ways it's really difficult and in some ways it's really easy. If you allow it to sit in your mind, it can really weigh on you. I don't have a direct analogy, but it was a little like me getting left off the 2014 World Cup team. You either sit and you sulk in it, or you say, "Okay, good, I have another game. I can just get on with my life." Wondo had soccer games to play. His Earthquake teammates and coaches were sad for him. The fans felt badly for him. But in the soccer world and life in general, it goes on. You've got to get on with it.

He made that decision very quickly. I'm not saying it was easy. I'm sure he had some moments that were very difficult. But it was a little bit of a blessing to just keep playing. If that happens to be the last game of your career, you'd never be able to forget about it. He had the chance of playing and getting to flush that out of his system.

ESPN: When you look at Wondolowski, and having played with him on the national team, if you could single out one trait about him, what would it be?

Donovan: His competitiveness and his passion. I've rarely seen a guy who has scored that many goals, that many important goals, celebrate the way he does when he scores the fifth goal in a 5-0 win in a preseason game against a college team. He just loves to score goals, he absolutely loves it. We would often make fun of him because he goes absolutely crazy when he scores. He gets in this mindset where he's almost going to kill someone after he scores a goal. We make fun of him, but it's his best attribute. He has this burning desire to score goals, and it comes out when he scores. You see that in his celebrations and I love that about him.