Landon Donovan admits that he rooted against the U.S. after being cut from the team

LOS ANGELES, June 30 (UPI) -- Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan admitted that he briefly rooted against the U.S. after being cut from the World Cup roster.

In an interview Friday with the Los Angeles Times, Donovan said he felt a stab of jealousy a few days after he was cut and it made him want the team to perform badly in a warm-up match against Azerbaijan in May.

"I'll be completely honest, watching them play Azerbaijan, inside, part of me was thinking, I hope the game doesn't go very well today. In my heart of hearts, I thought, if we get a 1-0 win and the team doesn't perform well, that would feel good," said Donovan, adding that the feeling didn't last long. "Then the next day I woke up and said to myself, that's a really crappy way to feel. That's a bad way to live your life, it doesn't help me, it doesn't help the team, it doesn't help the energy that the team needs."

He said he feels he deserved to be there and "that's the pill that's hardest to swallow."

Donovan admitted that he watched one of the first non-U.S. matches in a bar wearing a baseball cap and glasses in order to go unrecognized.

He's been serving as a World Cup analyst for ESPN and has received glowing reviews.