PHOENIX -- You never know what you'll find on a Spring Training back field. On Friday, it was an American soccer legend and one of the nastiest pitchers in all of baseball, passing a ball back and forth, chatting about the sports they both love.

Landon Donovan came to Brewers camp with his two young sons -- they live in San Diego and are Padres fans -- before the Crew's 4-3 win over San Diego on Friday at American Family Fields of Phoenix. While he was there, he played soccer with Brewers closer and soccer aficionado Devin Williams, who could have been a soccer superstar himself if not for baseball.

"He's actually really good. You could tell," Donovan told MLB.com. "You can tell he played a lot. I'm sure, given his athleticism, he would've been an elite soccer player, too. I just told him I think he chose the right sport. He said his grandpa wouldn't let him quit baseball, so he stuck with baseball and it's clearly worked out for him."

"It was pretty sweet," Williams said of getting to meet Donovan. "And it was unexpected. I just showed up today and they were like, 'Hey, Landon Donovan's going to be here today. You want to go kick a ball around?' I was like, 'Absolutely.'

"He's been the face of U.S. soccer for pretty much my entire childhood. Even into adulthood. So it was really cool to meet him."

Donovan, who starred for the San Jose Earthquakes and Los Angeles Galaxy in MLS and on the international stage for the U.S. men's national team for over a decade -- where he scored one of the most memorable goals in U.S. soccer history in the 2010 World Cup against Algeria -- grew up a Dodgers fan himself. As a kid in Southern California, he watched players like Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson star for the great L.A. teams of the 1980s.

"Oh, I had so many favorite Dodgers," Donovan said. "Fernando was there, Orel was there. I've grown up watching all the iterations of the Dodgers through the years. There's hundreds of guys that I loved."

Now that Donovan's family lives in San Diego, his sons Talon and Slate love the Padres. Their favorite players are Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Ha-Seong Kim.

"My boys last year got super into baseball," Donovan said. "They're falling in love with the game, just like I did. Growing up we had, I think, four channels we could watch, and we could always watch the Dodgers on one of them. So I grew up watching the Dodgers in L.A., and they get to do the same now."

Donovan was invited to Brewers Spring Training by manager Pat Murphy. The two know each other through a mutual friend. After Friday, the Donovan family will have to add the Brewers to their list of favorite teams, and Williams to their favorite players -- he autographed baseballs for both of Donovan's sons.

"This is the beauty of coming here," Donovan said. "They're going to go home and go, 'Oh my God, I have Devin Williams on my baseball, I have his autograph.' Right? They're going to be excited about that, and that's what I love. That's how you make real connections in sports. We're not from Milwaukee, we don't live anywhere near Milwaukee. But they're going to be Brewers fans for life now."

Williams got to pick Donovan's brain about his soccer career. His first question: What's it like to experience a World Cup?

"He said it was unmatched by anything he's seen," Williams said. He also got to share his own experience playing in an electric sports environment: the MLB postseason.

"We were talking about the Padres' playoff series in '22. I guess he went to one of their games," Williams said. "I kind of compared it to, that's what European soccer is like every week. That atmosphere."

It was a cool experience for Donovan, too. He enjoyed getting to share a field with Williams, a great athlete in another sport.

"That's the beauty of sports, right?" Donovan said. "We all have mutual respect for what people do. I'm always most impressed with people who are elite in their field, whatever it is. And so getting to watch him now more closely this year is going to be a lot of fun for me."