Landon Donovan, winner of last season's MLS MVP Award, didn't make the final 2010 MVP candidate list despite leading the league in assists. He is just fine with that, reports Scott French, and was ecstatic to see teammate Edson Buddle's name among the finalists -- along with FC Dallas midfielder David Ferreira and San Jose's Chris Wondolowski.

"Hope he [Buddle] wins," Donovan said. "I voted for Ferreira, because you can't vote for your own [teammates], but I hope he wins. If not, you don't take anything away from what he's done, and I think he'd tell you he'd rather win MLS Cup than MVP. But he fully deserves it."

Donovan could miss out on being selected to the MLS Best XI all-league team because on the ballot he was listed as a forward, for which there are only two spots, likely to be landed by Buddle and Wondolowski, the league's leading scorers. If the Galaxy had listed Donovan as a midfielder, he'd unquestionably be on the team.

"Landon's basically played as a forward half the time and as a midfielder half the time," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. "If we had to nominate two forwards on the ballot, who are we going to nominate? You know the answer. ... Listen, if people decide not to vote for Landon on the all-XI, that's their business."