Landon Donovan goes off
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, May 25, 2014
Week 12: Saturday
The #Landon135 wait ended in the 49th minute on a patented Galaxy counterattack as Robbie Keane fed Donovan. He was immediately hugged by his teammates before running over to the Galaxy bench to get congratulations from the rest of the team and hugging Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena, his coach on the 2002 and 2006 U.S. World Cup teams.
Donovan said he's always tried to live in the present but acknowledged how hard it was for him before the game to not let his mind wander to where else he could have been.
“It's been a long week,” he said afterwards. “It's hard not to make it about me, and I don't necessarily want it to be that way. But, you know, I've sacrificed a lot to be in the position I'm in, and I was very happy for myself, because I've dedicated a lot to this, and I think I deserve what happened today.”
His father and mother and sister and nephew had not intended to be at the game because they did not figure he would be back, but Donovan said they made a concerted effort to be at the game.
“It's incredible,” he said. “You have no idea how many messages I've received from people, literally thousands of messages from people around the country, around the world. People who say, 'I'm a diehard Sounders fan' or 'I'm a diehard D.C. United fan, and I've hated you all my life on the field, and I'm so happy for you and so respect what you've done' and all this. The support has been overwhelming. It's funny the way things work out.”
MLS All-Time Goal Scorers:
136 *Landon Donovan
134 Jeff Cunningham
133 Jaime Moreno
114 Ante Razov
108 Jason Kreis
103 *Dwayne De Rosario
101 Taylor Twellman
99 *Edson Buddle
88 Carlos Ruiz
84 Roy Lassiter
*Active.
Landon Donovan Press Conference:
-- The lone Union goal was scored by Maurice Edu, another of the seven players U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann cut loose on Thursday.
MLS WEEK 12, Results:
Sunday, May 25
LA Galaxy 4 Philadelphia 1.
LA: Leonardo (Landon Donovan) 2
LA: Landon Donovan (Robbie Keane) 49
LA: Robbie Keane 64
LA: Landon Donovan (Robbie Keane) 81
PHL: Maurice Edu pen. 88
San Jose 3 Houston 0.
SJ: Khari Stephenson (Shea Salinas) 38
SJ: Khari Stephenson (pen.) 58
SJ: Atiba Harris 70
Att.: 10,525.
Saturday, May 24
Real Salt Lake 0 FC Dallas 0.
Att.: 20,488.
Columbus 2 Chicago 0.
CLB: Ethan Finlay (Federico Higuain) 10
CLB: Jairo Arrieta (Federico Higuain) 25
Att.: 15,290.
New England 2 D.C. United 1.
NE: Patrick Mullins (Diego Fagundez) 55
DC: Fabian Espindola (Cristian) 73
NE: Diego Fagundez 77
Red Card: DC -- Eddie Johnson 82.
Att.: 13,589.
Colorado 4 Montreal 1.
COL: Dillon Powers pen. 5
COL: Kamani Hill (Edson Buddle) 54
COL: Shane O'Neill 58
COL: Dillon Powers (Marlon Hairston) 84
MTL: Andres Romero (Troy Perkins) 88
Att.: 17,616.
Vancouver 2 Seattle 2.
SEA: Chad Barrett (Kenny Cooper) 36
VAN: Erik Hurtado (Pedro Morales) 39
VAN: Gershon Koffie 66
SEA: Gonzalo Pineda pen. 82
Att.: 21,000.
New York 1 Portland 2.
NY: Bradley Wright-Phillips pen. 36
POR: Maximiliano Urruti (Steve Zakuani) 45
POR: Maximiliano Urruti 74
Att.: 19,513.
Friday, May 23
Sporting KC 2 Toronto FC 2.
SKC: Dom Dwyer (Sal Zizzo) 47
TFC: Luke Moore (Jermain Defoe) 67
SKC: Dom Dwyer (pen.) 84
TFC: Collen Warner 1 (Nick Hagglund) 90+
Red Card: TFC -- Steven Caldwell 63.
Att.: 19,914.
Wednesday, May 21
D.C. United 2 Houston 0.
DC: Chris Rolfe (Fabian Espindola) 28
DC: Fabian Espindola (Chris Rolfe) 63
Att.: 8,224.
LA Galaxy 2 FC Dallas 1.
LA: Robbie Keane (Gyasi Zardes) 24
LA: Gyasi Zardes (Juninho) 44
DAL: Tesho Akindele (Jair Benitez) 65
MLS Standings:
EASTERN CONFERENCE
PTS TEAM W-L-T GF/GA
23 New England 7-3-2 21/14
18 Sporting KC 5-4-3 18/12
18 D.C. United 5-4-3 17/14
17 Houston 5-7-2 16/24
16 Columbus 4-4-4 15/14
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14 New York 3-5-5 19/21
13 Toronto FC 4-4-1 11/11
12 Chicago 2-3-6 19/21
11 Philadelphia 2-7-5 16/24
7 Montreal 1-6-4 9/22
WESTERN CONFERENCE
PTS TEAM W-L-T GF/GA
26 Seattle 8-3-2 25/21
24 Real Salt Lake 6-0-6 23/13
18 Colorado 5-4-3 16/15
18 FC Dallas 5-6-3 22/22
17 Vancouver 4-2-5 18/14
------------------------------------------------
15 LA Galaxy 4-3-3 14/9
13 Portland 2-3-7 18/20
13 San Jose 3-4-4 13/12
10 Chivas USA 2-5-4 13/20
------------------------------------------------
MLS: Leading Scorers
G PLAYER, TEAM
10+2 Dom Dwyer, Sporting KC
10+1 Bradley Wright-Phillips, New York
8 Erick Torres, Chivas USA
8 Clint Dempsey, Seattle
7+1+1 Robbie Keane, LA Galaxy
6+1 Fabian Espindola, D.C. United
6 Federico Higuain, Columbus
6 Joao Plata, Real Salt Lake
6 Will Bruin, Houston
6 Alvaro Saborio, Real Salt Lake
MLS WEEK 13, Schedule:
Tuesday, May 27
8 pm ET
Sporting KC vs. New York, ESPN2, WatchESPN, ESPN Deportes
Wednesday, May 28
10:30 pm ET
Chivas USA vs. Portland, MLS LIVE
Saturday, May 31
4 pm ET
Seattle vs. Real Salt Lake, MLS LIVE
5 pm ET
Toronto FC vs. Columbus, MLS LIVE
7 pm ET
Montreal vs. New England, MLS LIVE
D.C. United vs. Sporting KC, MLS LIVE
8:30 pm ET
FC Dallas vs. San Jose, MLS LIVE, UDN
10:30 pm ET
Chivas USA vs. Philadelphia, MLS LIVE
Sunday, June 1
4 pm ET
Chicago vs. LA Galaxy, MLS LIVE
8 pm ET
Colorado vs. Houston, UDN
9 pm ET
Portland vs. Vancouver, MLS LIVE
MLS WEEK 14, Schedule:
Wednesday, June 4
7:30 pm ET
Columbus vs. Real Salt Lake, MLS LIVE
9 pm ET
Colorado vs. Chicago, MLS LIVE
Friday, June 6
8:30 pm ET
Houston vs. Sporting KC, MLS LIVE
Saturday, June 7
4 pm ET
Toronto FC vs. San Jose, MLS LIVE
6:30 pm ET
D.C. United vs. Columbus, MLS LIVE
7 pm ET
Philadelphia vs. Vancouver, MLS LIVE
8:30 pm ET
Chicago vs. Seattle, MLS LIVE
8:30 pm ET
FC Dallas vs. Colorado, MLS LIVE
10 pm ET
Real Salt Lake vs. Portland, MLS LIVE, UDN
Sunday, June 8
5 pm ET
New England vs. New York, MLS LIVE
8 pm ET
LA Galaxy vs. Chivas USA, UDN
MLS WEEK 15, Schedule:
Wednesday, June 11
7:30 pm ET
Montreal vs. D.C. United, MLS LIVE
10 pm ET
Portland vs. FC Dallas, ESPN2, WatchESPN, ESPN Deportes
Just for the record, Philly has 2 wins
LD plays a perfect far post pass for an assist, his perfectly weighted pass to Keane is returned for a sitter, and with a 2nd Keane assist he makes a cut back move and puts away a left footer. Still some game left in our country's 24th best player who is being outplayed by a little bit by 23 others, LOL!
Kick-ass comment Charles!!! Where are all the LD detractors who will claim we don't need LDs boat-load of skill, timing and vision in Brazil?
Congratulations!!! Great timing LD. Bet Bruce/Galaxy are very happy LD is not "good enough" to make the top 23. Sadly their gain is comes at USMNT loss.
I am from Austria, so I have followed the things JK has done with Bayern and the German team. A lot of talking but he won nothing at the end. JK failed two times in Germany, because he is ridiculous and has no clue. He thinks a 19 year old, who played in a second team in Germany, who has 1 cap, is better than LD who scored 57 goals in international games, who played sucessfull in the Premierleague. JK is too stupid to know how to use him, he prooved that at Bayern. LD has to play behind a striker like Robbie Keane and not up in front and he put him there as a lonely striker, where the strong german defenders can hit him from behind all the time. He is more play maker, but still can score safely, coming from behind and without fighting two defenders in the back. The ball is his strengths and he is the most gifted player by far the U.S. had and still has. Thank you Klinsmann Junior, because of you we know it was a personal issue! Because of this JK should get fired, because he is not looking for the best for the National Team, his personal issues are more important, apart from that he just sucks as a coach.
JK thinks modern football is only about speed and running. If so you could just send the best runners on the field to win the Worldcup. Well thats the biggest mistake a coach in soccer can make. Football is about passing well, dribbling well, not loosing the ball and shooting the ball in the net. LD should be in the first Eleven because he can play soccer, he prooved that 100 of times, I doubt that with most others of the US Nationalteam!!!!
Landon might not be prime shape anymore, but all he needs is to step in the gas a little and he could be of great help to the USMNT.