Monday, 8 December 2014

Galaxy’s Landon Donovan ends MLS career with trophy


Happy Galaxy members (from left) Omar Gonzalez, Juninho, Landon Donovan, and Robbie Keane celebrate after defeating the Revolution for the 2014 MLS Cup. (Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)CARSON, Calif. — Just as former teammate David Beckham did, Landon Donovan closed out his Major League Soccer career with a trophy in his hands.
“I’m in a little bit of a daze, to be honest,” said the man who’s almost universally regarded as the best American player of all time. “There’s a lot of excitement, some sadness. There’s uncertainty and just pure joy for this team and what we did.”
For the 32-year-old Donovan, who made his final appearance in a US jersey against Ecuador this autumn, this was his sixth MLS Cup — the two that he won with San Jose (2001, ’03) plus three others with the Galaxy (2005, ’11, and ’12).
“Landon has done the real [expletive] in the game,” observed LA coach Bruce Arena, who also directed Donovan in two World Cups. “He’s done it all. He’s got very little left to give.
“I’m so happy that he’s made this decision. He’s able to go out a winner. Wouldn’t we all wish to be able to leave what we do the way Landon left today, as a winner?”
Nearly as exciting for Donovan as the Tiffany’s trophy was knowing that he’ll never have to pull on a practice jersey again.
“I don’t have to do any of the no-fun parts of the job now,” he said. “Along with that, I don’t get experiences like today, either.”
Donovan, who played the full 120 minutes, was employed in three positions — in the midfield, up front (to give the attack some zip), and back in the midfield to help sew things up.
And after being given a questionable caution during added time in the first half, Donovan played the final 75 minutes knowing that another yellow card would have resulted in his expulsion and left LA playing with 10 men.
Robbie Keane, who scored the winner, also was given a yellow two minutes into overtime.

Full marks for grit

The Galaxy, which kicked the Revs halfway to Tijuana when they met here in July, awarded them full marks for their grit.
“I give New England a lot of credit,” said Arena. “They battled. They were very disciplined. They knew what they had to do. They did a good job. They pushed us as hard as we could be pushed.”

Fatigue a factor

It may have been a combination of a transcontinental flight Thursday and Sunday’s warmth (temperatures were in the mid-70s), but the Revolution lost their legs as the second half wore on.
“As the minutes went on, guys were starting to feel it,” said striker Charlie Davies, who came off for Patrick Mullins in the 72d. “It hurt us.”
By the start of overtime New England already had used its three substitutions with Daigo Kobayashi replacing Scott Caldwell in the 58th and Andy Dorman coming in for the cramping Lee Nguyen in the 91st.
The Galaxy didn’t go to their bench until the 90th minute when Alan Gordon and Dan Gargan came in for Stefan Ishizaki and Robbie Rogers. Had the match gone to a penalty-kick shootout, as it did in 2006 against Houston, the Revolution would have been without their top scorers in both the regular season (Nguyen) and playoffs (Davies).

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