Donovan Has a Fitting Start
If Landon Donovan keeps this up, pretty soon some top European teams are going to come calling.
What? He’s been there, done that, isn’t interested anymore?
On Saturday night, in front of a sellout crowd of 27,000 at the Home Depot Center, Donovan showed why abandoning Germany and returning to Major League Soccer was the best decision he could have made -- for himself, for the Galaxy and for the league.
On an evening when he was still hacking, coughing and sneezing because of the lingering effects of flu, it took him only 8 minutes 19 seconds to notch his first goal in a Galaxy jersey.
It took him only one half to score twice, and it took him only one game to help Cobi Jones break a 22-month scoring drought when his perfectly measured pass set up Jones for the Galaxy’s third goal in a 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake.
“I think he showed why we wanted him here and why he’s such a great player,” Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson said.
John Ellinger, Real Salt Lake’s coach, summed up Donovan’s debut in even fewer words.
“He’s just in a different class,” Ellinger said.
The Galaxy, rebounding from a mediocre performance a week ago when it lost its season opener, 3-0, at Columbus, was certainly a different team Saturday.
Sampson made two changes in his starting lineup from that game. Donovan was paired at forward with Jovan Kirovski, and Paul Broome went to the bench. Rookie defender Ugo Ihemelu also made his debut, starting in place of Michael Umana.
But as well as the team played, it was Donovan and Guatemalan winger Guillermo Ramirez who stood out.
Donovan’s first goal came on his first shot as the Galaxy outshot Real, 19-8, overall and, 10-5, in shots on goal.
Ramirez, on the left wing, started the move with a diagonal crossfield pass to Chris Albright on the right. Albright crossed the ball to Kirovski in the box and Kirovski played the ball back to Donovan, whose shot from about 14 yards flew into the lower right corner of Real’s net.
Donovan sprinted toward the stands, leaped up and punched his fist in the air.
Flu, what flu?
More was to come but not until after Salt Lake, an expansion team playing only its second MLS game, had tied the score.
Jason Kreis, the league’s all-time leading scorer, got the goal, his 92nd in 10 years, the first nine of them with the Dallas Burn, now FC Dallas.
The goal, at 28:20, came after Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman had dived to his left to make a one-handed save on a shot by Salt Lake’s Dipsy Selolwane. The ball rolled free to Kreis who buried it in the net.
In the last minute of the half, the Galaxy regained the lead. Ramirez again got free down the left, beat Salt Lake defender Rusty Pierce and floated the ball deep to the far post. There, Donovan got the edge on defender Matt Behncke and headed in his second goal.
Donovan’s pass to Jones in the 72nd minute provided the icing.
“It’s always good to score,” he said. “It’s been a long two and a half to three weeks and I wanted to just play and get it over with.”
The media whirlwind surrounding his return to MLS has been draining.
“Playing at home you have to win, especially after the beating we took last week. That was the priority,” he said.
