The Official Site of Landon Donovan

Mon, Nov 9th 2009, 09:44

Donovan comes through for Galaxy

When all else fails, the Los Angeles Galaxy have the perfect fall-back in Landon Donovan.

That was no different in Sunday’s second game of the Western Conference Semifinal Series with archrival Chivas USA in front of a sellout crowd of 27,000 at The Home Depot Center. The 27-year-old calmly converted a penalty kick in the 73rd minute to give the Galaxy a hard-fought 1-0 victory and a berth in the conference championship. They will play the Houston Dynamo, who defeated Seattle Sounders FC 1-0 earlier in the day, on Friday night in Los Angeles.

Sunday’s win not only denied Chivas their first-ever berth in the conference final but it stretched their winless streak against the Galaxy to eight games (in all competitions) since 2007.

“That certainly was a great win, a real battle,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said. “It was a game like most playoff games … it’s going to come down to one or two plays.”

The pivotal play occurred in the 70th minute when David Beckham sent a spectacular long ball crossfield to Donovan on the wing, and Donovan in turn lifted a pass to Mike Magee deep in the penalty area. Magee had trouble gaining possession — “It was a lousy first touch,” he said — before he was fouled hard by Chivas USA’s Yamith Cuesta.

“Certainly the referee (Richardo Salazar) showed a lot of courage,” Arena said. “That clearly was a foul on Magee.”

The seven-year veteran definitely paid the price.

“I got kicked where no man wants to get hit,” Magee said with a smile.

Then it was up do Donovan to take the penalty kick. Chivas USA goaltender Zach Thornton, just last week named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, dove to his left, in the direction Donovan usually goes, but Donovan crossed him up by going up the middle and scored his 16th career MLS playoff goal. That tied him for the most in league postseason history with Carlos Ruiz.

“There were a lot of facts that went through my head right before,” Donovan said. “My thoughts were to get to the ball and keep an eye on him, and if he moved real early I was going to make my decision.

“My thought was actually to go that side, but I saw him step the other way and then start leaning that way. So I closed it and it went in.”

Continue reading….

Landon’s postgame thoughts:

On beating Chivas USA in the playoffs:

It’s huge. There may never be another opportunity to play them in the playoffs, so we have to think of the historic value of it too. So, you want to take advantage of these opportunities, obviously you are kind of living in the moment, but when you think of that from a historical perspective, that’s huge.

On his Penalty Kick:

There were a lot of thoughts in my head before taking it. My thought was to get to the ball and keep an eye on him [Zach Thornton], and if he moved really early, I was going to make my decision. My thought was actually to go to that side, but I saw him step the other way and start leaning that way, so I just closed it and put it in.

On celebrating in front of the fans:

We have some loyal fans and it’s been a rough couple of years. The expectations were high and they’ve been let down over the past few years so it was nice to reward them. We expect Friday night to be loud again; they certainly helped us tonight.

On the young teammates: (said in Spanish)

I really think the young players stepped up tonight. Everybody had a great game, especially Omar. In the first leg of the playoffs, they were a little nervous, but they come out big tonight.

On the Western Conference Championship against Houston Dynamo: (said in Spanish)

Houston is a team that has a lot of experience. Both of the games that we played during the regular season were really close, so I expect this game to be close as well. One play should define the course of the game.