With his stint in Germany coming to a rather unceremonious end, Landon Donovan looks to be back in the USA by early next week, giving him just under two weeks to get re-acclimated to L.A. life (although that may only take lunch at Rubio’s and a walk down the Redondo Beach pier) before the Galaxy’s home and season opener on March 22.
While Donovan’s return to MLS comes with a sobering splash of disappointment (see the harsh fact that the supposed “best player in the league,” according to teammate Dema Kovalenko, isn’t good enough to start in a top European league), you won’t find any negative talk coming out of the Galaxy camp, where they’re welcoming him back with open arms as “the key to this team,” according to Todd Dunivant.
Overseas failures omnipresent at the moment, it’s easy to forget that the 27-year-old, all-time U.S. national team scorer led the league with a career-high 20 goals in 2008. Summing up the feeling of the team and perhaps MLS as a whole, Coach Bruce Arena offers “obviously there is a sense of relief knowing we’re getting a player like Landon back here.”