Landon Donovan Named MLS Most Valuable Player
November. 19th, 2009
Galaxy and U.S. national team forward Landon Donovan today was named Major League Soccer's most valuable player for 2009.
Donovan finished ahead of New England Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph and FC Dallas striker Jeff Cunningham to win the award for the first time. He is the second Galaxy player to take the honor; Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz won it in 2002.
A nine-year veteran of MLS, Donovan won league championships with the San Jose Earthquakes in 2001 and 2003 and with the Galaxy in 2005. On Sunday, he will seek a fourth title when the Galaxy plays Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup final in Seattle (5:30 Pacific, ESPN and Galavision).
Last year, Donovan finished as the top scorer in MLS with 20 goals. This season, he led the Galaxy with 12 goals and six assists in 25 games.
Thursday's award was Donovan's second in as many days. On Wednesday, his left-foot volley against the Revolution during a 2-1 victory on Aug. 8 was selected as the league's goal of the year. It was judged to be the best of the 571 goals scored in the 2009 regular season.
The Galaxy has received two other league-wide awards this year, with Coach Bruce Arena being voted MLS coach of the year and defender Omar Gonzalez chosen as rookie of the year.
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The Galaxy opened their stadium, the Home Depot Center on June 7. But in order for their home to be ready, the team had to play a record 8 games to start the season and failed to win a game. In fact, the Galaxy finish the season without a win away from home the whole season. After the season's final game, the Galaxy had the final playoff spot in the West. In their aggregate series with the Earthquakes, they seemed well on to vindication for the MLS Cup loss 2 years earlier as they held 4 goals to 0 lead midway through the 2 nd game. A thing happened as the Earthquakes scored four unanswered goals to force a tiebreaker. In that session, the Earthquakes' Rodrigo Farina score to send the Quakes onto the next round.
In 2004 Looking to return to the top, the Galaxy would go through a mediocre 1 st half of the season before 3 straight wins over the summer. But from July 14 on, the Galaxy won only 2 more games, one in September and one in October. The Galaxy had a record of 11-9-10, good enough for 2nd in the West and the playoff, remaining the only club in MLS to have a playoff spot in every year of league in the playoffs, the Galaxy withstood an early challenge from the Rapids to win the aggregate goal series, 2-1, scoring 2 times in Game 2. In the conference final, the Galaxy's season would come to an end in Kansas with a 2-0 loss to Arnaud and the Wizards.
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