Landon Donovan Named MLS Player of the Month
May. 2, 2008
Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan was named MLS Player of the Month for April after scoring eight goals and tallying two assists in five matches. This is the third career Player of the Month award for Donovan, who won in April and September of 2003.
Donovan won consecutive MLS Player of the Week honors in Weeks Four and Five, leading his team to a 2-2-1 record, good for second in the Western Conference. Donovan has been involved, either scoring or assisting, in ten of his teams 11 goals, shouldering much of his team's offensive load.
After a difficult first game, Donovan put together four straight multiple point games. Donovan scored one goal and assisted on another in a 2-0 victory against the San Jose Earthquakes. Against Toronto the following week, Donovan netted both of his team's goals in a 3-2 loss. In Week Four, Donovan won the Sierra Mist Goal of the Week for his spectacular diving header and had another goal in a 2-2 draw with Houston . Donovan's most impressive performance came against Galaxy rivals Chivas USA , when he scored a hat trick and added an assist in a 5-2 victory.
Donovan looks like the early favorite to win the Budweiser Golden Boot Award. With eight goals, he has twice as many goals as his nearest competitor. If Donovan maintains his torrid scoring pace, he will shatter the all-time MLS single season goals record, set by Roy Lassiter with 27 in the 1996 season.
2008 MLS Player of the Month Awards
April: Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy
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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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