SEATTLE - After calling Los Angeles his home for the past ten seasons in Major League Soccer, Landon Donovan now has a chance for his own Hollywood ending to his glittering soccer career.
The LA Galaxy's win over Seattle on Sunday evening in the Western Conference Championship sets up the dream scenario for Donovan, who announced earlier this season that this will be his last a professional soccer player. He has the chance to bow out of the game in front of his hometown fans as the first-ever winner of six MLS Cup titles when the Galaxy host the New England Revolution on Dec. 7.
"It seems perfect, yeah," Donovan said. "But we've got to win it. That's our challenge. We're playing a team that I think is the best team in the league the last 10 or 12 games, so it's going to be a challenge."
At halftime at Century Link Field on Sunday, however, it was a moment that looked to be nothing more than a pipe dream. Trailing Seattle by two goals on the night and one goal on aggregate, Donovan sat in the LA locker room contemplating the fact that he may be about to go back out onto the pitch for his final 45 minutes as a professional.
"In the few minutes at halftime that I had time to ponder, I wanted to make sure that this wasn't it," Donovan said. "I wanted to make sure, regardless of the outcome that I put it all in and it worked out well."
Donovan’s corner kick in the 54th minute eventually found the foot of midfielder Juninho, who laced a shot off the post and in for the all-important away goal proved to be the deciding goal of the series.
It was also the 14th career postseason game-winning assist for Donovan, tying him with former Galaxy playmaker Mauricio Cienfuegos for most all-time in MLS history.
But as important as the win against Seattle was to Donovan and his LA teammates, he was keen to stress that there is still a lot of work to be done before he hang up his boots for good.
"We haven't won anything yet," Donovan said. "This is just the first step along the way. The first part was the Salt Lake series, and now Seattle. Nobody's had to do it harder than we have. These are two very good teams. To beat the best team in the regular season during a series like this is very difficult.
"Now we get one game at home to win a championship, so if anyone had said at the beginning of the year, we'd take it in a heartbeat and we're going to go with everything to win it."
Donovan knows the media circus that will await him over the next week, but for now, he's just wanting to take in what the Galaxy have achieved and focus on that last big win.
"I'm sort of just in this moment right now" Donovan said. "I just want to prepare myself for one last week and do everything I can to help this team win. I really want to go out a champion."
