After missing out on Jurgen Klinsmann’s World Cup team and announcing his retirement, some might have expected Landon Donovan to coast the rest of the 2014 and hope his talented teammates would carry him to another trophy. That, of course, has not happened.
During the Galaxy’s last four games, Donovan has scored three goals and assisted on five others. This comes after a stretch in which he had just one goal and four assists in 10 games. In fact, those four games stack up against almost any stretch in his MLS career in terms of sheer output.
Below are some other four game stretches of note during his career as you prepare for Friday night's clash against Colorado (10:30 pm ET, NBCSN):
| Landon Donovan's Best Four-Game Stretches | ||
| Time Period | Goals | Assists |
| 9/7/03-9/27/03 | 6 | 1 |
| 4/9/05-5/8/05 | 5 | 3 |
| 4/3/08-4/26/08 | 8 | 2 |
| 8/30/08-9/25/08 | 5 | 2 |
| 8/20/14-8/31/14 | 3 | 5 |
So while this may not be the best run of form in Donovan’s career – that 2008 run of eight goals in four games is no joke – it's certainly up there. But it’s also not like Donovan has only been doing work the past four games. His entire August has been pretty incredible.
Donovan racked up a total of 35 chances created over the past month, more than double any other MLSer. The 35 chances created were actually more than anyone has had in a month since Opta started recording the stat for MLS in 2010. It's also 16 more than Donovan has ever recorded in a single month in MLS since 2010.
Of course, the Galaxy's condensed schedule in August -- seven games is a lot -- helped him hit that mark. Still, his output on a per-game basis stacks up as one of the best in the league since 2010, as shown by the table below. A player must have played at least four games in the month to be eligible.
| Chances created per game over a single month since 2010 | ||
| Player | Month | Chances Created Per Game |
| Brad Davis | June 2011 | 5.25 |
| Brad Davis | April 2011 | 5.20 |
| Federico Higuain | June 2013 | 5.20 |
| Javier Morales | May 2014 | 5.20 |
| Landon Donovan | August 2014 | 5 |
All of this output comes after some tinkering by Bruce Arena. For much of the season, Arena employed a diamond formation after years of lining the Galaxy up in a flat 4-4-2. This placed Donovan at the tip of the diamond as an attacking midfielder.
It worked pretty well, with the Galaxy in the top five in goals per game through July. Individually, Donovan was tied for ninth in chances created, scored four goals and assisted on six others. Despite this, there was a nagging feeling that the Galaxy weren’t running on all cylinders.
Arena did what he does best, giving his side a jolt by moving to something of a 4-1-3-2, with Donovan out left and Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes up top. All of a sudden Donovan was performing at an even higher level and Keane and Zardes were scoring goals by the bucketful.
With two months left, Donovan will make a final run toward a fourth MLS Cup and third Supporters’ Shield in perhaps the best form of his career. Leave it to the best player in MLS and US national team history to hit a historic stride just as the spotlight focuses in.
