Landon Donovan isn’t ready to retire just yet, not after his hat trick helped the Galaxy rout Real Salt Lake, 5-0, in the deciding game of the Western Conference semifinals.
With a loss or even a scoring draw, the Galaxy would have seen its season end — and Donovan, who announced his impending retirement in August, would have seen his career end.
He wasn’t about to let that happen. So he got the scoring started with a header in the 11th minute.
The sequence started with Marcelo Sarvas sending the ball forward to A.J. DeLaGarza on the right side of the box. DeLaGarza immediately chipped it across the goalie box for Donovan, who had to run a long way before losing defender Tony Beltran at the left post to nod a one-hop shot into the center of the goal.
The goal was the first for Donovan in more than five weeks and the first for the Galaxy in 230 minutes, its longest drought of the season. And for RSL, it was the first goal allowed since Oct. 5, a span of 413 minutes.
But it wouldn’t be the last.
Less than 10 minutes later a poor RSL clearance allowed an unmarked Donovan to again get the ball in the box on the left side and this time he slipped a neat left-footed pass across the goal to Keane, who slid to deflect the ball in with his left foot.
Several RSL players raised their arms in protest, looking for an offside call. But Keane appeared to have circled back to get onside before taking a couple of quick steps toward the right post, where Donovan found him.
Then 10 minutes into the second half Donovan proved that, at 32, he hasn’t lost much of his game-changing speed, outrunning two defenders to catch up to a long Keane pass before dribbling around RSL keeper Nick Rimando and left-footing a shot into the netting on the far side.
A short tap-in goal from Marcelo Sarvas — off an assist from Keane — in the 63rd minute temporarily interrupted the Donovan Show. But it didn’t end it, with Donovan running onto a Keane chip in the box in the 73rd minute to complete the hat trick and extend his MLS record for playoff goals to 25 in 38 games.
Almost unnoticed was the fact that Keane finished with three assists.
His work done, Donovan came off to a standing ovation from a sellout crowd — announced at 27,000 — knowing that he had survived until at least the end of the month when the Galaxy play a two-leg conference final against the winner of Monday’s game between FC Dallas and the Seattle Sounders.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
