In the blinding, steadily falling snow in North London, Landon Donovan made his debut for Everton Football Club. Not against a mid-table opponent, but against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, January 9th.
For sixty-eight minutes at right midfield, Donovan made several decent passes, used his pace to his advantage, and gave the left-sided Arsenal defender Traore fits in his desperation to contain him. Donovan took a corner kick that directly set up Leon Osman’s goal in the twelfth minute giving Everton a 0:1 lead over the hosting Gunners.
In the sixty-ninth minute Donovan began to cramp and came off for Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.
The final score was Arsenal 2:2 Everton with the Gunners leveling on a stoppage-time equalizer that took a freak deflection of of the boot of Everton and Austraila defender Lucas Neill.
Donovan earned praise from his new teammates and bosses:
"I thought he fitted in superbly and he has done all week," - Phil Neville, captain of Everton
"He was very good today, he worked his socks off. He has got a great fitness but even he showed how tough the Premier League is.” - David Moyes, Manager of Everton
“Donovan did very well. From what I have seen of him his football’s simple, quick, lively and he was intelligent today. He tracked people back and we know he can play off the front or wide. I thought he made a good contribution.” - David Moyes
All seems to be well so far for Landon. We’ll see how it sorts out this weekend when Manchester City make the trip west to Goodison Park.
[Dramatic old radio program music]
Will Landon Donovan train well enough to start versus City?
Will the Goodison faithful accept America’s football head-boy?
Tune in and find out...when Saturday comes.
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In his second match, he played all 90 minutes and took all the corner kicks in the second half. He went off in stoppage time and got a fine round of applause from the fans. As the television commentator said, he's made a lot of new friends in just two games.
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