The star’s return to MLS is a great story but what does it say about the strength of the league that he has been able to slot back in so easily?
As far as first touches following a near two-year hiatus from soccer go, Landon Donovan’s was pretty good. He’d made a three-minute substitute cameo coming off the bench for the LA Galaxy away to Sporting KC, but this was his first meaningful involvement since unexpectedly coming out of retirement 10 days previously. It took him just 60 seconds, and one touch, to strike home a crucial equaliser. That’s how to make a comeback.
Nobody knew quite what to expect from Donovan in the final throes of the 2016 season. Once the spiritual figurehead of the LA Galaxy, considered the greatest player in the club’s history, it was difficult to envisage Donovan as anything other than a first-team figure. The more pragmatic reasoned that having spent so long out of the game it was unlikely he would immediately pick up where he left off two years ago. How they have been proven wrong, though.
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