Landon Donovan’s history-making night

i-b46955a32c35f389eb766e8e6f4f6ea1-donovanscoresutd.jpgLandon Donovan equalizes for the Galaxy Saturday against D.C. United in Carson (AP Photo).

If you watched Saturday night’s Galaxy-D.C. United game you witnessed history.

That’s because Landon Donovan’s two goals tonight in the 2-1 win pushed him past Assistant Coach Cobi Jones as the Galaxy’s all-time leading scorer. Donovan has 71 goals now.

The funny thing is I don’t think many of my colleagues in the press box were aware of the significance of the goals and Donovan wasn’t asked about his achievement when he spoke after the game.

But the manner in which the goals came – Donovan essentially taking over a game and engineering a Galaxy comeback, as we’ve seen him do before – made the goals even more meaningful. And it’s a helluva statement about the kind of gritty player Donovan can be, especially when he gets a little ticked off, as I think he was tonight with the performance.

So I stuck around after everyone else had left the locker room to ask him about it:

Me: You do know you made history tonight, right?

Donovan: How’s that?

Me: You now have 71 goals for the Galaxy.

Donovan: Which is?

Me: You just surpassed Cobi Jones as the all-time leading scorer for this club.

Donovan: Did I? That’s awesome. Cobi has been the guy I’ve watched most throughout my career not only when I was young on TV, but also since I’ve been in MLS and especially since I’ve been with the Galaxy. I have a lot of respect for what he’s done and it’s nice to join that company.

Me: It’s a great game to do it in, too. I mean, (scoring) two goals, five minutes apart at the end of a game.

Donovan: Against D.C. – Cobi’s old nemesis. It’s nice to score, I like to win. And tonight asked for me to do a little bit more. But I really enjoy winning, so it was a good night.”

And it was a privilege to be there to see it.

Incidentally, let’s not forget that Donovan is also the leading U.S. National Team goalscorer with 45 goals in 128 games.

Oh, and I tried to get Cobi’s reaction, but he’d already left the stadium.

Relive some of Donovan’s best goals for the Galaxy in the last two years here:

I’ll be back a little later with a full post-game wrap.

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About Nick Green

South Bay-based Los Angeles News Group soccer columnist and blogger Nick Green writes at the 100 Percent Soccer blog at www.insidesocal.com/soccer and craft beer at the Beer Goggles blog at www.insidesocal.com/beer. Cheers!