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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

Landon Donovan 5 (ISIphotos.com)

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Landon Donovan isn't waiting long to take his chance during his new loan with Everton.

The U.S. national team star is starting for the Toffees today in their match against Arsenal. Donovan just joined Everton but has apparently made enough of an impression to get the start.

Everton-Arsenal is just one of the matches you can watch today. If you will be watching today's matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Today's TV schedule is after the jump).

SATURDAY'S SOCCER on TV

12pm- ESPN Deportes, ESPN360.com- Real Valladolid vs. Atletico Madrid

12pm- ESPN360.com- AS Roma vs. Chievo Verona

12:30pm- FSC, FSE- Birmingham vs. Manchester United

2pm- GolTV- Sevilla vs. Racing Santander

2:30pm- FSC, FSE- Inter Milan vs. Siena

5pm- FSC, FSE- As Roma vs. Chievo Verona (delayed)

8:30pm- FSE- Santos Laguna vs. Atlante (InterLiga)

Comments

  1. I don’t think i’ve ever hidden my bias against LD. I don’t think he’s the best US player. And a poor Arsenal is still better than the majority of teams.

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  2. Geez, Josh.2….make up your freakin’ mind.

    You down play what Donovan has done because it’s only against an underperforming Arsenal. Then when someone points out that Everton’s poor defense…you say they’re defense isn’t bad because they’re playing the mighty Arsenal.

    So which is it: crap Arsenal or great Arsenal?

    I think your bias against a certain player with the initials LD is showing.

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  3. Being Canadian and a Reds fan I hated Landon Donovan. But that now he’s in the EPL I appreciate his skills and hope he does very well. His success, and Clint Dempsey’s, make MLS stronger (and help’s us to forget about Johnson’s, Adu’s and Altidore’s failures).

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  4. The Donovan haters have shifted and fallen back. No longer ‘Donovan can’t play in Europe’ the new mantra is Donovan can’t star in Europe. And they’ll shift again based on his few games with Everton, how silly.

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  5. I don’t think there is disdain for Donovan, I think some people (myself included) just can’t stand how people on this site like to exaggerate his performances. Nobody goes crazy when a guy like Dempsey is putting in good performances on a weekly basis, but Donovan plays a game in which he isn’t particularly spectacular, and certainly wasn’t any better than anyone on his team, and everyone wants to congratulate him on a great game and all that. He was average today, and that’s from a neutral’s point of view. Everton as a team was pretty good, Arsenal’s was poor.

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  6. They played Arsenal…Everton does not have a horrible defense. Even Chelsea’s defense has trouble against Arsenal. If not for king Drogba, Chelsea wouldn’t have beaten Arsenal.

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  7. having a couple of good passes and an assist against an under strenght Arsenal team makes you a star? There are players in the EPL who do that with some regularity in the EPL and not too many people consider them stars…Dempsey is scoring goals, getting assists, dribbling people, and hardly anyone speaks of him in the same sentence as Fabregas, Gerrard, Torres, Lampard and the like.

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  8. Don’t know what you’re getting at here, but Berbatov is def a better player than Donovan. Just because Landon is considered the best out of an American bunch does not make him a great player. And 2 1/2 bad situations? the kid had his chance and Leverkusen and didn’t pull it off. Bayern was a bad idea to begin with, better players ahead of him, but I stopped being a Donovan fan after he left Leverkusen the second time, he had a chance there, he just didn’t pull it off. I want the guy to succeed, but the Arsenal he played against today should not go to his head. Arsenal played a bad game today, and that’s a testament to the high standards they’ve set. I would have liked to have seen him play against a full strenght Arsenal side. He had a decent game, but he wasn’t the best on the field, but he surely understand the Everton system, pack up behind the ball and wait for your chance…and for my money, Clint Dempsey is the best American player.

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  9. You go to Germany at 17 and become a star! Not many people leave there home countries without playing professionally and become stars. Where donovan is now is a testament to the type of player he is, he’s not a flop he’s been in 2 1/2 bad situations. Besides look at two players who were on that team berbatov and donovan whose the better player now? 27,28,29 are athletes prime years, not their early twenties.

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  10. They were not scored by Everton’s defenders. They were deflected off of them. But yea I agree, Howard would have saved the first and maybe the second one too. I wasn’t blaming Howard. I was just telling adevanoto that the defenders weren’t really at fault.

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  11. memrook, i totally get what you were saying. im an arsenal fan but only because my whole family is from n london. however i find myself cheering for teams with american players when they arent playing arsenal. the nats fan in me was glad to see landon do so well- and with man u drawing it isnt all that bad for the gunners. also, i didnt realize there were so many arsenal haters on here- you’re gonna be a frustrated bunch over the next few years!

    whoever would wish for eduardo to lose his career and get injured again is nuts. chill out dude, it was obvious that he wss going for the ball and running on an icy surface. he apologized to tim immediately and tim acknowledged it. relax.
    and btw, traore may be third string but he’s no slouch and is better than at least half of the starting left backs in the epl. landons performance was fun to watch and it was great to see him do well.

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  12. http://theoriginalwinger.com/2010-01-09-arsenal-vs-everton-highlights-premiership

    Everton v Arsenal highlights; The corner from Landon was excellent.

    While I’m waiting for some guy to post highlights Donovan against Arsenal, and someone will do it, from what I heard, Landon showed his tactical and technical ability, speed, and a pretty good workrate. This is exactly what we expect from Landon against CONCACAF teams and the fact that he’s doing it against one of the best teams in the EPL is exciting. Just as exciting is Moyes’ clear faith in him, and the only reason that he took him out at the 69 minute mark was most likely for fitness purposes. If this is what Donovan can do in his first game, then he’s got a good 10 weeks ahead of him.

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  13. Both goals were scored by Everton defenders. Howard would certainly have stopped the first easily, and had a chance on the second if not for deflections.

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  14. I can’t see Moyes playing an out of form Saha, over and over again , but Yakubu is in poorer form. Perhaps Jo will get another shot. Saha destroyed many attacks today.

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  15. watching inter vs siena and they have had more errant passes and blind crosses than an mls match. Still fun and high scoring though at 2-2

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  16. Stars are born as teenagers not 27 year old former European flops. He play well, nit extra ordinary, The corner was a good one, that Arsenal should have cleared and it showed they have problems when small Baines heads in the goal.

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  17. I got knocked out last week when Arshavin(Capt), Diaby, Eduardo, Lee, Davies all did not play thier second game and lost by 15pts

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  18. Me: Sure, honey, we can go go to breakfast… As long as we are back by 11ish… (assuming Landon would be a 60th minute sub)

    **after learning Landon was starting**

    Me: Actually babe, let’s get the food to go, I’m not feeling too hot…

    Decent game from my boys… The entire defense (aside from Baines, of course) is out of form and/or playing out of position, making it difficult to hang on to a 2-1 lead.

    If only James Vaughan could’ve kept his composure on his breakaway late in the game! We rarely take 3 points against any of the big 4. However, if you would’ve offered me a point before kickoff, I would’ve gladly taken it.

    LD looked to tire just a tad toward middle of the 2nd half, which i am positive can be attributed to adjusting to his new surroundings and being a few weeks removed from “match” fitness.

    Overall, so f’ing excited to see the star of my favorite national team playing for my favorite club team!!!

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  19. BBC

    “And with Arsene Wenger’s side missing Alexander Song, they struggled to impose themselves in midfield allowing Everton debutant Landon Donovan, in particular, to take advantage.

    The American gave Gunners left-back Armand Traore a torrid time throughout, and it was from his corner that Everton opened the scoring.”

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  20. Guardian review of Donovan in the match report:

    “With Louis Saha’s clever runs and Tim Cahill’s waspish presence augmented extremely well by the expert dribbling of Landon Donovan on an eye-catching debut, Everton caused Arsenal serious concern from the off.”

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  21. not saying landon didn’t play very vell, but do remember that traore is arsenals 3rd choice right back. not taking anything away at all, he did play well, and i hope he lights the league up, but do take that into consideration.

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  22. Teams that typically don’t have a lot of players in foreign leagues do the same thing we are doing here.

    Mexicans in particular are very similar. Many Mexican fans were die-hard Barcelona fans, but when Marquez fell out of the first team that support dwindled. Same with Dos Santos and Tottenham, Pardo and Stuttgart, Salcido with PSV, etc etc..

    But when it comes to a country like England or Germany, most of their national team stars play in the domestic leagues, so the fans tend to follow their main club only. But if, say, Wayne Rooney were to play for Bayern Munich, the English fans would only follow BM games if he was playing.

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  23. First goal was a shot outside the box. Good quick feet from Arshavin and a first time lay off from Eduardo. No dribbling involved.

    Second goal started near the half. Basically everything was one or two touch. Good movement up front tucks the defense in and Rosicky comes from behind. It was a great goal. You’re a Barcelona fan right? If that was them that scored the goal, you would probably be saying that’s how “football” should be played and how no one can stop them.

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  24. Saha is a quality player for sure. I hope adenovato was just joking if not he/she probably doesn’t follow the EPL on a regular basis. Saha does have class but he hasn’t shown the form he once had when he was with Fulham due to multiple injuries. Overall, a decent game, and a decent debut for Landon.

    Reply

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