Landon Donovan has seen plenty of success in England, but should he come home now? (Getty Images)

Part of me wants Landon Donovan to stay in England. The other part of me wants him back here in the US with the LA Galaxy. Thing is I cannot for the life of me decide which is the right one to go with.

Its a rough dilemma to be in for Donovan. He wants to stay on with Everton just a little bit longer but we know LA manager Bruce Arena has said no a few times to the press recently.

“It was kind of like in that movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’, where the man says that there is a chance, it’s just one in a million,” said Arena. The Galaxy coach, who has remained in frequent contact with the midfielder throughout his loan, did not appear concerned about the comments.

“There is always a chance, it may be one in a million, but there is always a chance.”

Yeah a chance, a very small one but one nonetheless. Continue Reading…

Major League Soccer tried with Real Madrid, then they tried again with Barcelona. Now MLS commissioner Don Garber is hoping he can get at least one English Premier League owner to invest into the league.

“We think it would be smart for us to have an international team sitting around our board table and helping to influence the way we think and perhaps connect us even more closer with the international community,” Garber said in an interview with The Associated Press at SoccerEx.

“We tried with FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, and we will continue to talk to the Spanish clubs while finding some way to see if there is an investment opportunity with any of the English clubs. We are not anywhere close to that on any level yet.”

One club sounds interested, Manchester City. Garber met Monday with City chief executive Garry Cook. No word yet on how those talks went.

I like this idea for Garber to target EPL owners here. I do wonder if he will try to put pressure on some of the Americans that already own EPL sides. He has one owner already with a EPL side (Colorado Rapids owner Stan Kroenke has a majority stake in Arsenal), so maybe he’ll have an easier time getting one of them to invest in MLS.

It won’t be easy though as a lot of clubs in England and in Europe are losing money left and right these days. Getting the right group like the Man City owners may be the right way to go here. Its still very early in the process here but I do like this step taken by the league.

How has Eddie Johnson has changed our lives? New WVH writer John Parker takes a look.

By John Parker

Brian Mcbride was a good player. So was Joe-Max Moore. Eric Wynalda held the American scoring record for nearly a decade.

Alright, I don’t know where to start with this, and my free writing is a little sub par here. But there is a point, and it’s not that subtle. The US has produced some adequate players up top, but the position has been the country’s Achilles heel…and an anomaly. This is a nation that hosts the most astonishing athletes in the world, and yet cycle after cycle we see gadflies, overachievers and “hard workers” leading the line. Meanwhile, the Damani Ralph’s of the world were entering the MLS and snatching golden boots.

Before the 2006 cycle, this is what we not only experienced, but expected. We waited on the coming Hispanic infusion that would introduce craft to the position; the demographics of America were rapidly changing, and the future of American soccer supposedly with it. We would see a new breed of player, one who preferred to play on the ball, to strike it from distance and to create for his teammates. Brian Mcbride was great, but we could improve.

But then something curious happened. Eddie Johnson, an American striker with sub par ability on the ball won the golden boot with the U-20’s, and then again with the MLS. It was astonishing…because he was an astonishing athlete. Playing off the hips of the defender, Eddie looked to impose his will with his speed. He didn’t finish off of crosses or set pieces but rather through balls. He was introduced to the National Team and quickly reeled off seven goals. The message boards lit up. People bought the jersey they were sure to wear for a decade…after all, who offered what Eddie did up top? Those seven goals may have been somewhat of a fluke, but they may also have been proof of something greater than just Eddie. The American style, with its counter-attacks and its high pressure defending (which leads to interceptions up the pitch) could take advantage of a forward who routinely got behind the defense. The Twellman’s of the world slowed down our attack when, if anything, we needed to be speeding up.

Don’t beat yourself up for falling for the hype to early. I did…and your favorite blogger probably did too. After all, it’s not like we could complain that Eddie’s ball skills didn’t compare with the rest of the pool. We’d later realize how much better Mcbride’s first touch was, or how much better Moore was off the ball…but the point is for a youth player it was tough to criticize him in comparison (remember, he was battling Taylor Twellman for a spot). Continue Reading…

Stuart Holden is on his way to Bolton. (Getty Images)

The day has some for those Houston Dynamo fans, their club no now longer has Stuart Holden. Bolton manager Owen Coyle has confirmed that the club will sign Holden as one of two winter acquisitions.

Holden joins former Dynamo teammate Ricardo Clark, who has signed with Eintracht Frankfurt, as Americans to make major transfer moves from MLS this winter.

How can a team recover from the loss of their two most important midfielders? It won’t be easy though having quality coaching in Dominic Kinnear, who has been a master at getting exactly what he wants out of players and deals with other teams. Also having some quality talent like Brad Davis and Geoff Cameron doesn’t hurt either.

But it is more than losing the likes of Clark and Holden that will be a game changer this winter for Houston and for that matter Major League Soccer. Clark we knew was headed overseas and the Dynamo easily knew last winter that they’d need to prepare for such a move. As for Holden there was always some hope that they could retain him even though his price tag was far higher than anything they could pay for.

Houston will have to recover fast here as the western conference is getting better each day with LA, RSL, Chivas, Seattle and even Dallas being major players for this coming season. If they don’t want to get passed up as the top dog in the west for good Kinnear will have to make some moves, which have to be expected at this point. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him go within the league for a veteran looking for a new home. Possibly a guy like Pablo Mastroeni would be a decent fit to replace Clark (just an idea floating in my head).

Houston is going to be down this year but I don’t think we can count them out just yet.

Stuart Holden has plenty of offers now. (Getty Images)

We know MLS is trying to keep him but some clubs overseas want to have him pretty badly. According to multiple reports out of England and Scotland, Premier League side Blackburn Rovers is now in hot pursuit of Stuart Holden.

Of course that goes with Holden’s other possible suiters in SPL clubs Aberdeen and Rangers.

Honestly, I don’t like the idea of Holden going to Blackburn, a club that is close to relegation and could possible just place Holden on the bench. For a guy that needs playing time in a World Cup year he needs to go to a place where he will see plenty of action on the field. Which is why I really believe staying in Houston right now would be a better fit than going to the EPL with Blackburn or even the SPL with Rangers.

Now we know the league’s big pay raise offer won’t come close to matching Blackburn or the two SPL club’s offers. But does a young guy like Holden risk his potential playing time in the World Cup this year by going to a place that he will end up just sitting on the bench at or does he stay in MLS where he gets plenty of playing time? Let’s hope the ladder of the two happens.

It was a deal that we saw coming for the last couple week and now it is official. Everton FC formally announced the completion of the Landon Donovan loan move on Friday, clearing the way for him to make his 10-week stay with the English Premier League side.

Donovan will join fellow US National Team member Tim Howard with the Toffees after the New Year, pending acceptance of his UK work permit application. Given the amount of time Donovan gets with the national team clearing a work permit shouldn’t be an issue at all.

The 10-week loan is pretty short though and I have to wonder exactly how much impact Donovan will be able to make with Everton. But judging by the schedule after the New Year for Everton, Donovan could face a number of top clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea.

What do you make of Donovan’s chances with Everton? Think he’ll make a big enough impact or will he ride on the bench the majority of the time?

Donovan gets a new deal and a loan to Everton.

We knew going into the day that the LA Galaxy would be making some sort of “major” announcement regarding Landon Donovan. It was pretty easy to guess that Donovan was in the works to get a loan deal to EPL side Everton.

Well that deal was announced today along with Donovan signing a four-year extension with the club. The money side of things wasn’t announced but some believe it is a “DP-level” contract, of course without actually being a DP. Of course we all know Donovan’s contract was grandfathered in terms of not being a DP back when the league started the DP program since he was already making above the league maximum.

Donovan’s loan deal to Everton won’t be a long one though as it is for just a short 10-weeks from January to mid-March. Yes that also means Donovan will be back in a Galaxy jersey for the First Kick next year.

That is good and bad if you ask me. I like that Donovan signed a new deal with the league because I’d rather see him here right now than anywhere else but at the same time I think a short loan like that is kind of weak. I’m not saying give him a David Beckham style loan for six months or anything but 10 weeks just doesn’t seem long enough for Donovan to do anything of note with Everton.

I also kind of see this new deal for Donovan as a starter for how the league could be starting to handle it’s star players. We already know they are working on keeping Stuart Holden with a big time raise and signing Donovan like this just tells me the league is slowly starting to get serious about it’s stars here. They realize they have to keep at least some of them to market to the fans out there.

Donovan is the face of the league right now and it was wise to give him a little boost in pay. Hopefully it just means more of the same to come for the rest of the players in the league with a new CBA. But we’ll see won’t we?

What do you make of Donovan’s new deal? And the loan to Everton?