Welcome Wagon Won’t Be There to Meet Donovan
They will be hanging Landon Donovan in effigy at San Jose tonight.
Fans of the San Jose Earthquakes are being told to bring their once-coveted Donovan bobble-head dolls to the nationally televised game against the Galaxy. They are also being told that twine will be provided for them to dangle the dolls by the neck in front of the ESPN cameras.
There will also be a Donovan pinata at Spartan Stadium -- for disillusioned fans to take out a measure of their frustration over Donovan’s off-season move from San Jose to Los Angeles.
There will be boos. There will be catcalls. There will be insults. Anti-Donovan signs will abound. Anti-Donovan shirts will be raffled. Fans are expected to turn their back on Donovan during player introductions, just as they say he turned his back on them.
Words such as “Judas,” “traitor” and “turncoat” are prominent on the soccer message boards.
Donovan played for four years at San Jose and led the Earthquakes to two Major League Soccer championships, in 2001 and 2003.
But that is forgotten as the Earthquake faithful come to grips with having first lost Donovan to the Galaxy, then former president and general manager Alexi Lalas to the MetroStars, and soon, very possibly, the franchise to Houston.
Fans view the unraveling of their team as the work of MLS in collusion with the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which owns, among other league teams, the Earthquakes, the Galaxy and the MetroStars.
“It’s no secret in the soccer world that the Galaxy is AEG’s baby, and that the Earthquakes are kind of the ugly stepchild,” the Oakland Tribune reported earlier this week.
As for Donovan, he is keeping a wait-and-see attitude.
“I don’t know what to expect,” he said during a conference call this week. “I’m assuming there will be people who will be happy to see me and there will be people who will not be happy.
“I hope that people are at least respectful. I assume that probably won’t be the case. It’ll be interesting. It’ll be a very different experience for me.”
And if he is the target of abuse from fans?
“I’m not going to pretend that it wouldn’t bother me,” he said.
“I don’t think that people truly understand it,” he said of his move. “I think people think it was a soccer move, like San Jose wasn’t good enough for me so I had to play for the Galaxy.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with that. I would hope that people realize that, but some people won’t and that’s just the way it is.
“For them to boo would be a disappointment. But it’s just people caring about their team, which is a good thing. Ten years ago, no one would have cared, but now they do. You’d like everyone to be nice, but I’m realistic. I just hope there is some level of respect by people for what I did for the team.”
GALAXY TONIGHT
at San Jose, 7, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes
Site -- Spartan Stadium.
Radio -- 830, 1540.
Records -- Galaxy 7-4-3, Earthquakes 4-3-6.
Record vs Earthquakes -- 1-0.
Update -- Without a win in its last three games and with only two goals scored in its last four, the Galaxy is slumping. It is six points behind first-place FC Dallas in the Western Conference and six points ahead of third-place San Jose. Defender Pablo Chinchilla suffered a left hamstring strain in Wednesday night’s 1-1 tie at Real Salt Lake and will sit out tonight. Winger Guillermo “Pando” Ramirez and forward Alan Gordon could return after being sidelined by a left knee bruise and right hip strain, respectively. The Galaxy leads the all-time series, 21-9-5, and has an 8-6-3 edge at San Jose. It defeated the Earthquakes, 2-1, at the Home Depot Center on May 21 on goals by Jovan Kirovski and Peter Vagenas.
