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Quakes destroy L.A. Rising star Donovan eclipses Galaxy's retiring Caligiuri
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Paul Caligiuri, playing his final game, looked at MLS rookie Landon Donovan and saw the reason why San Jose was able go from a last-place finish to a championship. "Landon makes a difference for San Jose," Caligiuri said Sunday after the Earthquakes' 2-1 overtime victory in the MLS Cup. "Donovan's decision to come back to the United States has been a great attribute to this league." Caligiuri and the rest of the Galaxy defenders struggled to keep up with the 19-year-old Donovan -- who tied the game two minutes before halftime with a volley off passes from Ian Russell and Richard Mulrooney assisted. "It took a glorious bounce and when I hit it, I just knew it was going in," Donovan said.
Dwayne DeRosario, who entered with five minutes left in regulation, gave the Earthquakes their first championship when he scored six minutes into overtime, dribbling around a defender and scoring from 16 yards out. "In a cup final, you have to be mentally ready above everything," said DeRosario, a Canadian national team member. "He thought I was going near post, so I pulled it back over and saw an opening and decided to take it." San Jose coach Frank Yallop credited his team's success to Donovan and Jeff Agoos, another U.S. national team star. "He is probably the most consistent American player," Yallop said of Agoos, the league's defender of the year. "I felt our defense has been dominant all year and we didn't get challenged that much today." Donovan, who scored seven goals and had 10 assists in the regular season, was loaned to San Jose after spending two seasons with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany but not getting into a single first-division game. By playing in MLS, he was able to earn a role on the U.S. national team that qualified for next year's World Cup. "The MLS gives a lot of chances to younger players and a lot of leagues in the world don't," Donovan said. Last season, the Earthquakes were 7-17-8, the poorest record in the league. This season, they went 13-7-6, finishing second to Los Angeles in the Western Division. The Galaxy, who have never won the championship, also lost in the MLS Cup in 1996 and 1999.
"This one hurts more than 1999 because we've had a lot of obstacles that we went through behind the scenes that nobody knows about," Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid said. "We've worked to be a team that wins big games, obviously today it just didn't go that way." After an evenly played first half, San Jose dominated the second half, outshooting Los Angeles 12-3. "I think had we applied more pressure we would have created more turnovers and caught them more in transition," Schmid said. The Earthquakes had four chances to score in the first 10 minutes of the second half, including a bending shot by Agoos from just outside the penalty area in the 49th minute that hit the post. Luis Hernandez opened the scoring in the 21st minute by outracing Agoos to a long pass from Greg Vanney and beating goalkeeper Joe Cannon from 10 yards out. Simon Elliott had a chance to win the game for the Galaxy with 19 minutes left in regulation, but his shot went over the crossbar. "I thought it was a well-played game from both sides, but San Jose has had our number all year beating us twice in the regular season," said Caligiuri, retiring from soccer 12 years after his goal at Trinidad and Tobago put the United States in the World Cup for the first time since 1950.
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