Everton v. Chelsea: USMNT Play-by-Play

At the urging of a number of readers, I will once again be doing a live play-by-play of an Everton match, this time against Chelsea, with a focus on USMNT stars Landon Donovan and Tim Howard.

The match kicks off at 3:00 PM ET, hopefully I don't have any problems streaming the match or trying out this new live blog application below.

Enjoy




Final Thoughts

Landon has been very solid to this point in his loan, but he put it into another gear today, adding the element of risk and aggressiveness into his game that makes him such a force in MLS and with the USMNT.  There's no denying that Louis Saha was Everton's man of the match with his brace, but Donovan was definitely second in line.  He was an integral part of the attack, mixing in early crosses with 1 on 1 dribbling, playing with a lot of confidence on the ball even though Chelsea defenders were marking him tightly.  Donovan did very well to draw the penalty in the first half, making a blazing run past his man and then cutting his first touch into the center of the box. His corner kick to Saha to set up the opening goal was just one of several dangerous balls into the area, as well.  Overall, it was a great game for Landon, and I expect his strong run of form to continue for the duration of his loan.

Tim Howard, meanwhile, showed exactly why we should all be very confident in his ability come June.  He didn't have much at all to do throughout, but he stayed alert and focused enough to make one key save when called upon.  Another solid showing from Timmy in a fantastic result for Everton.

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