Landon Donovan is back, baby

By Roger Gonzalez

Remember Landon Donovan? Yeah, the American soccer star who has been out of the picture as of late.

Well, he’s back. The former U.S. international has returned to Major League Soccer and the Los Angeles Galaxy — and eventually, he hopes, to the USMNT — after a four-month-plus hiatus.

His comeback has set the soccer community buzzing.

Donovan said he was ‘burned out,’ needing time to get right mentally. Soccerwire.com’s Charles Boehm was one of several reporters who spoke to LD after the Galaxy trained in Washington, D.C. on Thursday as the team prepared to visit Toronto FC for a league match four days after being warmly welcomed to the White House as back-to-back MLS Cup champions by President Barack Obama.

(Donovan’s White House visit sparked a bizarre joke-turned-false-media-report on Twitter, by the way…)

ESPN FC’s Jeff Carlisle analyzes the return of the former Everton FC loanee, what he went through and what is next.

“I was mentally and physical exhausted,” Donovan said in a media conference call. “I’ll keep it pretty vague in that way. I needed a break, and I don’t use the word ‘need’ all that lightly. I needed the break, and so I had to listen to myself and do what was best for me.”

Goal.com’s Seth Vertelney was also on hand Thursday for Donovan’s remarks at Georgetown University, as was the Associated Press and Soccer by Ives’ Thoams Floyd.

What this means for the undefeated Galaxy remains to be seen. I wouldn’t expect to see him on the pitch for at least another month. It’s going to take time for him to get back into soccer form and mental form, but it’s certainly worth watching as the MLS season is not yet a month old.