Canales Daily: Family Support Lifts Donovan

Last year, when Landon Donovan won the 2008 Honda USA Player of the Year award, he was in Germany on loan with Bayern Munich. His actress wife Bianca Kajlich accepted the honor on his behalf. Many speculated that Donovan would not return to the States, but find a club to join and remain overseas.

When a transfer to Europe never materialized, Donovan returned to Major League Soccer and put together perhaps the best year of his professional career, leading the USA national team to the finals of the Confederations Cup and a first-place finish in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, as well as captaining the LA Galaxy to the MLS playoffs for the first time in four years.

These accomplishments took place despite the cloud of controversy Donovan created by criticizing David Beckham's leadership for the Galaxy last year, as well as the crumbling of his marriage to Kajlich. The pair quietly separated in 2009.

Through all the difficulties, Donovan found strength and support in the same place that nurtured his beginning in the sport - his family.

Donovan's mother, a special education teacher who recently retired, has always been a regular at Donovan's award ceremonies. Donna Kenney-Cash alluded to the important role some members played when she spoke briefly at the latest Player of the Year event, mentioning that Donovan's older half-brother Josh had "taught him everything".

Josh, now an artist in Wisconsin, certainly got the ball rolling on Donovan's future at an early age.

"Landon started playing soccer really young, about the age of two," Tristan Donovan, Landon's twin sister, explained. "Josh is five years older than us and he was always very talented at soccer. He and Landon were really close. They always played a lot of sports together, but their big one was soccer."

Though the mental picture of a toddler tripping over a ball while trying to keep up with his seven-year-old brother arises, Donovan showed an instant affinity for the game.

"As soon as he touched a soccer ball, there was something there," Tristan said.

That talent would lead to a move abroad that would split the twins up when they were only sixteen.

"It was hard when he went away, because our family has always been really close," Tristan recalled. "There was a lot of crying the day that he moved to Germany. He said, 'I have to go.' Even back then, he was really mature and he realized that he had to go to follow his dreams."

Back then, the route for soccer success seemed obvious - pay your dues on a European team and eventually earn playing time. Adrift in a frustrating situation at Bayer Leverkusen that had rotating coaching changes, Donovan missed terribly the people who mattered most to him. He was torn, Tristan said.

"He felt a lot of pressure to stay in Germany and he was worried about what a lot of other people thought. I remember having a conversation with him and I asked him, what do you want to do? He said, 'I want to play in the US. I want to be near my family.'  I said, 'Then that's what you should do. Life is too short. Just be happy and follow your heart.' Shortly after that, he came back to the U.S."

In MLS, Donovan racked up multiple championships with both the San Jose Earthquakes and the Galaxy, but it was his ability to perform at a high level internationally despite playing in what many deemed an inferior league that was especially notable.

It's been a gradual process that included bouncing back from a disappointing 2006 World Cup. Donovan feels he still has room to improve.

"I want to become a complete player," Donovan declared. "I've taken a lot of big steps this year. I still have a ways to go. I still have moments where it's not perfect. I think that I'm on that path and I'm proud of it."

One reason why Donovan has been more consistent on the field for the USA is he is rarely being shuffled back and forth between the midfield and the attack as he once was. Of late, national team coach Bob Bradley has played Donovan more regularly as a right midfielder.

"It's been nice, candidly, to find a place where I'm comfortable on the field," Donovan explained about his play in 2009. "Clint (Dempsey) and myself and Michael (Bradley) have been on the field for most of it and are comfortable and have very defined and clear roles."

Though there will always be a school of thought that deems Donovan's accomplishments as inconsequential because of his MLS background, he has dialed down the affect of that distracting static with his family's help.

Tristan has helped ground her brother by maintaining something of an outsider's perspective on the soccer world. She followed their mother's lead into an educational career and is now an elementary-school teacher.

"We don't really focus a lot on the criticism," Tristan said. "I don't look him up on the internet, I don't go on any blogs. I don't listen to any of that, because I'm more interested in him just being who he is and being happy."

Donovan considers himself blessed to be able to count on that aid, especially during a time when he's had to deal with trying off-the-field issues.

"I'm lucky to have people around who care," Donovan said. "It's been nice to have that this year and it's definitely played a part in how I've done on the field."

Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com North America

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