The Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan said he was as excited as he's ever been as he and his teammates headed to Seattle's Qwest Field for Sunday's MLS Cup Final against Real Salt Lake.
Conversely, he was as disappointed as he could remember following the stunning loss on penalty kicks. The 27-year-old said he still was having trouble coming to grips with the outcome two days later.
"The reason is, for the first time in my career I put everything I had into something," he said Tuesday. "And when it doesn't come off the way you want it's very disappointing. To completely dedicate yourself to something like that, then not have it turn out the way you want is hard."
Donovan and the rest of the Galaxy paid their respects to Real Salt Lake by staying on the field during the trophy presentation. That wasn't exactly a pleasant experience either, he said, but it was helpful in a way.
"You want to remember that feeling," he said. "You don't want to hide from it, you don't want to run from it, you want to remember what it feels like. And you can take that with you. You learn from that, you become a better player and you become a better person, too, and you can use that in the future.
"Even on the bus ride home I was already thinking about next year ... where do we go, how do we get better."
That could hinge on whether or not he returns in 2010. His five-year contract is up, but Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena emphatically said Monday there is no question the talented striker will be back. His confidence could be attributed to the fact the Galaxy hold two options on Donovan's five-year deal with the team.
"We expect him to be back here. There's nothing to talk about regarding that," Arena said. "Landon will be back with the L.A. Galaxy."
Donovan begged to differ ... slightly.
"We'll know soon," he said. "From Bruce's standpoint, that's the plan of me being back. We'll know soon. I haven't had a ton of time to think about it, but we'll figure it out shortly."
David Beckham, on the other hand, assuredly will return once he completes his upcoming loan to AC Milan and then competes for England in next summer's FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The 34-year-old said he already can't wait to see what's in store next season for the Galaxy.
"We want to improve, and I'm sure we will," he said. "As a team we can be proud of ourselves reaching where we did, being a team that worried other teams, and I think we did that. We've got high expectations and hopefully we can go further next year."
Chris Klein, who was left unprotected for Wednesday's expansion draft but is hopeful of returning to Los Angeles next season, said he's excited about where the club is headed. He certainly doesn't have to be reminded where it came from; the Galaxy finished tied for the league's worst record in 2008 and them embarked on one of the most impressive turnarounds in MLS history.
"The culture is the main thing," he said, "and that's been changed. Bruce in the lockerroom read off some of our goals he set out before the season, and now we're sitting there disappointed we didn't win the MLS Cup.
"I think that shows how far we've come as a team and how far this organization has come from where we were a year ago today."
Arena said the goal for next season is clear.
"We want to start 2010 in better shape than we did in 2009," he said. "You can never predict how things are going to happen during the season, but the goal is to start with a better team and keep improving. If we can do that, we can be a team that's back in the MLS playoffs and competing for the cup."
Larry Morgan is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
