Landon Donovan's 10 Weeks at Everton: A Recap

Well, the 10-week transfer of one of the most eagerly anticipated American footballers has finally ended as Landon Donovan will now head back to the Los Angeles Galaxy after his loan to Everton is over.

During his stay at Everton, Donovan was able to have a major impact for the Toffees as Everton climbed from the bottom of the table to a side that is in contention to get a Europa League spot for the fifth consecutive season.

All of this started from the beginning of Donovan's transfer to Everton in early January, where he was assigned the No. 9 jersey for Everton.

He was given a start against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium less than a week after joining the club.

But Donovan did not allow this to get to him, and within 15 minutes he was able to register an assist off a corner kick to the head of Leon Osman to give Everton a 1-0 lead in a match that ended up being a 2-2 draw.

Since then, Donovan has gotten lots of match action for Everton and has become an integral part of the team during his short period of time, as Everton were able to beat the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea, and Manchester United during his time at Goodison Park.

But now that Donovan's time at Everton has ended with his final match against Birmingham City, now is a good time to look back and recap what Donovan has done to help make Everton into a side that now has a great chance of finishing inside of the top seven.

Since he got that start against Arsenal back in early January, Donovan was able to prove to all of his skeptics that he could indeed play outside of Major League Soccer after his failures with Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga in the past.

With this new confidence, Donovan was able to get another start against Manchester City during his next match (which was also his first at Goodison Park) and was a huge factor in Everton's 2-0 victory.

After the win, rumors slowly started to move out that Donovan wanted to get an extension on the loan to stay with Everton possibly until the end of the season, but nothing came of it.

But Donovan was able to continue his great form, and got his first goal for Everton in a 2-0 win over Sunderland as the American's great form continued.

After a 1-0 win over Wigan, Donovan got to head to Anfield to face Liverpool, a match that Everton lost 1-0, but with two giant games against Chelsea and Manchester United at Goodison, Donovan was able to truly prove his worth.

Against Chelsea, Donovan was able to assist on the first goal of the match by Louis Saha before drawing a penalty that Saha missed. But regardless of that, Everton beat the league leaders by a 2-1 scoreline, and Manchester United would be Everton's next opponent.

And against Man United, Donovan was an extremely important factor as Everton won 3-1 after being down 1-0 early, as they were now able to defeat the three-time defending champions.

After the win against Manchester United, Donovan and Everton suffered getting knocked out of the Europa League by Sporting Libson, and also a loss to Tottenham Hotspur in which Donovan missed a wide-open goal on possibly the tying goal.

In what is Donovan's final match before he leaves Goodison Park, the American once again tried to get an extension to his loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy, but as usual Galaxy manager Bruce Arena was stubborn and refused for the loan to happen.

So in his final match at Goodison Park, Donovan came in as a substitute in the 70th minute, and once he came in he put the match away beyond a reasonable doubt as Donovan was able to score in the 82nd minute before setting up Jack Rodwell for Everton's final goal in a 5-1 win.

Now that Donovan has played in his final match with Everton against Birmingham City (in which he was a substitute in the 67th minute in a 2-2 draw), it is now safe to say that Donovan has really improved overall as a footballer who will help the United States tremendously in the World Cup this summer.

He has performed well enough at Everton that David Moyes has stated that he would want Donovan back after the MLS season ends during this upcoming November.

But with the MLS union declaring a strike on March 11 that would go into effect on March 27 if a collective bargaining agreement cannot be agreed on by the two parties, Donovan might be able to stay with Everton after all.

In Section 15 of the old Collective Bargaining Agreement, there was no mention that a player who is owned by MLS but is playing on loan somewhere else has to return to MLS at the end of his loan, which Donovan has reached.

So maybe the loan has actually ended after all, but that is extremely unlikely, as Landon Donovan's time at Everton has now ended.