How will Chicago contain Landon Donovan?
The 21-year-old superstar played in two of the three games against Chicago this year, and was held scoreless. While that’s a positive piece of information for the Fire, it means nothing. Donovan is capable of lighting up any defense in the league for multiple goals if he’s able to create some space for himself. Chicago has one of the top defenders in the U.S. in Carlos Bocanegra, who is quite familiar with Donovan’s game from being his teammate on the National Team. He’ll see a lot of San Jose’s striker, as will Jim Curtin, who had a breakout season this year as a centerback. The difficult part of marking Donovan is that he often tracks back into the midfield to kick-start the attack. He’s also as adept in creating a scoring chance for a teammate as he is going to goal himself. Kansas City used its size to try and muscle him up at every turn to aggravate him and stifle his movement with the ball. It worked for much of the match, until Donovan created room for himself off a one-two play
