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Landon Donovan: On finding his way to San Jose

03-30-01
www.socceramerica.com

Earthquakes signing Landon Donovan spoke Thursday in San Jose on his move to MLS from Bayer Leverkusen:

On the expectations he faces:

''I'm here to help the team win and to help us get to the playoffs and hopefully win an MLS Cup. I've been here just a couple of hours, and its been an incredible experience so far. Everything has been really professional and everyone has been very welcoming here.''

On his motives for coming to MLS:

''I just want to be someplace where I can play, and the first option that came to mind was to play in MLS and that happened to work out well.''

On what team he wanted to play for:

''I'm just at the point now where I want to play, and that's why I originally went to Germany. Basically I just wanted to play, and in Germany I wasn't playing, so coming back to the States to play is close enough so that my friends and family can still come and see me play as much as they want.''

''I'm going to try and help the team win and I think that's what everyone wants here.''

On if he fears missing out on anything in Germany:

''As of right now, I'm playing with MLS. I'm not looking at this as a way to help me in Germany, I'm here to help MLS and to help this team. If Bayer decides to exercise their right to get me back then I'll focus my attention on that, but right now I'm just focusing on playing here.''

On how current MLS players may have encouraged his decision:

''I spoke with some players about what the competition is like, but its hard to tell just from watching, you really have to be out in it. I talked to Chris Armas for a while, and he told me that the league has been great for him and that the league is a lot more competitive than people give it credit for. Chris was U.S. Soccer's player of the Year this past year, and he played more minutes than any player on the team, so he's faced the best international competition. The league has good teams and good players and its good soccer.''

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