This game snuck up on us, a little. In that this could have been the final game of Landon Donovan‘s soccer career, and I’m not sure many of us really had recognized that, aside from the Los Angeles Times.

It was not his last match, thanks in large part to the three goals and an assist he contributed to the Galaxy cause in a 5-0 rout of Real Salt Lake, giving LA a 5-0 aggregate victory, after the scoreless first leg in Utah.

Go to the video, and watch the eight-minute recap.

What does that show us?

Pretty much a recap of Landon Donvoan’s scoring career, particularly in the final two or three years of his career. And certainly a sense of the style of goals he generally scored.

As I have noted before, to go back and watch Landon’s record 57 goals for the U.S. national team is to observe that he was a particularly opportunistic scorer, but not really a sensational one.

These three against RSL remind us of that.

He took his chances, he set up people, he ran into space, he generally scored from very near the goal.

Two of the three he scored against RSL actually are semi-outliers.

The first, a crisp header. Do you know how many of his 57 national-team goals came off headers?

Four.

Headed goals, not really his thing, perhaps mostly because he is 5-foot-8 and was rarely (if ever) in the box for restarts.

The second, the surge past the defender, and the drawing out (and dancing around) the keeper, a particular Landon skill, was much more difficult than it seems, at first. In that his left foot is his “off” foot. (Though his off foot is better than most guy’s natural foot.) Also, look at the angle he is shooting into, once he gets past Nick Rimando. That’s a fairly narrow slot to aim at, and with his left foot — with which he scored only 14 of his 57 goals (albeit 14 of the 42 non-penalties).

The third showed us three other aspects of his scoring prowess.

First, he sees an opportunity early. (He could read the game as well as just about anyone, even in his youth.) Robbie Keane has the ball on his left, and is attracting the attention of defenders, and Landon sees room opening ahead and to his right.

Second, he charges into that space. I believe that one of the reasons he is retiring is that Landon, at age 32, knows better than any of us how important speed has been to his career. He was generally faster than anyone else on the pitch for most of his career. It seems fairly certain that is no longer the case, and he must know it. But, he still has a burst of speed (the analyst in the broadcast booth refers to it as a 15- or 20-yard thing, and that seems about right), and he uses it here, to blow into the open.

Third, he takes advantage of his opportunities. You don’t score as many as he did while missing a bunch of chances.

Keane (who is far better than I ever realized, and is still really good at age 34) pops the ball over a defender, and Landon sees it coming, over his left shoulder, and not only does he not try to control the ball, he doesn’t even bother to let it land, catching/shooting it as it arrives and sliding it past Rimando with his right foot.

All three, very Landon-like goals in that none of them was a screaming missile from distance or a free kick from outside the box. He didn’t score goals like that. Not many. (Again, the full breakdown of his 57 U.S. goals can be seen at an earlier blog post.)

So, this is a good bit of video to refer back to, if in later years we try to imagine how Landon scored.

With that victory, he has two more games, at the least, against Seattle, which should be a very interesting series. Clint Dempsey and the Sounders trying to get in the way of Landon and the Galaxy making some history, as they part ways, with one more MLS Cup.

First match,  Sunday, November 23; second the Sunday after that.