SEATTLE — Long considered the best player in the United States, Landon Donovan is now the best player in Major League Soccer.
The Los Angeles Galaxy forward and six-time national player of the year was named the MLS most valuable player Thursday for the first time in his career.
Donovan beat out FC Dallas’ Jeff Cunningham, the league’s goal scoring leader with a career-best 17 goals, and New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph for the award.
Donovan, 27, scored 12 goals in the regular season and added six assists for the Galaxy, which will face Real Salt Lake for the MLS title Sunday night in Seattle.
“I think rewarding is the right word,” Donovan said. “We’ve worked very hard to get where we are with this team.”
• Predrag Radosavlijevic was named to succeed Chris Cummins as coach of Toronto FC.
Wie withdraws; Ochoa takes lead
RICHMOND, Texas — Michelle Wie is gone, putting all the attention on Lorena Ochoa‘s player of the year fight with Jiyai Shin at the LPGA Tour Championship.
Wie withdrew from the season- ending event because of a sprained left ankle, hours after Ochoa shot a 6-under-par 66 to take a one-shot lead over Reilley Rankin.
Wie, fresh off her first LPGA Tour victory last week at Ochoa’s tournament in Mexico, shot a 72 in the afternoon. She limped through her round on the gimpy ankle she sprained during the Solheim Cup in August, went for treatment afterward and withdrew about an hour later.
Ochoa was four shots ahead of Shin (70) on the leaderboard, but the 21-year-old South Korean leads Ochoa by eight points (156-148) in the race to become the tour’s player of the year. To earn the distinction this year, Ochoa must win this week or finish no worse than third and hope Shin places out of the top 10.
• Robert Allenby shot a 7-under 65 for a one-shot lead after the first round of the Dubai World Championship in the United Arab Emirates, while Lee Westwood (66) and Rory McIlroy (68) vied for the European Tour money title and the accompanying $1.5 million bonus.
• Champions Tour players John Cook and Olin Browne shot 6-under 66s to share the first-round lead in the Callaway Golf Pebble Beach (Calif.) Invitational.
Footnotes.
South African runner Caster Semenya will keep her 800-meter gold medal from the world championships, and the results of her gender tests will be kept confidential, the South African sports ministry said. However, the question of whether she remains eligible to compete as a woman remained uncertain.
• The Carolina Hurricanes placed goalie Cam Ward (leg) and all-star center Eric Staal (upper body) on the injured list.
• Penske Racing hired Will Power to drive full-time next year after giving the Indy Racing League driver a part-time gig last season.
• Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen will take a one-year sabbatical from Formula One next season and said it’s uncertain whether he will return in 2011.
• Rusty Wallace Racing is moving its Nationwide Series team from Chevrolet to Toyota next season. The Associated Press
