Landon Donovan Helps Everton Dump Manchester United

Landon Donovan's magical mystery tour of England hit another high note Saturday afternoon. Fresh off being voted Everton's player of the month for January, the U.S. National Team's all-time leading scorer played a role in another stunning upset for his new club.

Ten days after defeating first-place Chelsea, Everton downed second-place Manchester United, 3-1, at Goodison Park, its first win over the Red Devils since the 2004-05 season.

It might not have been his best overall game since moving to England on a 10-week loan from the Los Angeles Galaxy, but Everton improved to 5-1-1 since Donovan's arrival.

At first it didn't look like it would be Everton's day.

Dmitar Berbatov got United on the score sheet in the 16th minute getting onto the end of a low cross from Luis Valencia and powering it past U.S. keeper Tim Howard.

But in the blink of an eye, Everton were level on a wickedly-bending shot by Russian Diniyar Bilyaletdinov which curled inside the right post three minutes later.

After the frantic start the game slowed down a bit, with the best chance probably falling at the feet of Donovan -- who started on the left and was matched up against United captain Gary Neville most of the afternoon. The Californian found the ball at his feet no more than six yards away from the box after a deflection off United defender Wes Brown. Donovan couldn't settle it and ended up swinging and mis-hitting it.

Everton didn't end up bemoaning the missed chance, since Manchester United didn't do much in the second half. Wayne Rooney appeared a little off his game and the team didn't have another answer.

In the 76th minute Donovan helped start a sequence that put Everton ahead, with a little one-two pass to Steven Pienaar on the left side. The South African whipped in a low cross that went past a pair of defenders and found unmarked 19-year-old Everton substitute Dan Gosling, who tapped into the open net for a 2-1 lead.

Everton sealed the game on an brilliant individual run by another teenage sub -- Jack Rodwell -- who raced into the box and slotted past Edwin van der Sar to make it 3-1 in the 90th minute.

Overall it wasn't Donovan's best game, but he was certainly influential enough to help the Everton midfield, which was missing Maroune Fellaini and Tim Cahill. He did make numerous runs toward the box, but was thwarted each time by the United defense. That said, he was a positive player for the bulk of the game, constantly probing the United defense with passes.

And with word breaking late Friday that talks have stalled between MLS and its player's union toward a new CBS, perhaps there's an increasing chance Donovan extends his stay on Merseyside beyond the initial 10 weeks. No doubt Everton manager David Moyes -- and the Toffee faithful -- would welcome him with open arms.