Landon Donovan Stars in Possible Goodison Park Finale

Landon Donovan entered Everton's game against Hull City Sunday at Goodison Park in the 69th minute to chants of, "U-S-A, U-S-A."

Less than 13 minutes later the crowd was once again singing, this time "Sign him up. Sign him up."

Chances are, barring a work stoppage before the start of the MLS season, Sunday was Donovan's swan song at Goodison Park -- at least for the time being. Donovan made sure his good bye -- he apparently took a farewell lap afterward -- was a memorable one, scoring once and assisting on Jack Rodwell's late goal that gave Everton a rousing 5-1 victory.

Donovan, who last week fluffed a gimme chance on the goal line vs. Tottenham, certainly made that miss a thing of the past when he collected a ball unmarked on the right side of the penalty area and ripped a blistering shot into the far left netting, leaving Hull City keeper Boaz Myhill without a chance to even react, making the score 4-1.

He wasn't done just yet.

Four minutes later, thanks to some shoddy marking from Hull, Donovan took another pass on the right side of the box, this time feeding it across to Rodwell, who easily slotted it home to complete the 5-1 trouncing. Rodwell celebrated his goal by picking up Donovan and carrying him over the touchline.

No doubt every Everton supporter in the ground probably would have liked to have done the same thing, as the team has soared up the table -- notching upsets over Chelsea and Manchester United -- upon Donovan's arrival in January.

Sadly, though, their hopes of extending Donovan's stay in England beyond the 10-week agreement seems unlikely since Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena shot down the idea on Friday, though the door isn't completely closed.

Donovan's rampant performance in a little less than 20 minutes of action can probably be equated to a thoroughly disorganized Hull defense, which had earlier given up a pair of goals to Mikel Arteta. Still, the cool finish on his goal showed a player who's playing with confidence. (Jozy Altidore came on as a sub for Hull, but didn't do much in about 30 minutes of action.)

The way in which he took to the club and the club and its supporters to him is, frankly, amazing. Donovan looked like he'd been playing on Merseyside for 10 years, not 10 weeks. The outpouring of affection from the Everton faithful, too, is almost hard to believe since American has unofficially been a dirty word in English soccer circles for many years.

Considering how successful his short stint in the Premier League was, it really wouldn't be shocking to see another club besides Everton come calling for Donovan's services, especially if he has a strong World Cup. It might have only been 10 weeks, but Donovan now has a successful track record in Europe, or at least enough that a club can justify meeting what figures to be a lofty, league-record transfer fee from MLS.

For now, at least, Donovan can bask in the fact that he proved the long list of doubters of his ability to succeed alongside the world's best, very wrong.

Should he want to pursue it further, Donovan has clearly found a home in Europe at Everton, a place he could at least return to each winter while the MLS is on break. (Oddly enough there were rumors, stress rumors, Chelsea was interested in bringing in Donovan after the season as a replacement for Joe Cole.)

And finally, let's be honest, who would have thought we'd ever live in a world where Donovan might attract a bidding war from some of the world's biggest club? Nobody could have seen this coming in January.