A Not So Shocking Announcement [UPDATE]

It comes as no surprise to any of us that Landon Donovan has been named the MLS Player of the Month for the month of April.

Landon scored eight goals and assisted on two others in four games this month, tying him with three others for the second most goals in a single month. Only Stern John scored more when he tallied nine in August 1998 for the Columbus Crew

Congrats to LD and we'll have more on this breaking situation later on. [UPDATE]

Here is our release.

Here is the MLS release.

And here are a couple of notes about Landon from this weekend's game notes.

LANDON LANDS A PAIR OF AWARDS: On Thursday it was announced that Galaxy forward Landon Donovan was named the MLS Player of the Month for April by the North American Soccer Reporters. It was the third time in his career that Donovan had been named the Player of the Month but the first time as a member of the Galaxy. He joins Mauricio Cienfuegos, Eduardo Hurtado, Cobi Jones, Alejandro Moreno, Carlos Ruiz and Welton as the seventh player to be named Player of the Month with the Galaxy.

Earlier in the week, Donovan was named the MLS Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. Donovan had his second career hat trick and added an assist to lead the Galaxy to a convincing 5-2 win over Chivas USA in the Honda SuperClasico. It was the seventh time in his MLS career that Donovan has taken the award, leaving him tied with Jason Kreis and Taylor Twellman for the third most in MLS history. Donovan is the first repeat winner of the award since Eddie Johnson was named Player of the Week during Weeks 8 and 9 of the 2007 MLS season.

AN ELITE EIGHT: Donovan finished the month of April with eight goals in four games, making him the fifth different player in league history to score at least eight goals in a month. Stern John of the Columbus Crew holds the MLS record with nine goals in August 1998, while Mamadou Diallo (August 2000), Donovan, Roy Lassiter (August 1996) and Diego Serna (September 2000 and June 2001) have each scored eight in a month. In three of the previous five cases, the player to score eight or more times would later go on to win the MLS Player of the Month award for that month.

With the eight goals, Donovan, who scored eight goals all of last season to lead the Galaxy in scoring, also set the MLS record for most goals over the first five games of the season, breaking the former mark of six, which was held by five different players.

HAT TRICK HERO: Donovan’s hat trick against Chivas USA on Saturday night was the second of his MLS career and his first since joining the Galaxy in 2005. The 26-year old claimed his first hat trick nearly five years earlier while with the san Jose Earthquakes, scoring three times in their 4-1win in Kansas City. With the three goals, Donovan became the first player this season to record a hat trick and the 17th in MLS history to have two or more hat tricks in his MLS career. Stern John and Diego Serna are tied for the MLS record with five each.

INTO THE TOP TEN: With his three goals, Donovan leapfrogged Cobi Jones and Ronald Cerritos into 10th place on the MLS list of all-time leading goalscorers. Donovan now has 72 regular season MLS goals in 163 games, leaving him seven goals behind Preki for ninth place in MLS history and nine behind his teammate Carlos Ruiz for eighth place.

Donovan is also third in Galaxy history with 40 goals for the club, 10 behind Ruiz for second place and 30 goals behind Cobi Jones for the most in club history. He leads MLS with eight goals this season and could become the first Galaxy player since Carlos Ruiz in 2003 to lead the league in scoring.