Pro soccer star an Edmonds kind of guy

So where does Landon Donovan, one of the most accomplished American soccer players in history, like to go for an offseason escape?

Not where you might think.

“I love Edmonds, it’s a great little town,” Donovan said in a phone interview after his team’s practice Friday. “It’s a nice getaway for us when we get to go up there in the offseason. It’s a lot of fun for me, I enjoy it, I like the change of weather — most people probably hate it, but coming from L.A., it’s refreshing — and I’ve really learned to like that little town.”

Donovan, who is tied for the Major League Soccer scoring lead, will get to check out his unlikely getaway spot this weekend, as the L.A. Galaxy faces Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday afternoon.

So, how does a Southern-California-born-and-raised professional athlete end up a fan of a Snohomish County city of just more than 40,000 people? Simple, he married an Edmonds girl. Donovan, 27, is married to Bianca Kajlich, who grew up in Edmonds and is now an actress in L.A.

“There are a few games every year that are exciting for one reason or another, and this is going to be awesome,” said Donovan, who has scored five of L.A.’s nine goals this season, and assisted on three more.

Kajlich, one of the stars of the CBS sitcom The Rules of Engagement, will be on hand at Qwest Field Sunday with her family to watch her husband face Seattle’s newest sports phenomenon. And at least one member of the family, Bianca’s father, Relo, might be in rave green instead of Galaxy colors.

“Her dad already told me that, though he loves the Galaxy, the Sounders are now his team,” Donovan said. “So they’ve turned at least one Galaxy fan into a Sounders fan.”

Of course, this trip to Seattle is about a lot more than a visit with the in-laws. Donovan’s team is off to an odd 1-1-5 start, and didn’t get its first win until last weekend. And while the Galaxy is avoiding losses, tying every week isn’t what the team is hoping for, either.

“It was a hump to get over,” he said of the team’s first win. “We had been playing well and we felt good about what we were doing, but we hadn’t scored first, we hadn’t held a lead and we hadn’t gotten a victory, and those are important things as the season goes on to be able to do, so it was frustrating not to be able to do that. Now, we know we’re going to be in every game we play, so now we’ve got to make some plays offensively.”

The Galaxy doesn’t have quite the star power it did with David Beckham during the past two seasons, but Donovan is a notable soccer player in his own right. Donovan is the U.S. National Team’s all-time leading scorer, has twice been named the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year and is the only five-time winner of the Honda Player of the Year award.

During his MLS career, Donovan has won three championships, been an eight-time all star and last year led the league with 20 goals. He also has twice played in the Bundesliga, Germany’s top professional league, first with Bayer Leverkusen, then last winter on loan with Bayern Munich.

“He’s a great player, one of those players that you’ve always got to keep your eye on,” said Sounders FC defender Tyrone Marshall, a teammate of Donovan’s for two years in L.A. “Over the years he’s gotten better. He’s better now finishing wise. He’s scoring a lot more goals. I think his game is starting to get complete now. … If the ball goes through him, it’s going to be a long day for us. We have to try to deny him the ball try to make other guys beat us. If we can do that, we can have a good shot at coming out victorious on Sunday.”

Seattle, meanwhile, is in second place in the Western Conference after a 4-2-1 start in its inaugural season.

“I think I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little surprised,” Donovan said of Seattle’s start. “Most expansion teams have a learning curve and it takes them a while to get going, but Sigi (Schmid) has done a great job with them, and I don’t think this is a fluke. They’re a legitimate team.”

And as the Galaxy takes on that legitimate team Sunday, they’ll have a least a couple of Edmonds-based fans pulling for them in Qwest Field.

Just not Donovan’s father-in-law.

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.