Talking Donovan, PKs and weird mojo going into the MLS Championship

I will have a piece up at ESPN Soccernet later today (update: posted here) looking back at the pair of weekend conference finals and gazing ahead at this weekend’s MLS championship. Here’s a little sneak peek at the most interesting note:

It involved Landon Donovan and his ability to convert penalty kicks. And it involves Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, whose heroic performance in Saturday’s penalty kick tiebreaker against Chicago is a big reason why the men of Utah remain alive today.

First, the bit about Donovan: Consider that league conversion rate on 12-yard shots usually hovers somewhere just south of 80 percent.

Over nine MLS seasons, Donovan has been nearly unstoppable in 22 spot kicks. His 91 percent conversion rate goes right upside the head on those normal league standards.

But here’s where it gets weird. Only two MLS goalkeepers have turned away a Donovan penalty kick. The last to do was Rimando for Real Salt Lake in 2007.

Jeff Cassar was the only other MLS goalkeeper ever to save off of Donovan from the spot. And what is Cassar doing today? He’s an assistant coach for Real Salt Lake.

That’s gonna throw an extra, delicious twist on things if Donovan steps up to the spot on Sunday on the Xbox Pitch.