| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) Landon Donovan won the Honda Award as the men's national soccer player of the year Tuesday, becoming the first to receive the honor in consecutive years.
The 21-year-old Donovan, who last year became the youngest winner, joined Eric Wynalda as the only two-time winners in the 13-year history of the award. Wynalda won in 1992 and 1996.
Donovan, a midfielder-forward, beat out defender Carlos Bocanegra and forward Brian McBride, his teammates on the U.S. national team.
``I kind of feel bad. These guys deserve it, they really do,'' Donovan said.
Donovan led the national team in scoring this year with seven goals.
In a July CONCACAF Gold Cup match against Cuba, he became only the fourth U.S. player to score four goals in one game, and tied as the Gold Cup's leading scorer.
He also is tied for sixth place on the national team's all-time scoring list with 14 goals.
He is in his third season with the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer.
Voting was conducted among 206 American sports writers. Donovan won handily, with 396 points to 194 for McBride and 130 for Bocanegra.
The three teammates said they felt odd competing for the award.
``We're not like tennis players,'' McBride said. ``You don't want to be the last one standing. This sort of thing's a little different for us. The friendships through the teams we play on make it easy for you to be excited for everyone.''
McBride moved into sole possession of third place on the national team's all-time scoring list this year, trailing only Wynalda and Joe-Max Moore.
Earlier this year, while on loan to Everton of the English Premier League, McBride scored four goals in eight games before rejoining his current team, the Columbus Crew of MLS, at the end of March.
Bocanegra has proven to be one of the best defenders on the U.S. team since his debut in the final game of 2001. He ranked second on the team in scoring this year and became only one of four defenders in team history to score at least four goals in a season, joining former players of the year Marcelo Balboa, Alexi Lalas and Thomas Dooley.
Bocanegra attended UCLA and now plays for the Chicago Fire, where he was named MLS rookie of the year in 2000 and MLS defender of the year last season.