D16 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019 S LATIMES.COM/SPORTS
SOCCER
Robert Lewandowski has
scored 420 goals for club and
country, some much bigger
than others. But perhaps the
most important act of his
14-season professional career
came not in a packed stadium
before a global TV audience
but in a quiet hospital room in
his native Poland for an audi-
ence of one.
At first it seemed no differ-
ent from many of the dozens
of other hospital visits he has
made: a quick hello, a couple
of autographs and a few
well-practiced platitudes
even Lewandowski admits
can seem more rehearsed
than sincere.
“I said, ‘Don’t worry,’ and,
‘Don’t give up,’ ” Lewandow-
ski recalled across a patio
table at the Four Seasons
hotel during a visit to South-
ern California this summer.
When he stepped out of the
room an hour later, doctors
told the Bayern Munich
striker the boy had already
given up; he was tired of
fighting and resigned to his
fate.
But at least he got to meet
his favorite soccer player.
The memories of that
conversation were still haunt-
ing Lewandowski when the
hospital called again several
weeks later. “They say to me
they did new tests on him and
now they see positive things
in these tests,” he said. “One
month after he wanted to die
he wanted to fight with every-
thing he had.”
How the boy survived, the
doctors can’t explain. Nor can
Lewandowski, who says
whatever part he may have
played in saving a life was way
more fulfilling than scoring a
goal. The episode put soccer
in perspective; it is just a
game, true, but it gives its
star players a platform that
Lewandowski, a devout
Catholic, knows it would be a
sin to waste.
“It’s difficult to explain,
what I felt,” he said. “You feel
that you did something good.
I didn’t know what exactly.
But if you see the results, thatwas really an amazing feel-
ing.”
Lewandowski is familiar
with amazing feelings. Less
than three weeks past his 31st
birthday and beginning his
sixth season with Bayern
Munich, he is at the top of his
game as well as his fame and
fortune.
Bayern is unbeaten three
games into the new season
with Lewandowski account-
ing for six of the team’s 1 1
goals. It’s the fastest start to a
season of his career and one
he celebrated by signing a
two-year contract extension
— worth a reported $22 mil-
lion a season — that will keep
him with the club through
2023.
His 208 Bundesliga goals
with Borussia Dortmund and
Bayern are the most ever for a
foreign-born player, and in
nine full seasons in Germany,
he has won seven Bundesliga
titles, including the last five in
a row with Bayern. He has
also won four of the last six
league scoring titles. But he’s
far from satisfied.
“I want to be better,” hesaid. “I want to score more
goals, win more titles.”
Internationally, no Polish
player has appeared in more
games (107) or scored more
goals (57) than Lewandowski;
and only five active players
worldwide — Lionel Messi,
Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, Luis Suarez and
David Villa — have more
career goals.
Lewandowski is younger
and has played fewer games
than all five.
At 31, he concedes he may
have lost a step or three, but
he said he makes up for that
with the experience he’s
picked up over the years. And
his hunger, he added, is unsa-
tiated. “If I wake up and I say,
‘Oh, I don’t want to go to the
training ground,’ that means
that I have to finish my ca-
reer,” he said. “I’m lucky
because I’m having fun, love
the sport and want to play
hard.”
Lewandowski’s desire to
do charity work started long
before the goals and the
paychecks started to stack
up. For years he and his wife,Anna, a world-class karate
athlete, have been raising and
donating piles of cash to
organizations including
the Children’s Memorial
Health Institute in his
hometown of Warsaw and the
Great Orchestra of Christ-
mas Charity, Poland’s largest
nongovernmental nonprofit
charity.
They don’t do it because
they’re wealthy celebrities,
Lewandowski said. They do it
because they must.
“If you don’t feel it, you
cannot do this,” he said.
And Lewandowski cer-
tainly feels it. Especially after
seeing the difference a short
visit to a child who had lost all
hope can make.
“I didn’t know that some-
thing like meeting with these
children, speaking with this
child, would be positive for
him,” he said. “For me it was
nothing special, but for
him that was something
amazing.
“Sometimes the small
things are huge. You can help
with money but sometimes
you have to be there.”ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI, left, with Bayern Munich teammate David Alaba, has had team and individual success in the Bundesliga.
Andreas GebertEPA/ShuttershockLewandowski won’t waste his platform
KEVIN BAXTER
ON SOCCER WEST W L T PtsGFGA
LAFC.....................19 4 6 63 76 32
Seattle...................13 9 7 46 46 45
Minnesota ..............13 9 6 45 46 37
San Jose................13 10 5 44 48 43
Real Salt Lake.........13 11 4 43 40 35
FC Dallas ...............12 10 7 43 47 38
Portland.................13 11 4 43 45 41
Galaxy ...................13 12 3 42 41 45
Sporting Kansas City 10 12 7 37 42 47
Colorado ..................9 14 6 33 47 54
Houston...................9 15 4 31 38 49
Vancouver ................6 15 9 27 30 53
EAST W L T PtsGFGA
New York City FC......15 5 8 53 53 35
Philadelphia ...........15 8 6 51 54 42
Atlanta...................15 10 3 48 47 33
D.C. United.............11 10 9 42 39 38
New York ................12 12 5 41 47 44
Toronto FC..............11 10 8 41 49 46
New England..........10 10 9 39 42 49
Montreal................11 15 4 37 42 56
Orlando City.............9 13 8 35 37 41
Chicago ...................8 12 10 34 44 43
Columbus ................8 15 7 31 33 44
Cincinnati.................5 21 3 18 29 72
LAFC 2, ORLANDO CITY 2
LAFC.......................................................1 1—2
Orlando City............................................2 0—2
FIRST HALF—1. LAFC, Perez, 1, 12th minute; 2. Orlando City,
Nani, 10, 13th; 3. Orlando City, Michel, 3 (Ruan), 20th.
SECOND HALF—4. LAFC, Rossi, 15 (Diomande), 78th.
Yellow cards—Higuita, Orlando City, 45th+1; Nani, Orlando
City, 45th+4; Blessing, LAFC, 59th; Rosell, Orlando City, 60th.
Referee—Alan Kelly. Assistant referees—Eric Weisbrod, Clau-
dio Badea, Caleb Mendez. 4th official—Christopher Penso.
A—22,371.
Lineups:
LAFC—Tyler Miller; Steven Beitashour, Tristan Blackmon,
Jordan Harvey, Eddie Segura; Lee Nguyen; Latif Blessing, Adama
Diomande, Adrien Perez (Danilo Silva, 57th), Josh Perez (Mo-
hammed El Munir, 69th), Diego Rossi.
Orlando City—Brian Rowe; Robin Jansson, Ruan, Lamine
Sane, Kyle Smith; Cristian Higuita (Chris Mueller, 74th), Dillon
Powers, Oriol Rosell; Dom Dwyer (Santiago Patino, 67th), Benji
Michel (Robinho, 88th), Nani.MLS
ORLANDO, Fla. — Adrien
Perez scored his first Major
League Soccer goal and Diego
Rossi also connected to help
LAFC tie Orlando City 2-2 on
Saturday.
Rossi cut inside to evade a
defender and rolled a pass to
Adama Diomande, who
turned and led Rossi toward
the top of the six-yard box,
where he slipped a shot past
goalkeeper Brian Rowe to tie it
in the 78th minute.
LAFC, which was without
Carlos Vela for the second con-
secutive game, is winless in its
last three matches — its long-
est such streak this season.
Perez first-timed a left-
footer that deflected off the
outstretched hand of Rowe
into the net to open the scor-
ing.Perez scores
first goal as
LAFC ties
LAFC 2
ORLANDO CITY 2
associated press