The Galaxy scored seven goals in their win at Home Depot Center, while Chivas USA managed five goals.

Both wins came over minor league opposition.

More on the Galaxy game is here.

Highlights:

Chivas USA beat Conejo Valley-based FC Hasental 5-0 with goals coming from Michael Lahoud in the 22nd minute and Juan Pablo Angel coverting a spot kick two minutes later for the second. English newcomer Ryan Smith got the third five minutes before halftime with forward Chris Cortez and Tijuana native Cesar Romero rounding out the scoring in the second half.

Will you be there?

Class move by the ACB.

Also:
*Chivas USA and presumably Blair Gavin play their second preseason game of the season at 11 a.m. Friday at Home Depot Center against FC Hasental. Fans are welcome to attend.

Here's an updated Chivas USA preseason schedule.

*It's the Yanks verses the Canucks.

*Rolling Hills Estates' Whitney Engen has been called into the upcoming U.S. Women's National Team camp in Texas.

Chelsea-Manchester United is live on Fox at 7:30 a.m.

A preview is here.

The "game before the game" marks the second live Barclays Premier League game in two weeks on Fox. On Jan. 22, Fox drew 1.3 million viewers nationwide for Arsenal's 1-2 loss to Manchester United, making it the most watched live EPL match ever on U.S. television.

Rob Stone, Eric Wynalda and the insufferable Piers Morgan host.

Also:
Arsenal-Blackburn Rovers is at 4:55 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2
Norwich City-Bolton Wanderers is at 11 a.m. Saturday (delayed) on Fox Soccer Plus.

Buddle returns: The forward Galaxy fans never wanted to leave has returned to the club (Daily Breeze file photo).

The rumors were true.

Edson Buddle has returned to the Galaxy after spending a year in Germany where he scored 10 goals for second tier Ingolstadt.

"I am thrilled to be able to return to MLS and a club that has meant so much to me in my career," Buddle said. "When I left for Germany last winter, I said that I hoped to be able to one day return to the Galaxy and help lead the club to an MLS Cup championship. That day is today and I look forward to the challenges that now lie ahead."

Here's more from the club press release:

A fan favorite during his time with the Galaxy, Buddle was the club's top scorer or second leading scorer every year from 2007-2010, averaging nearly a goal every two games after being acquired in a trade with Toronto FC in exchange for Tyrone Marshall in June 2007.

He had his best season as a professional in 2010, scoring 17 goals and helping the Galaxy win their first Supporters' Shield since 2002.

The only player in MLS history to score 40 or more goals for two different clubs, Buddle has scored 90 goals in 231 regular season games during the first 10 years of his MLS career, making him the eighth leading scorer in League history.

Relive Buddle's 2010 goals here:

*Post updated 11:15 a.m.

You can bet the former Bruin playmaker would like a return to Southern California. But is another midfielder a priority for the Galaxy?

Read more here.

*The Galaxy will officially announce the signing at the end of practice today.

The Galaxy will also receive a second round draft pick in exchange for a international roster spot.

More here.

Disher Donovan: The Galaxy's Landon Donovan, seen here tackling Manchester City's Aleksandar Kolarov, led Everton to another victory with yet another assist today against the Mancunians in England (AP Photo).

You remember that old "Seinfeld" episode about the proctologist with the license plate that read "Assman"? Maybe Landon Donovan should consider getting that vanity plate after his stellar goal-creating performances in England with Everton, although, of course, that would stand for Assist, in this case.

Former Manchester United man Darron Gibson, who left Old Trafford in January, scored the game's lone goal in the 60th minute off a short pass from the Galaxy playmaker. The MLS loanee has assisted on Everton's last three goals and four in seven games. Don't get too attached though Liverpudlians, the Galaxy want him back.

*Another Galaxy player making headlines in Europe is Edson Buddle, given his unconditional release by his second tier German club today in a money-saving move. The Galaxy still hold his MLS rights and if you follow my Twitter feed @LAsoccerblog you would have learned that former Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas tweeted earlier this afternooon: "I'm hearing Edson Buddle is coming back to @LAGalaxy."

Well, the Galaxy could do with offensive cover what with Robbie Keane heading off for what he hopes is a long time at Euro 2012 next summer and David Beckham presumably playing in the Olympics. Buddle, incidentally, has failed to hook on with a couple of European clubs who took a look, including West Ham United.

No word from the Galaxy yet on Buddle.

BTW, A.J. DeLaGarza, Brian Perk and Michael Stephens have returned to camp from national team duty meaning only Donovan and Robbie Keane are missing. The club has 34 players in camp.

*Former Galaxy defender and now Chivas USA assistant coach Greg Vanney and Los Angeles/Fontana native Ante Razov, who starred for Chivas USA before slouching moodily off into what turned out to be an unannounced retirement, are among a dozen former players eligible for the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, it was announced today. Among the veterans on the ballot: late former LA Aztecs ball wizard George Best.

*The Galaxy announced their English-language and Spanish-language radio schedules today, which can be found here.

From the Galaxy press release:

KTLK 1150 AM, the sister station of Fox Sports Radio, AM 570 KLAC, will return for their fifth consecutive season of broadcasting Galaxy games in English. Joe Tutino and Ralph Perez will once again call the games for KTLK, who will broadcast 24 of the club's 34 regular season games. In addition to being able to hear all games on KTLK across the Southland, the Galaxy will also make those games available to stream online at lagalaxy.com. Through their website, the club will also stream the 10 games that KTLK are not slated to cover this season, meaning that fans can listen to every Galaxy MLS game all season long in English either on the radio or online.

*Chivas USA announced today that they will will unveil their 2012 jersey on Feb. 12 - at 30,000 feet while flying between Guadalajara and LA on a flight by Mexican airline Volaris.

*San Jose announced Monday that former defender Chris Leitch, who retired rather than join the Galaxy, which took him in the Re-Entry Draft, has been named technical director of the Earthquakes' youth development academy.

Club Tijuana fans cheer on Sunday during a 3-1 home loss to Santos Laguna, but they're mainly just happy to have a team in the highest echelon of Mexican futbol (Photo courtesy Club Tijuana).

There is no doubt that Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente has aspirations of drawing Americans soccer fans over the border and giving MLS a run for its money in this part of the world.

The effort is in its nascent stages in terms of marketing and reaching out to fans.

I'm told, for instance, that there are chartered buses Southern California residents can take to games; I've discovered finding out the details of these trips is a little more challenging (so if anyone knows let me know).

Seeing a game in Tijuana is a completely different cultural experience from one at Home Depot Center - not necessarily better, IMHO, despite the comments of fans in the column. But it's more than simply seeing a sporting event and something MLS could learn from.

It helps too that the city is seeing something of a renaissance culturally including an influx of gourmet restaurants and well-known chefs, a friend who grew up in the city and accompanied me on the trip observed. Crime is way down as well, with the drug violence plaguing some parts of Mexico having moved elsewhere in comparison to a few years ago.

During prohibition the city was the place for Americans to party, especially at the horse racing track the soccer stadium is now built on in part. Now, 80 or so years later, American soccer fans have another excuse to visit, party and watch some of the best players in the world up close (long-time Mexican international goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez was between the posts for Santos for Sunday's game, for example).

All in all it's an experience I recommend and one I plan to repeat.

Read more here in today's column.

Sometimes it seems Galaxy midfielder David Beckham spends more time on a soccer field showing off his abs than his set pieces as he wanders the field shirtless at the end of games.

So this soft porn excerpt ad is nothing new to most soccer fans and will likely be one of the few Super Bowl references you'll find here this week ahead of Sunday's game between two teams that are not the Packers.

Here's a little background on the ad from today's press release:

Beckham's Bodywear line introduces nine underwear styles for men, focusing on quality, fit, function, comfort and design, and continues H & M's successful run of acclaimed guest designer collaborations - most notably Stella McCartney, Madonna, and Roberto Cavalli among many others.

Beckham and his design team spent 18 months developing the collection. The TV ad, filmed in Hollywood earlier this year, is slated to air during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVI.

And here's the video, which includes the ad and the immortal line "I love underwear," which proves, I guess, that if he receives enough money Beckham will say he loves virtually anything:

And if you're one of those who pays more attention to Super Bowl ads than the actual game, now you have an extra 30 seconds Sunday to pull yourself away from the TV and score some more bean dip.

Got a little Morgan in ya? Alex Morgan celebrates her late goal that clinched a U.S. spot in London's Olympics Friday in Canada (AP Photo).

Diamond Bar's fast-rising soccer star Alex Morgan further solidified her undoubted national team credentials by notching the third and final decisive goal:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- The final goal in the game that put the U.S. women's soccer team into the Olympics was scored by Alex Morgan, the super-sub who made her name at last year's World Cup.

That's the same Alex Morgan who wasn't a sub at all in the Americans' previous game, leading to an interesting moment in a meeting with coach Pia Sundhage.

The formality is that the U.S. beat Costa Rica 3-0 Friday night to earn a ticket to London. The game was quite a bit more suspenseful than expected, with the Americans overcoming some early sloppiness and waiting until deep into the second half to put the game away.

The real fun now begins over the next six months as Sundhage figures out how best to use the best, deepest roster of women soccer players in the world. For instance, the newest hot-off-the-presses talent is Sidney Leroux, who got the call instead of Morgan in the second half of the big win over Mexico three days earlier.

"I asked her how she felt when Sidney Leroux came in the game and she didn't," Sundhage said. "I wanted an honest answer. She said 'I don't think you want that answer.' Great. That tells a little about how badly she wants to play."

Morgan felt she got her point across.

"We both laughed," Morgan said. "And she said 'That's all I need to know.' ... But that's the great thing with Pia. She lets you feel you can be honest with her. She lets you feel very comfortable around her."

Morgan's goal in the 89th minute made the score 34-0 -- the margin by which the Americans have outscored their opponents at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament. The only one that wasn't as lopsided as the score was Friday's London-or-bust semifinal.

"There were moments where I think Costa Rica were outplaying us, and it just shows you how important it was to all of us," forward Abby Wambach said. "Nobody wanted to make that mistake. And luckily we didn't."

Tobin Heath scored in the 16th minute to give U.S. all the offense it needed, and Carli Lloyd (72nd) and Morgan (89th) provided the insurance.

But the top-ranked Americans were certainly not as crisp as they were when they were drawing criticism for running up the score. Bad passes led to giveaways in the first half, forcing goalkeeper Hope Solo to work harder than she has all tournament.

Then again, so much was on the line that some jitters were understandable.

"We know that sometimes under big game circumstances players can get a little tight," Wambach said. "And you've just kind of got to deal with it. ... It was almost as if we scored that goal and nobody wanted to get stuck into a tackle. We were kind of playing a little bit soft, and we fixed that in the second half."

Costa Rica is ranked No. 41 in the world, has never qualified for an Olympics or a World Cup and has never scored on the U.S. in eight meetings.

Las Ticas proved to be scrappy opponents, however, occasionally frustrating the Americans with physical play and just missing on two solid scoring chances in the first half in the London-or-bust match. As the possibility of an upset lingered deep into the second half, the plucky team in red gained the rousing support of the Canadian fans at BC Place.

"We put together three great games in group play," said Solo, who played despite a slightly pulled right quadriceps that had been bothering her all week. "You can't play four, five, six. Not every team is going to play perfectly every single game, but we got the job done."

The U.S. will be the two-time defending champions in London, having taken gold in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008. It will be the third straight Olympics in which the Americans will be trying to make amends for World Cup disappointment from the previous year. They finished second at last year's World Cup in Germany, losing to Japan in the final.

The victory also puts the Americans into the tournament final Sunday, a bragging-rights-only game against Canada, a 3-1 winner over Mexico in the second semifinal.

Sundhage's team arrived in Canada with a bit of apprehension. The Americans, having become somewhat complacent from years of uncontested success in the region, were stunned in a World Cup qualifier by host Mexico in November 2010, forcing them into a home-and-away playoff with Italy just to get for the World Cup. Also, the format for Olympic qualifying is such that everything hinges on one game -- the do-or-die semifinals -- regardless of how a team performs in the rest of the tournament.

Determined to take nothing for granted, the Americans had been full throttle for every game. They set a U.S. team record for goals in a game in a 14-0 win over the Dominican Republic, then nearly matched the feat in a 13-0 rout of Guatemala. Then came a 4-0 win in the much-anticipated rematch with Mexico to set up the semifinal against Costa Rica.

And even though the vital game didn't go quite as planned, the outcome was all that
mattered.

"We," Sundhage said, smiling, "are going to London."

*Also, Chivas USA narrowly lost its opening preseason game Friday night in Ventura County.

Dempsey vs. Donovan: The two Americans faced off today in the FA Cup (AP Photo). Wonder if they exchanged jerseys.

Landon Donovan continues to excel for Everton with a headline-grabbing game today. Associated Press sports writer Stuart Condie has the story:

LONDON (AP) -- On-loan forward Landon Donovan led Everton to its first ever FA Cup win over Fulham and a place in the fifth round on Friday, setting up both goals in his team's 2-1 win at Goodison.

Fulham had progressed in the FA Cup on all four previous occasions it had been drawn against Everton, and led again against the Toffees through Danny Murphy's 14th-minute penalty.

But Donovan, in the sixth game of his second loan spell from the Galaxy set up a 27th-minute equalizer for Denis Stracqualursi and then provided the assist for Marouane Fellaini's 73rd-minute winner.

"Landon's been great since he's been here," Everton assistant manager Steve Round said. "He's a real diamond of a guy, he's a very intelligent footballer and the lads all like him. You've seen the quality of his end product, whether it be from crosses or set plays. "He's a top player."

Rafael van der Vaart scored a 42nd-minute goal for Tottenham in a 1-0 win at League Championship side Watford in Friday's other fourth-round match.

But Donovan provided arguably the day's standout performance, helping his side to victory over a Fulham side containing his United States teammate, Clint Dempsey.

Teammates on the last two U.S. World Cup teams, Donovan and Dempsey had not faced each other since May 2006, when Dempsey's New England Revolution beat the Galaxy 4-0.

This was only the seventh time they had played against each other overall.

After Murphy scored a penalty awarded for a handball by Netherlands defender John Heitinga, Donovan crossed for Stracqualursi to head firmly past Fulham goalkeeper David Stockdale.

Dempsey, who has scored two hat tricks in his last three games for Fulham, headed over the bar at the start of the second half following a cross by Bryan Ruiz before Donovan went close with a shot across goal from distance.

Donovan set up the decisive goal with a deep cross to the far post, from where Fellaini guided a header back across Stockdale and into the top corner.

Fulham beat Everton on its way to the 1975 FA Cup final -- one of only two finals the west London club has ever reached -- and edged out the Toffees in a replay in the teams' most recent tournament meeting in 2004.