Half Time: Galaxy-Toronto

A largely listless first half came alive just before half time when a long Amado Guevara ball was missed by veteran defender Greg Vanney, allowing Danny Dichio to tuck the ball past Steve Cronin.

Exactly 60 seconds later, the Galaxy equalized through Landon Donovan who was given far too much space by Toronto’s Marco Velez and scored from 25 yards out.

Donovan’s strike made amends for a trio of first half misses.

Three times David Beckham set up Donovan. And three times, with only the goalkeeper to beat, Donovan had uncharacteristically missed, most egregiously a 39th minute shot he put wide. The final miss prompted Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit to leave his seat for the first time in the game, as he sensed those missed opportunities could prove costly – and almost did.

Guevara’s assist was virtually his only contribution to the game that will surely slow still further in the second half in the sweltering heat.

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Galaxy-Toronto at Home Depot Center

Good afternoon from Victoria Street where the former Newcastle United coaching team of Ruud Gullit and John Carver will pit wits from the opposing benches.

It’s hot even in the shade in Carson so expect a slow game as Toronto’s collection of English blokes swoon in the Southern California sun. They’re watering the field; let’s hope that green paint on the field doesn’t run.

With Brazilian Alvaro Pires apparently recovered from his foot injury Gullit names the same lineup that brought the Galaxy victory last Thursday against San Jose.

For the Galaxy: Steve Cronin, Chris Klein, Sean Franklin, Mike Randolph, Greg Vanney, David Beckham, Pires, Brandon McDonald, Ely Allen, Landon Donovan and Alan Gordon.

Former Chivas USA midfielder Amado Guevara slots into the Toronto midfield, while Kevin Harmse sits out after collecting a red card in the 4-1 loss to D.C. United in their last outing.

For Toronto: Greg Sutton, Marvell Wynne, Tyrone Marshall, Marco Velez, Jim Brennan, Carl Robinson, Maurice Edu, Amado Guevara, Jarrod Smith, Laurent Robert, Danny Dichio.

It will be interesting to see how Robert and Guevara link up in midfield for winless Toronto.

Trivia time: Exactly 12 years ago today, the Galaxy played its first MLS game against the then MetroStars.

Leading the Galaxy’s front line: Harut Karapetyan and Eduardo Hurtado.

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Sunday Galaxy Gameday

Good weekend in MLS so far for LA-area soccer products with Rolling Hills Estates’ Robbie Rogers starring for the Crew with a game-winning brace against Chivas USA, former Cal State Dominguez Hills goalkeeper Kevin Hartman snatching his 69th career shutout in the Wizards scoreless tie with the Houston Dynamo and UCLA product Chad Barrett halting an Earthquake (or two) in Chicago’s 1-0 win over San Jose.

Next up: Fontana’s Maurice Edu who faces David Beckham for the first time in his career at noon today in Carson as FC Toronto plays the Galaxy (the game is live on Telefutura).

Toronto (0-2) will have a new-look midfield, while it seems Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit will stick with his youth movement.

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Chivas USA Lose, U.S. Women Win

Two goals by Rolling Hills Estates’ Robbie Rogers led the Columbus Crew past Chivas USA 4-3 Saturday, while the U.S. women beat Canada on penalties in Olympic qualifying.

Columbus Coach Sigi Schmid summed up the game when he talked to the Columbus Dispatch: “I don’t know if my heart can take all of them like this,” he said. “Everybody should be made to watch this on TV and then say soccer is not exciting.”

Too bad it was played before the smallest crowd (6,733) ever to see a Crew game in frigid temperatures.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan, to blame for the winning goal, had better hope scouts from Aston Villa etc., weren’t watching.

More game details here.

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Chivas USA Saturday Gameday & More

A weakened Chivas USA takes on former Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid and the Columbus Crew on the road live at 4:30 p.m. on Prime today in chilly Ohio.

Game previews are here and here. Who knew Rolling Hills Estates’ Robbie Rogers, the Crew midfielder, was leading MLS in shots at this early stage of the season?

Meanwhile, former Chivas USA CEO Javier Leon has temporarily turned up in Chicago with the Fire.

Finally, the Galaxy play Sunday in Carson against Toronto, but David Beckham and Ruud Gullit are rivals in one respect.

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Christmas For Soccer Geeks: MLS Media Guides

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The most notable local soccer news this morning: Chivas USA taking a bus to LAX enroute to Saturday’s game in Columbus (I kid you not).

That being the case, far more interesting was the recent arrival of a box from MLS containing media guides for all 14 teams.

Filled with facts and figures, the media guides are indispensable aids to covering the league, but the books also inadvertently tell much about the identity of individual teams.

For instance, only one club – the Columbus Crew – put an actual player in action (in this case Argentine Guillermo Barros Schelotto) on the cover, while most of the rest opt largely for stylized logos that emphasize the team is the thing rather than select star players.

That includes the Galaxy, which could have put David Beckham on the cover, but chose not to do so.

Exceptions: the defending champion Houston Dynamo, which opted for a picture of Dwayne De Rosario lifting the MLS Cup; the Colorado Rapids, which went with a shot of their new stadium; and D.C. United, which chose to acknowledge their especially fervent fan base with a crowd shot. Logical covers in each case.

Only the Kansas City Wizards bravely chose to illustrate their coach, Curt Onalfo, on the cover. That hopefully does not mean the kiss of death for him in the job before the season is out.

For a couple seasons, the Wizards media guide was among the flimsiest in MLS, perhaps indicative of the previous owners lack of commitment (and cash) to the franchise; now it is among the heftiest in the league.

Among the longest guides in MLS this season is the one for Red Bull New York, a tome that checks in at 330 pages (one of the shortest is for the Dyanamo at just 140 pages, thereby illustrating it’s what you do on the field that really counts). Thankfully long gone is the season when the then-MetroStars issued a CD-ROM rather than an actual book for their media guide, an unwieldy format that reminded one of the poorly-performing team a little too much.

And while we’re looking for analogies, I always appreciate those guides that come with a coil to hold pages in place (which I’m guessing are more expensive to print and the reason we don’t see more of them). Does it mean anything that I’ve already cracked the spine of the Real Salt Lake guide and some pages are falling out?

FC Dallas continues to salute the far-reaching influence of late owner Lamar Hunt on the sport and league, placing his bio on page six of their guide. In contrast, (and as usual) the Galaxy somehow managed to keep the name of reclusive owner Phillip Anschutz out of their guide entirely, even though the league would likely have collapsed a few years ago without his backing.

Some things are just plain weird.

Why, for instance, does RSL give us both English- and Spanish-language biographies of such executives as Chief Financial Officer Gary Reimer, but doesn’t do the same for a single member of the playing roster? Much more important for Spanish-speaking journalists to learn about the details of Mr. Reimer’s career (he’s the former CFO of Capri Sun!) than, say, that of goalkeeper Nick Rimando, I guess.

The crown jewel of the guides, however, is the 588-page MLS Fact and Record Book (last year’s edition was “only” 554 pages long) pictured above.

The league resumed printing these three years ago (if memory serves) after what was presumably a money-saving hiatus. Only a few thousand are printed annually, so if you can get your hands on one it’s an excellent way to wile away a boring 0-0 game.

The book contains the career record or every player to ever grace an MLS field, a season by season record for every team and even the past and present logos of every club (remember LA’s Twizzle thingie that was supposed to represent a spinning galaxy?).

But it also contains essential information the league itself appears to gloss over.

For example, at the bottom of page 8 the reader learns the MLS format this year will be the top three teams in each conference and then the two with the most points regardless of conference.

That compares to last year’s playoff structure of the top two teams in each conference plus the remaining four regardless of conference.

I can’t recall the league ever announcing the change though, so I guess it pays to read the fine print.

The book contains a dizzying amount of information only a soccer geek would love (can you name the 13 sets of brothers who have played in MLS?) including how many teams have opened a season with scoreless draws in consecutive games (the Fire and Crew in 2004 and 2007 respectively).

And in what is surely some sort of commentary on the growth of MLS, the size of the media guides has outgrown the stiff cardboard “book case” to house them all in the league provided a few years ago.

The best thing about the books though?

That new media guide smell, all plastic-like and crisp.

Just don’t breath too deep.

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Thursday’s Kicks: A Constellation of Cuban Stars in the Galaxy & More

The trio of Cubans who defected during Olympic qualifiers last month have turned up at the Galaxy. Guess LA doesn’t want another Maykel Galindo to get away.

David Beckham, meanwhile, offers his insiders view (ahem) of the Galaxy season so far in his latest blog post.

The ramifications of a potential all-England UEFA Champions League final when it comes to playing EPL games overseas (remember that proposal?) are explored here.

Finally, the Long Beach State Women play the U.S.Under-20 National Women’s Team in a scrimmage that’s free to watch at 11 a.m. Saturday at Home Depot Center.

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U.S., Canada Qualify For Olympics

The U.S. beat Costa Rica 3-0 in a dust storm Wednesday night, while Canada defeated hosts Mexico 1-0 to qualify for the Olympics in China.

Torrance duo Shannon Boxx and Vanessa Rojas went 90 minutes for the U.S. and Costa Rica respectively.

More on the U.S.-Costa Rica game is here and the Canada-Mexico game here.

U.S. Coach Pia Sundhage gave kudos to the Americans’ CONCACAF rivals.

“The teams here have improved a lot compared to what I knew about them five or six years ago,” she said “Look at this game, the U.S. playing Costa Rica and its 0-0 at half time. I would say its an important moment for me, who has been around the game for so long, to see Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago and the way Mexico has improved so much. Its not only good for U.S. but for womens soccer overall.

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Chivas USA Signs Goalkeeper From Chile; Deals Guevara’s MLS Rights to Toronto

Chivas USA finally severed ties with expensive flop Amado Guevara today, dumping him on Toronto for unspecified draft picks in 2009 and 2010

This trade was made in the best interests of our club, said Preki. We feel good about our group right now, and since the player in question did not fit into our plans, we made the best available deal for his rights. We hope that these additional SuperDraft picks will help Chivas USA as we continue to build our team moving forward.”

The 31-year-old Honduran played all of four games for Chivas before being loaned back home to Motagua.

Naturally, Toronto employed a different spin in their press (edited) release:

Toronto GM Mo Johnston is reunited with Guevara whom he coached while with the New York Red Bulls in 2006. The midfielder signed with the then- Metrostars in 2003 (from Motagua) and was named MVP after scoring eight goals and adding five assists. He was the 2004 MLS MVP and played 103 times for New York.

By the way, Guevara could make his MLS debut against the Galaxy Sunday at Home Depot Center. Tickets are being discounted up to 35 percent for the game. I don’t think there’s a connection.

Chivas USA also acquired goalkeeper Dan Kennedy – three years after the team drafted him – from second division Chilean club Municipal Iquique.

Kennedy, 25, figures to be Brad Guzan’s backup – and maybe the starter if Guzan ends up in England in the summer – is from Yorba Linda and played for UC Santa Barbara. He led the Chilean second division in goals against average last year and played with the USL Puerto Rico Islanders for two years before that.

We are happy to acquire a goalkeeper of Dan Kennedys quality and international experience, as we continue to deepen our squad ahead of a busy summer, said Coach Preki.

That schedule includes SuperLiga games July 13 against Pachuca and July 16 against Santos at the HDC and New England July 20 (at a LA-area stadium to be determined), sandwiched in between a July 10 derby against the Galaxy and the July 24 All-Star game. There’s a $1 million prize for the winner.

Lastly, word of today’s Guevara deal after weeks of rumors gives extra resonance to today’s Toronto Sun story on the subject, which I reprint here only because I couldn’t find it on their Web site:

Honduran international Amado Guevara said yesterday that he has a long-term contract to play for Toronto FC, and that he could join the team tomorrow.

But the one-time league rookie of the year may be bringing more to the table than just his ability to score from the right side.

Guevara is serving a 30-day suspension from Motagua of the Central American Football League after an altercation with Mario Moncada, the league’s top referee.

And it’s not the first time the 31-year-old right side midfielder has been in trouble with soccer authorities.

During his first stint in MLS — after being traded from New York Red Bulls to Chivas USA in 2005 — Guevara was also punished for pushing an assistant referee there.

It was shortly after that he told Chivas coach Predrag Radosavljevic (Preki) that he was done with the team and was moving back to Honduras.

“I have a vision of where the club is going and [I’m] not part of it,” he told Preki.

At that point Guevara became something of a pariah in the MLS with several attempts by Chivas to trade him falling through.

Now, however, TFC director of soccer Mo Johnston seems convinced he can get Guevara back to the form that made him MVP material in the 2003 season with New York.

While TFC offficials would not talk about the his status yesterday, Guevara had no such reticience when he told the Honduran newspaper La Tribuna he has a four-year deal with Toronto.

“I don’t know if in four years when my contract with Toronto expires if I will still want to play,” Guevara told the paper.

Guevara’s recent play with Motagua — other than his referee bashing — has been stellar, according to sources in the league.

He led Motagua to the Central American club championship last season, when Montagua beat Costa Rican giant Saprissa 2-1 on aggregate.

It’s his temper, however, that keeps getting him in trouble on the pitch.

In the most recent incident, Guevara lashed out at his homeland’s soccer bosses, alleging he was being “persecuted” and that’s the reason he signed with TFC.

“I am going because I fear that I do not want to continue (shortening) my career by playing here,” he said. “What happened (suspension) was unbearable.”

For all his faults, however, Guevara still has many fans who marvel at his skills when he is on top of his game.

ESPN soccer columnist Ives Galarcep is one, and he said that Guevara could help TFC with its goal scoring production.

“I will readily admit to being one of Guevara’s harshest critics when he had his lapses, but there has never been any doubt about his ability to be an impact player when he is on his game,” he said. “Considering Toronto won’t give up anything to acquire Guevara and will likely land him for a salary in the $250K to $300K range, it is a gamble worth taking considering the team’s need for a playmaker.”

It would also give TFC a balanced attack with its recent acquisition of Laurent Robert on the other side of the pitch and last season’s rookie of the year Maurice Edu in the centre.

Rookie of the Year?

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