Monday Wrap: Albright Rips Gullit & Other Gossip

*While I've been columnizing much of the day, plenty of other stuff is going on in the soccer world with one highlight being former Galaxy defender Chris Albright slamming departed Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit at SI.com:

"My thought was that he'd be gone by midway through this year - I thought that two days after meeting him," said the 29-year-old defender, who was part of the Galaxy squad that made preseason trips to Australia and New Zealand.

What was the problem? "Lack of respect for the players. No real concern about wanting to know MLS or caring to know MLS. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff [he did]."

I would. Dish, Chris, dish.

*Talking about knifing, (how's that for a segue) David Beckham is spending part of his time in England where he is ostensibly on national duty Wednesday playing in his nation's friendly against the Czech Republic (live noon on Fox Soccer Channel) taking part in an anti-knifing campaign.

Handguns are banned in England so they're stabbing each other instead. Nice.

By the way, Becks will fly to China after the game where he will take part in the Olympics closing ceremonies (London has the games in 2012).

*Fontana's Maurice Edu has apparently completed his $5 million move from Toronto FC to Glasgow Rangers.

*Meanwhile, former UCLA and Chivas USA striker Matt Taylor has surfaced in the Bundesliga second division. From the U.S. Soccer Players newsletter:

Surprise signing Matt Taylor started and went 62 minutes for new club TuS Koblenz. Taylor, who only signed three days before the game, scored the second Koblenz goal in their 3-0 win over RW Oberhausen in 2Bundesliga action.

He didn't score, naturally.

*You really got a sense of the extent of the injuries Chivas USA is grappling with when the club released its injury list on Monday.

The latest to go down is defensive midfielder Jesse Marsch with a broken jaw suffered in Thursday's game against the Galaxy. His jaw was wired shut on Friday (which may be the only way to shut Marsch up) and will remain so for the first four weeks of his recovery. Reminder to self: send Jesse an e-mail and ask if he wants to blog. Give the man a voice!

Here's a telling stat from Chivas USA:

Through the first 19 games of the season, the Red-and-White have missed a total of 91 man-matches - or an average of to 4.79 players missing per game due to injury (not counting international absences).

And here's their (lengthy) injury report:

INJURIES (11):

Justin Braun Right ankle sprain Out

Jesse Marsch Fractured jaw Out

Lawson Vaughn Right knee sprain Out

Raphaël Wicky Right ankle surgery Out

Alex Zotinca Right knee surgery Out

Maykel Galindo Sports hernia surgery Questionable

Jonathan Bornstein Right hip strain Probable

Alecko Eskandarian Sports hernia surgery Probable

Jorge Flores Right ankle tendonitis Probable

Ante Razov Left knee sprain Probable

Claudio Suárez Concussion Probable

Oh, and Sacha Kljestan is on international duty with the U.S. National Team.

*On Saturday, Hayley Bolt scored two second half goals to lead Long Beach State to a 2-1 exhibition win over San Diego State. The 49ers open the regular season Friday against Gonzaga.

*The U.S. Under-15 Girls' National Team will play three matches at the 2008 Women's Nike Friendlies Wednesday through Sunday at Home Depot Center against Under-17 FC DELCO Thursday, Under-17 Irvine Strikers Friday and Under-17 Real Colorado Sunday.

The U.S. squad includes: defender Loeau LaBonta (Rancho Cucamonga), midfielders Haley Rosen (Palos Verdes), Marie MacKenzie (Palmdale) and Christina Murillo (Ojai).

Check back in the morning for more on Bruce Arena's appointment to the Galaxy coaching job.