LA soccer original: The Times’ Grahame L. Jones in his natural habitat – The Home Depot Center press box.

I sat next to long-time LA Times soccer reporter Grahame L. Jones in the press box at Galaxy, Chivas USA and assorted other soccer games for the last decade or so of his almost four decade-long career.

Grahame’s elegant game stories concisely and authoritatively encapsulated the game; his columns provided nuanced perspective and context, yet never alienated the novice fan.

He pioneered soccer reporting in Southern California, enduring copy editors to the end of his career who were largely clueless about the sport. His was a national voice for a largely ignored sport, contributing to the game’s growth in a way few others did.

If his worst fault was that he was too harsh on the nascent Major League Soccer (The Times, with its global pretensions, preferred he focus on the European game anyway), well, Grahame had earned the role of grumpy uncle by virtue of his long career.

Typical of Grahame, his final column was not about him, but Southern California’s rich soccer history – much of which he had chronicled.

Grahame’s retirement e-mail bemused those who don’t know of his passion for maritime history and culture.

But if he hadn’t retired to take care of his elderly parents, you would likely find him aboard a freighter with a good book in one hand and a whiskey in the other, content in the slow inexorable journey across the ocean rather than the destination.

Which is a good metaphor for his career: It has been a grand voyage and one that smoothed the waters for those of us who came after.

Cheers.

Not more of the the pointy-ball type.

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox will televise the first English Premier League match on free television in the United States on Super Bowl Sunday, when Chelsea plays Manchester United.

The match on Feb. 5 is one of four Premier League games the network will show this season. It will begin at 7:30 a.m. PT.

The other three games will be televised on tape delay to complement NFL games over the next three months.

The telecasts will be the first EPL matchup between Man United and Chelsea (Sept.
18); Tottenham against Arsenal on Oct. 2; and Chelsea facing Liverpool on Nov. 20.

*Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza was re-signed to a new multi-year contract, the club announced today.

The versatile 24-year-old, who can play either full back or in central defense as he did in college at Maryland defender, is on track for a career high in starts and minutes in his third year with the club.

He’s appeared in all but two of the 18 MLS games the Galaxy has played so far this season.

DeLaGarza was scheduled to earn about $55,000 this year, according to figures released by the MLS Players Union; the Galaxy did not release the new contract terms.

*Los Angeles-based Fox Soccer Channel announced today that the U.S.-Panama Gold Cup semifinal Wednesday was watched by 381,000 viewers, a new all-time high for the tournament. This year’s Gold Cup is attracting 82 percent more viewers than the last tournament did in 2009. Saturday’s U.S.-Mexico final is expected to set a new record for viewers.

*Real Madrid have announced their travel roster for the three World Football Challenge games they will play in the U.S. this summer, including against the Galaxy July 16 at the Coliseum.

The squad (Spanish unless noted):

Goalkeepers – Iker Casillas, Antonio Adn.

Defenders – Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal), Pepe (Portugal), Sergio Ramos, Marcelo Viera (Brazil), Alvaro Arbeloa, Raul Albiol, Ezequiel Garay (Argentina), David Mateos

Midfielders – Fernando Gago (Argentina), Kak (Brazil), Lassana Diarra (France), Xabi Alonso, Sergio Canales, Pedro Len, Mesut zil (Germany), Sami Khedira (Germany), Hamit Altintop (Turkey), Nuri ahin (Turkey), Jos Callejn, Roysten Drenthe (Netherlands)

Forwards – Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Karim Benzema (France), Esteban Granero.

It’s at 7 p.m. Saturday at Home Depot Center (live on ESPN2).

In other local soccer news:

*Remember when the Galaxy foolishly shot their collective mouths off about being a so-called “Super Club,” a hollow boast that roughly coincided with the worst period in the club’s history thanks to Ruud Gullit, Alexi Lalas et al.

Well, now it’s Chivas USA’s turn to sound silly babbling on about eventually fielding only local players:

“We will play only with South California players,” Rodrigo Morales, the club’s recently-hired vice president of marketing and sponsorship told The Sporting News. “It will be the real thing — homegrown players through development rather than hiring stars.

“We believe the artificial passion comes from those teams that have to buy expensive players and create stars. It’s a very Hollywood way of creating a fan base. That’s how you compare real to artificial. We have real passion for the game; they build a fan base through the incorporation of big stars.”

Read the full story here.

Anyone know what a South California player is, BTW? Does that include Mexican immigrants or only those born locally? So is this a tacit admission fans shouldn’t expect the long-awaited DP Chivas USA has talked about incessantly, but never signed? Does Chivas USA even have a definition?

Of course, the Galaxy have always spoken about building a roster that reflects the entire community, often drafting kids who have played at local colleges and yes, hiring big-name stars. Hollywood, after all, is part of Southern California.

And the Chivas USA perspective would sound a little more convincing if they had a larger fan base outside of the cheap, bulk tickets sold to AYSO teams the club seems to be largely relying on these days judging by all the high-pitched screams of kids you hear in the stadium on game days.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a successful Chivas USA and am disappointed more local fans haven’t embraced the team because what’s good for the club is good for MLS.

But is this the way to go about it? Time will tell.

Here, incidentally, is what Galaxy fan group the LA Riot Squad had to say about the Chivas USA initiative on their Facebook page:

“Chivas USA couldn’t be less “L.A.” if they tried. Now they want to have a 100% Southern Californian roster. L.A. is an International City with people from every corner of the world, not a locals only xenophobic exclusive ghetto. Still One Team in L.A.!”

*U.S. Coach Bob Bradley will announce the Gold Cup squad at 7 a.m. Monday on ussoccer.com.

*UCLA, which returns every starter from last season’s squad that made the NCAA quarterfinals, has released their 2011 schedule, which kicks off Aug. 27 at Louisville with a rematch of the quarterfinal game.

UCLA will play the first of 11 home games at Drake Stadium on Sept. 9 against Saint Mary’s. Other home schedule highlights: UC Santa Barbara Sept. 16 and the Pac-12 (weird to read, huh?) opener Sept. 30 against Cal.

Returning UCLA players including 2010 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and U.S. Under-20 international Kelyn Rowe (assuming a European club doesn’t offer him a contract, I suppose), fellow U.S. Under-20 international Eder Arreola and last year’s team MVP goalkeeper Brian Rowe.

Here’s the complete UCLA schedule.

*Finally, Galaxy fans can rejoice: Should David Beckham skip out on the Galaxy midweek as expected you can watch him trundle around a soccer field after all since Fox Soccer Channel announced today it will televise Gary Neville’s testimonial game Tuesday against Juventus (live 11:30 a.m.) from England. Won’t that be fun?

Also expected to play: Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs.

I’ll have a full SuperClasico preview Saturday.

*The Galaxy face Sporting Kansas City at 7:30 p.m. at Home Depot Center (live on FSN), while Chivas USA travel to New York to face the Red Bulls at 5 p.m. Sunday (Galavision). The latter game is also on tape-delay at 5 p.m. on Prime.

*Apparently the next player decision Chivas USA may have to make (they are top of the MLS allocation order, remember, after deciding to pass on Benny Feilhaber) is whether to grab injury-prone, aging (I know he’s only 28, but he’s been around forever without actually doing much it seems) and little-used DaMarcus Beasley, who is apparently exploring returning to MLS after lo these many years picking up big paychecks (and little else of note) in Europe. Personally, I’d say pass if I were Chivas USA – he’ll be expensive and his career has seemingly been on a downward spiral since the 2006 World Cup. Full details here.

*Incidentally, former Galaxy and Chivas USA player Alecko Eskandarian is apparently on the verge of returning to MLS in a coaching capacity.

*I’ll be honest: It’s one of those rare weekends where I’m looking forward to games on TV this weekend more than anything else.

Manchester United are likely to clinch the EPL title (their nineteenth) against Blackburn Rovers (4:30 a.m. Saturday ESPN2), while forthcoming Galaxy opponents Manchester City play Stoke City in the FA Cup at 7 a.m. Saturday on Fox Soccer Channel. Kinda sad to see the way the league is over-shadowing the tradition-filled cup, though.

if you are a United fan you’ll want to watch the game here, which is where local supporters will gather.

Then, in what should be a fascinating spectacle on TV, Pacific Northwest rivals Seattle and Portland collide at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2. Actually, the most fascinating part may be watching the fans rather than the teams in a rivalry that has been stoked all week long.

*Lastly, the Castrol Index, as long-promised, has finally come to MLS.

The Galaxy’s best player:Omar Gonzalez, closely followed by Donovan Ricketts. David Beckham is supposedly only the fifth best Galaxy player (behind Mike Magee and Leonardo), while Landon Donovan is the 104th-ranked player in the league and Juan Pablo Angel 147th. Hmmm.

Chivas USA’s top-ranked player is Ben Zemanski.

Money men: FIFA President Sepp Blatter, left, and alleged would-be knight Nicolas Leoz, head of FIFA’s South American arm, are pictured last month chowing down at the global soccer trough at a lunch in Ypacaray, Paraguay (AFP file photos).

Shocking I know especially considering this recent pledge by the always honest, trustworthy and transparent FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Here’s the story from AP Sports Writer Rob Harris:

LONDON (AP) — Soccer’s governing body was hit with new corruption allegations Tuesday when six FIFA executive committee members were accused of receiving or demanding bribes during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast were allegedly paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar, according to evidence submitted to a British parliamentary inquiry by The Sunday Times newspaper.

The Gulf nation beat the United States in the final round of voting in December for the 2022 tournament.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons also heard from the former head of England’s 2018 bid, who described the conduct of executive committee members Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Ricardo Teixeira and Worawi Makudi in the 2018 contest as “improper and unethical.”

The parliamentary panel is looking into England’s failed bid for the World Cup as part of a wider inquiry into soccer governance.

In Zurich, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said he will ask for evidence that supports the claims and forward any allegations to the FIFA ethics committee.

“I cannot say they are all angels or they are all devils,” he said of the executive
members. “We must have the evidence and then we will act immediately against all those (who) would be breach of the ethical code rules,” Blatter added.

Referring to his bid for re-election next month against Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar, Blatter said: “I’m fighting to clear FIFA, I’m fighting to clean FIFA.”

The bidding contest was rocked even before the vote when The Sunday Times published in October details of an undercover investigation that led to two of FIFA’s 24 executive committee members being suspended.

Amos Adamu of Nigeria was found guilty by FIFA’s ethics court of soliciting bribes from
undercover reporters, while Reynald Temarii of Tahiti was banned for breaching rules on confidentiality and loyalty.

The British newspaper sent further evidence — which it did not publish at the time for legal reasons — to the British committee on Monday to be made public using parliamentary privilege.

Two of the paper’s investigative journalists told the committee in a letter that a
whistleblower who had worked for the Qatari bid told them in December that the country “had paid $1.5 million to two FIFA ExCo members — Hayatou and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast — to secure their votes.”

Reporters Jonathan Calvert and Claire Newell added that “a similar deal had been struck with Amos Adamu, although he was prevented from voting because he was suspended following our original article.”

Calvert and Newell said the whistleblower — who was not identified — told them the cash would go to the three members’ soccer federations, but “there would be no questions asked about how the money was used.”

“It was said in such a way that ‘We are giving it to you,’” they quoted the whistleblower as saying. “It was going to their federation. Basically, if they took it into their pocket, we
don’t give a jack.”

“The whisteblower’s allegations raise questions about the validity of Qatar’s wining bid,”
Calvert and Newell wrote. “Hayatou and Anouma are both reported to have voted for Qatar.”

While the reporters acknowledge the allegations are unproven, they wrote: “We believe they were credible because they were made by people who held or had held official positions in FIFA.”

Hayatou also has been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 2001.

“The IOC takes all allegations of corruption very seriously and we would ask for any evidence of wrong doing to be passed to the IOC’s Ethics Commission,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press.

Details of the alleged bribes were announced in the session by Member of Parliament Damian Collins as Englishman Mike Lee was answering questions about the World Cup bidding process. Lee worked on Qatar’s bid.

Lee, who also worked on the successful bids by London for the 2012 Olympics and Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Games, said he had no knowledge about the allegations being made by The Sunday Times. The Qatar 2022 team in Doha declined to comment on the allegations.

The session also heard from David Triesman, who resigned as chairman of England’s Football Association and its 2018 bid team last May — seven months before the vote — after being secretly recorded by a tabloid newspaper making unproven claims that Spain and Russia set up a bribery scam to influence referees at the 2010 World Cup.

Triesman — a member of the House of Lords — made the allegations about Warner, Leoz, Teixeira and Makudi to the committee.

I am not a crook: CONCACAF President Jack Warner speaks in South America recently.

He claimed that Warner, a FIFA vice president and CONCACAF president from Trinidad and Tobago, asked for money — suggested to be about $4.1 million — to build an education center in Trinidad and for about $820,000 to buy Haiti’s World Cup TV rights.

“I have never asked Triesman nor any other person, Englishman or otherwise, for any money for my vote at any time,” Warner said in a statement to British TV channel Sky Sports News.

Triesman also said that Leoz, of Paraguay, asked for an honorary knighthood, while Makudi of Thailand allegedly wanted to receive money from English TV for them to broadcast a planned friendly against the country.

Triesman claimed that Teixeira, a Brazilian, asked him to “come and tell me what you have got for me.”

“These were some of the things that were put to me personally, sometimes in the presence of others, which in my view did not represent proper and ethical behavior on the part of members of the executive committee,” Triesman said.

The British government responded to the allegations by calling on FIFA to look at how the IOC adopted strict rules following the Salt Lake City bidding scandal in 1999. Ten IOC members resigned or were expelled in the affair.

“The International Olympic Committee had to face up to big challenges after the award of the Olympics to Salt Lake City and they took serious action and restored confidence in their processes,” said Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who oversees sport in Britain. “FIFA needs to do the same.”

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Zurich contributed to this story.

*Landon Donovan is set to return for the Galaxy in their 8 p.m. Saturday game against the Portland Timbers at Home Depot Center. The game is live on Fox Soccer Channel.

*Trivia question: What does Landon Donovan have in common with Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods?

*Best TV game of the weekend: Tim Howard and Everton at Old Trafford to take on Manchester United at 4:30 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

Chivas USA plays in San Jose against the Earthquakes at 1 p.m. Saturday on KFTR.

For the rest of this weekend’s lineup, click the Live Soccer TV link at top right.

A meeting of the minds: Tom Cruise and David Beckham greet each other at a recent Lakers game (AP Photo).

I’m guessing Galaxy teammates David Beckham and Landon Donovan don’t hang out much together outside the locker room.

That assumption was given further credence today when I belatedly noticed Landon Donovan has his own blog, although the understated site has not huge picture of its author

Beckham does too on his own website, which features a very large, pensive looking Becks apparently looking for his soccer ball (it’s behind you on the couch!).

But that’s where the similarity ends.

Here’s an excerpt from Beckham’s most recent post:

I’m back in LA now and we’re already a couple of matches into the new season. We won our opening match against Seattle 1-0, which was a hard-fought victory in Seattle in front of a passionate crowd who certainly know and love their football, all in all a great win.

And here’s a snippet from Donovan’s blog:

The moments that eat at you forever are the big games where you didn’t prepare properly, didn’t work hard enough, didn’t play well. For me, that happened in the 2006 World Cup. The team played poorly, I was awful and I was embarrassed by what happened. I just couldn’t get motivated to play and I had trouble figuring out why. The 2 weeks after the World Cup were incredibly difficult for me and I fell into a period of depression.

Instructive, no?

The former ‘Dear diary” style post tells you nothing about Beckham, the latter makes you want to know more about Donovan.

Hardly surprising, though.

Beckham has spent his time in LA palling around with celebs and appearing on vacuous talk shows to reinvent the English language (“we wuz”?) and talk about driving his children to school (gasp!).

Donovan apparently prefers spending evenings with books like the acclaimed “Letters to a Young Poet.”

Yeah, I’m guessing their paths don’t cross often off the field.

But guess who gets the magazine cover.

With the likes of Lionel Messi playing in the U.S., MLS was always going to take a back seat this weekend even if the season has just started (and Seattle faces Houston at 6:30 p.m. Friday on Fox Soccer channel in the first of the season’s Friday night games).

Saturday’s Galaxy-Real Salt Lake game, for instance, isn’t quite the marquee match-up envisioned even though David Beckham will actually play in Utah (gasp) for the first time in his five years in MLS.

A full list of international games on TV and on line are available by clicking to the top right.

My best bets:

*Spain-Czech Republic, 2 p.m. Friday, ESPN2
*Euro 2012 Qualifier: Wales-England, 8 a.m. Saturday, ESPN2
*Mexico-Uruguay 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Univision
*U.S.-Argentina 4 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2, Univision
*Scotland-Brazil 6 a.m. Sunday, ESPN2

*Associated Press Sports Writer Joedy McCready tells us more about the pair of German-Americans (there are three in all on the roster along with Jermaine Jones) who could their make debuts for the U.S. this weekend:

CARY, N.C. (AP) — They’re called the “Double Deutsche” of the U.S. national soccer team.

Defender Timmy Chandler and goalkeeper David Yelldell, right, are two of the Americans’ newest team members, and they have plenty in common: Both were raised in Germany as the sons of American servicemen and German mothers, and now they’re fitting in with the veteran members of the U.S. team.

“The guys are making it easy for me and the new guys to come in,” Yelldell said Thursday. “I only saw them on TV until (this week), but they’re all nice guys.”

The Americans wrapped up four days of practice in North Carolina on Thursday before their exhibition game Saturday against Argentina in New Jersey, marking the red, white and blue debut for Yelldell and Chandler.

Chandler a 20-year-old native of Frankfurt and defender for FC Nuremberg, could have played internationally for Germany but said he has always preferred to represent the U.S.

“It comes from my head and my heart,” Chandler said.

Having a pair of teammates with similar German backgrounds — Yelldell and midfielder Jermaine Jones — has made things easier for Chandler, left, because he said they can speak German and help with some unfamiliar English phrases.

Yelldell, a 29-year-old who was born in Stuttgart, Germany, took a longer path to the U.S. team.

He was on the Americans’ radar for their Olympic team in 2004, but they failed to qualify for the Athens Games. Yelldell, who played in England and moved to MSV Duisburg in Germany’s second division, was added to the U.S. team last week.

“It’s very hard to go to the (German) national team because I played second division in Germany, so when I heard about the call-up for this training camp, I was very excited and very happy to be here,” Yelldell said.

Their new teammates insisted they’ve already proven they belong with a U.S. team that will follow its game against Argentina with one three days later against Paraguay in Nashville, Tenn.

“They show that they deserve to be here,” defender Jay Demerit said, adding that coach Bob Bradley has always done a good job of bringing in new faces and trying to add to the group. “They seem to fit in really well, which I think has a lot to do with the way we all are as a group, and we welcome new players in.

“As long as they’re doing the right things, then that’s fantastic for this squad. That’s what it’s all about, and they’ve done that.”

Yelldell is an acrobatic shot-blocker who teams with 32-year-old Tim Howard and 38-year-old Marcus Hahnemann as goalkeepers on the roster.

“The first time I’m here, I just want to show what I can do and make myself better and fit in with the team,” Yelldell said. “And the rest, time will tell.”

Now it’s up to Bradley to figure out how to best use them. Bradley says Chandler has more responsibilities at his defensive position than he did with his German club.

“Timmy, physically, is a talented young player (and) we get a good sense, just having him in a camp like this, of just where he fits in,” Bradley said. “He’s starting to get more
comfortable every day. Defensively, we do things a little bit differently than Nuremberg, so there’s a little more that he has to keep track of. Just having a chance to talk to him about some of those things, it’s been good.

“David … as a goalkeeper, often times, you also need to see guys play in games,” he added. “He’s athletic, a good shot-blocker and now, we’ll look to, at some point, see where that all fits in.”

*U.S. Soccer has announced that more than 50,000 tickets have been sold for the 4 p.m. March 26 visit of Argentina to New York’s New Meadowlands (live on ESPN2 and Univision). Ticket holders can expect to see Lionel Messi, but no Carlos Tevez after the South Americans announced their roster for the game.

The U.S. roster for the match will be announced later this week.

*Chivas USA announced their local broadcast schedule today. Local broadcasts include 17 games on Prime, five on Fox Sports West and another five on local channel KDOC. With the national television broadcasts previously announced, that means only the television details surrounding the Aug. 6 game against the Revs in New England are uncertain. Christian Miles and Allen Hopkins man the booth for the second season in a row.

*Finally, do you think they are getting psyched in Seattle for Tuesday’s MLS season curtain raiser between the Sounders and the Galaxy. Oh, yeah.

Incidentally, I’ll have a run-down on every MLS team in a comprehensive preview a little later today, so check back here for more.

Updated

MLS unveiled the terms of its Direct Kick package today. A total of 221 games will be shown – that’s 61 more games than last year, an increase of 38% – for $79, the same price as last year.

There will be a free preview Saturday when there is a slate of eight games. The MLS schedule is available at top right.