Galaxy 0 AC Milan 1

AC Milan take the leak through a freakish free kick from 35 yards out when Davide Di Gennaro’s ball bounced through the Galaxy penalty area and then appeared to just brush an on-rushing Thiago Silva’s head and bounce past a stunned Donovan Rickets into the goal.

Bit of a weird one that.

I’d say the boo to cheer ratio was 60:40 when David Beckham jogged out to warm-up.

The Riot Squad have unveiled some apt signs for the occasion including “Hey Becks! Here before you, here after you, here despite you,” “23 Repent” and “Go home fraud 23″

(Updated: It’s about 13 minutes before kickoff; the signs are gone, no doubt removed by AEG. Update 2: They’re back).

It’s thankfully cooling off here in Carson, but it will still be an endurance test for the capacity crowd where full sun remains.

Galaxy XI (4-4-2): Donovan Ricketts, A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonazalez, Gregg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant, Eddie Lewis, David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Stefani Miglioranzi, Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian.

Alan Gordon, Jovan Kirovski and Chris Birchall are among the bench options.

(Updated: Boos mixed with cheers when Beckham was introduced, too).

AC Milan lineup (4-4-2): Zeljko Kalac, Massimo Oddo, Alessandro Nesta, Thiago Silva, Marek Jankulovski, Mathieu Flamini, Massimo Ambrosini, Clarence Seedorf, Davide Di Gennaro, Marco Borriello, Ronaldinho.

Filippo Inzagi is on the bench; Alessandro Nesta, new signing Oguchi Onyewu and Pato are among those missing altogether for Milan.

The game is on FSN.

That means the expensive seats at the side of the field, the grass berm as well as the standing room only tickets the club put on sale last weekend (the first time I can recall them doing that).

The club made the announcement this afternoon and also announced that the game will be televised on Fox Sports West with coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Guess the furor over David Beckham is good for ticket sales, huh?

Decided to take a break from blogging today, but was – well, perhaps inspired is not the right word – motivated to write something when I saw this headline.

Oh, brother. (Regular readers of my Tuesday column will understand the reference in the headline). This is a case of ‘if we say it enough times people will start believing it.” The word for this: propaganda.

BTW, did you see the Matt Lauer interview on “The Today Show”with Beckham this morning? My mother called to alert me it was on. Insipid.

Also:
*Several people have e-mailed to ask whether the Inter Milan practices at UCLA ahead of next week’s Chelsea game at the Rose Bowl are open to the public.

Here’s the best explanation I’ve seen in the Daily Bruin.

AP Photo

An easy win over lowly Siena today for AC Milan and David Beckham.

The Galaxy midfielder didn’t have an outstanding game, but then he didn’t have to. The star for Milan: Filippo Inzaghi, scoring his 300th career goal.

Meanwhile, the English are finally catching on to what Galaxy fans have learned over the last couple of years.

And Milan are reportedly not the only European club that wants Beckham.

So it turns out David Beckham is absolutely selfless. How touching is this? What a guy:

MILAN (AP) — David Beckham is willing to give up a “mountain of money” to stay with AC Milan, club chairman Adriano Galliani said Saturday while working to close the deal.

“All players express their affection for a club, but few have showed it in a tangible
manner by renouncing a mountain of money. Beckham is one of these,” Galliani told
Milan’s TV channel.

Galliani has said that negotiations are on track for Beckham to extend his loan from the
Los Angeles Galaxy through the end of the Serie A season.

Beckham joined Milan in January for a two-month loan that is slated to expire after Sunday’s game with Atalanta. Galliani said Friday that documents were being exchanged with the Galaxy and that the deal was near completion.

Beckham has a five-year contract with the Galaxy worth $32.5 million.

Financial terms of the proposal are unknown, but the Galaxy had asked for $10 million
from Milan for the outright purchase of the former England captain. Milan had said it
would pay no more than $3 million, since he could become available anyway after the
MLS season.

Beckham has scored two goals in 11 games for Milan and looked to be in his best
form since leaving Real Madrid two years ago.

“The resolution of his situation here will give Beckham a few advantages because he
really wants to stay here and it would give him more motivation to do well,” Milan coach
Carlo Ancelotti told the club’s Web site.

Meanwhile, Chivas USA were sinking to a 2-1 defeat to the Chicago Fire Saturday in a preseason friendly at Home Depot Center.

Sacha Kljestan got the lone Chivas USA goal, but strikes by Justin Mapp and Brian McBride gave Chicago the win. The Palos Verdes Peninsula’s John Thorrington did not suit up for the Fire.

The Chivas USA XI: Dan Kennedy (Lance Parker 46), Ante Jazic, Jim Curtin, Shavar Thomas, Carey Talley (Mariano Trujillo 53), Michael Lahoud (Justin Braun 46), Bojan Stepanovic (Jamie Franks 82), Diego Scotti, Paulo Nagamura, Sacha Kljestan, Eduardo Lillingston (Maykel Galindo 60).

Galindo’s minutes were the first of preseason for him.

Chivas USA’s preseason record falls to 4-3-1.

One last chance for the players on trial at Chivas USA to impress today against the Ventura County Fusion in Santa Clarita with roster and salary cap compliance day looming Monday. Details here.

David Beckham was a non-entity as AC Milan slumped to another defeat today. He came off with about 20 minutes left; Ronaldinho didn’t even make the bench. AC Milan also had a late equalizer disallowed for offside.

The Galaxy’s Landon Donovan was a late, ineffective sub today for Bayern Munich in their 0-0 tie with Werder Bremen.

Also in Europe, Rolling Hills Estates’ Robbie Rogers bagged a brace today as the Columbus Crew downed Everton Reserves 5-1 in Liverpool. He was actually outscored by Riverside’s Chad Marshall though who put the ball in the net three times; trouble is one of those went in his own net. Box score.

David Beckham and AC Milan play Germany’s Werder Bremen today in a UEFA Cup encounter and critics are increasingly questioning the Italian club’s policy of signing veteran players .

One of the best soccer writers in the country, Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl, observed this week that the Galaxy win more without Beckham in the side than with him and crunched the numbers to prove it:

“L.A.’s winning percentage since his arrival has been better in the 22 games Beckham has missed (.477) than in the 32 games he has played (.406).”

Read the whole thing here.

Adoring crowds greeted Beckham in a Milan store earlier in the week.

Finally, here’s Beckham on his on-going transfer saga:

“I have not heard from Galaxy, but from what has been said, I gather there could be good news.”

Glad that’s cleared up then.

Updated 6 p.m. – Becks is getting worried he won’t get his way and stay in Italy (oh dearie, dearie me):

MILAN (AP) – Just over week before his scheduled return to the Los Angeles Galaxy, David Beckham is becoming frustrated by the delay in his possible transfer to AC Milan.

Beckham’s loan to Milan from Major League Soccer is scheduled to end March 8. Milan
offered $3 million, but Los Angeles said it wanted at least $10 million.

Milan vice president Adriano Galliani responded by saying that the club was not
prepared to go any higher for the 33-year-old midfielder, who can terminate his MLS
contract in November.

“There’s a lot going on and a lot being said, and every day someone is asking me
questions about what’s happening,” Beckham said Thursday night after Milan was
eliminated from the UEFA Cup by Germany’s Werder Bremen. “It needn’t be said every
day, but so far I am trying to concentrate on the football. At the moment, we’ll have to
see what happens. At the moment it is being discussed and negotiated.”

Beckham played the full 90 minutes for Milan, which wasted a 2-0 lead. The 2-2 tie left
the teams 3-3 in aggregate, and the German club advanced because of more away
goals.

“It doesn’t change me wanting to play at this club and hopefully it doesn’t change other
people’s views of me wanting to stay at this club,” he said.

A stream of “interesting,” but ultimately ineffective crosses from David Beckham and a Clarence Seedorf goal gave AC Milan a narrow 1-0 win over Cagliari today.

Becks is still holding out hope of a transfer.

But tragic news from his other half; Posh is dehydrated from eight trips to Milan in the last month.

Can you imagine the amount of moisturizer she’s using? Will this Italian opera never end?

Meanwhile, Chivas played two scrimmages Saturday against Sweden’s Hanmmarby and UCLA, emerging undefeated. Video and details here.

The Galaxy play for a trophy tonight in Carson.

The opponent is Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings FC. Kickoff is 8 p.m. Lots of tickets available (I’m hearing rumors the Galaxy are allowing all season ticket holders in for free in a bid to boost the microscopic attendance of 5,000 or so of Wednesday – and presumably they’ll recoup cash with their gouging $15 parking fee). The game is also live on Fox Soccer Channel – and on this blog.

An unimpressive Galaxy beat a bad opponent Wednesday to reach the final, but at least they won.

Still, the game illustrated how badly the Galaxy miss playmaker Landon Donovan.

Presumably, that won’t be for long; Donovan came on at half time today for Bayern Munich, but was unable to prevent them slumping to a shock defeat at home to lowly Cologne. Donovan’s most significant contribution: clearing a ball off Bayern’s goal line.

Meanwhile, that other Galaxy player in Europe may also be returning sooner rather than later – at least until the end of the MLS season.

Updated: Galaxy officials tell me all season ticket holders are receiving tonight’s doubleheader as part of their season ticket package. It’s bonus game No. 1.