To get you in the mood for the season even more, a reminder the Galaxy will unveil their second strip at LA Live Wednesday evening. Tickets are $75. Details here.
*David Beckham’s first game since leaving the Galaxy was an eventful one this weekend.
Watch here.
*Chivas USA closed out their preseason Saturday with an emphatic win over the LA Blues. Watch here.
*Galaxy striker Jose Villarreal of Inglewood had the winner for the U.S. U-20 team over Costa Rica, scoring the lone goal of Friday’s game. Watch here.
*Did you see Lawndale’s Kei Kamara score his first EPL goal Saturday? Watch here.
*And if you missed how the Galaxy concluded their pre-season Friday in Santa Barbara, watch the highlights here.
MLS starts Saturday. I’ll have more in Tuesday’s column.
*Because of goals like that it’s unlikely we’ll see Frank Lampard in a Galaxy shirt any time soon and at least one influential English manager feels the the same way.
*The deconstruction of the U.S. loss in Honduras continues as does the discussion over the role LA Galaxy center back Omar Gonzalez played in the World Cup qualifying setback. My perspective: Gonzalez is young, he’s still a better option than the aging or inadequate options we’ve seen at the position previously. I’m not alone in that assessment.
*Staying with Wednesday’s qualifiers, check out the role former Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts played in Jamaica’s stunning result at the Azteca Stadium.
*And speaking of former Galaxy players, guess who is on his way back to MLS.
*Finally, National College Signing Day is a bigger deal for pointy-balll football than the real version, but here’s who signed where as far as the Galaxy Academy and Chivas USA Academy is concerned.
Watch the video:
Or read about what he had to say here.
Norwich City plays Fulham live at 7 a.m. Saturday on FoxSoccer2Go or delayed at 11:30 a.m. Saturday on Fox Soccer.
And Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez, who got an unexpected start, was among several American defenders guilty of ball watching or a failure to respond quickly enough to stop Honduras on the winning goal.
Read the match report here.
Here are the goals:
The Galaxy’s three picks in today’s MLS SuperDraft are Boston College forward Charlie Rugg, Michigan defender Kofi Opare (is he a potential replacement for Omar Gonzalez should the highly-rated defender get scooped up by a foreign club?) and Louisville’s Greg Cochrane.
Stand by for some comments from coach Bruce Arena.
Here’s video of Rugg in action:
Here’s video of Opare:
In a conference call with reporters at an airport while he was waiting for a flight, coach Bruce Arena talked about the draft and player acquisitions in general.
The club is still seeking to add “one or two international players,” he said after confirming earlier in the day the team had spoken to representatives of Kaka and Frank Lampard. Also, neither central defender David Junior Lopes nor goalkeeper Josh Saunders will return to the franchise, he confirmed.
On Rugg: “Charlie Rugg is a player who is a second forward or a wide midfielder. We’re going to try him out wide right.
He’s got good speed and strength to run at players.”
Arena reiterated that he will meet with Landon Donovan this weekend ahead of the opening of camp Monday to determine his intentions: “I’m going to talk to him and see how he’s feeling physically, mentally and discuss how we are going to move forward.”
Beat writer Phil Collin had more in Friday’s newspaper.
There wasn’t much suspense to Chivas USA’s 2013 MLS SuperDraft.
The club professed a desire to draft Mexican-Americans with its only draft pick.
Two prospects duly issued come and get me pleas.
And Chivas USA picked one of them.
Here he is in action at the recent MLS Combine.
It’s a trailer for an unfinished documentary on Sigi Schmid’s current club, the Seattle Sounders, called “American Football” that provides a, shall we say, unvarnished profile of the long-time Torrance resident who still owns a place in Manhattan Beach.
Now Schmid is one of the class acts of MLS, but I wouldn’t like to be in his locker room when things aren’t going right. This guy kicks verbal butt.
Check out the clip here for what looks like an honest look at the behind the scenes atmosphere of an MLS club. And I can’t wait for this movie.
AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar has more:
GENEVA (AP) — Lionel Messi can break another soccer record on Monday by being selected the world’s best player for an unprecedented fourth time.
The Barcelona and Argentina forward, who scored 91 goals in 2012, is the favorite to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or prize ahead of club teammate Andres Iniesta and rival Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid.
A fourth straight title would lift Messi above FIFA World Player of the Year three-time winners Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo of Brazil.
Since the original Ballon d’Or was launched in 1956 as a European award, Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten also earned a hat trick of titles.
The U.S. gold medal-winning team at the London Olympics could dominate the women’s awards at FIFA’s annual gala ceremony.
Forwards Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan are competing with five-time winner Marta of Brazil for best player, and former coach Pia Sundhage is favored to be selected best coach of a women’s team ahead of two male rivals: Norio Sasaki of silver-medalist Japan and Bruno Bini of France.
Wambach, who finished third in the FIFA voting last year, and Morgan seek to become the first American winner since Mia Hamm got the 2002 award. Wambach scored five goals at the Olympics and Morgan got three as the U.S. took its third straight gold medal. Marta’s Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Japan.
Sundhage, who has since returned home to coach Sweden’s women’s national team, is favored after losing out on the award last year to Sasaki after Japan won the World Cup.
Victory for Messi would fuel renewed debate over how his talent compares with Pele and Diego Maradona, whose careers were over or peaked before FIFA started its award in 1991. The South American greats were never eligible for the old Ballon d’Or run by France Football magazine. The awards merged in 2010.
“(Michael) Jordan dominated his sport and Messi dominates this one,” former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said last year, in comparing his protege to the basketball icon.
Iniesta starred at the European Championship last summer as Spain’s relentless passing game won a third straight major tournament title.
Ronaldo, the 2008 FIFA award winner and twice runner-up to Messi, impressed with prolific scoring to help Madrid take away Barcelona’s Spanish league title, then carried Portugal to the Euro 2012 semifinals.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is a candidate for the men’s coaching award, along with the Madrid-Barcelona duo of Jose Mourinho and Guardiola, who left the Catalan club in May.
The four main awards were voted on by coaches and captains of national teams worldwide, plus invited journalists. The votes were filed in November before Messi gained yet more praise in his successful pursuit of Gerd Mueller’s milestone of 85 goals in a calendar year.
Messi’s total included 79 for Barcelona and 12 for Argentina, to overtake Mueller’s tally for Bayern Munich and West Germany in 1972.
“I’m delighted for him,” Mueller said. “He is an incredible player, gigantic. He’s such a nice and modest professional.”
Messi also answered criticism that he underachieves for Argentina with five goals in five World Cup qualifiers and impressive hat-tricks in exhibitions against Brazil and Switzerland.
Ronaldo scored 46 goals in Madrid’s title march and would have boosted his Ballon d’Or claim by leading Portugal to win Euro 2012, where opposing fans often taunted him by chanting Messi’s name.
Iniesta excelled in the final as Spain silenced critics of its possession play to beat Italy 4-0 in the most lop-sided result of any World Cup or European Championship final.
All three Ballon d’Or nominees will likely be named in a World XI lineup chosen by the FIFPro group of players’ unions comprising around 50,000 members worldwide.
Brazil star Neymar seeks a repeat victory in the Puskas Award given to the best goal of the year, offering consolation for again missing out on the Ballon d’Or shortlist. FIFA President Sepp Blatter acknowledged that it is difficult for players based outside Europe to attract voters’ attention.
Neymar is nominated on a three-goal shortlist for a spectacular solo effort for Santos, dribbling past several Internacional opponents in March.
Radamel Falcao scored an acrobatic volley for Atletico Madrid against America de Cali in an exhibition in May, and Miroslav Stoch of Fenerbahce struck with a volley in a Turkish league game against Genclerbirligi in March. Fans voted online from 10 candidates proposed by FIFA.
It’s worth a look (and you knew Bryant is a big soccer fan, right?):