Result: Chelsea 1 Galaxy 0

Chelsea scored the lone goal of the game three minutes into the second half from a corner kick. John Terry scored with a left-footed shot from 18 yards, the ball pinging off the right post before entering the net.

The Galaxy’s best chance came in the 70th minute when substitute Quavas Kirk sent a pin-point cross to an unmarked Landon Donovan who headed over the bar from just five yards.

The night’s biggest cheer so far also came in the 70th minute when David Beckham began warming up. He disappeared down the tunnel, presumably for a pain-killing injection in his left ankle. (Beckham said after the game he needed a bathroom break and his foot strapped).

Alan Gordon became the answer to a trivia question in the 78th minute when Beckham replaced him to massive applause, including a clapping Posh Spice up in a luxury suite.

Becks played a total of 16 minutes (and 19 seconds) including stoppage time, according to one press box count, touching the ball 12 times and creating a buzz in the stadium every time he did.

“It was embarrassing at times,” he said.

Becks didn’t do much, but then he didn’t have to.

“The objective was for him to get on the pitch and give people the dessert they were waiting for,” Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho said in the post-game press conference.

Still, one crunching tackle from former Reading player Steve Sidwell left him clutching his ankle and undoubtedly sent the pulses of Galaxy officials racing before he quickly jumped to his feet.

“I saw him coming and I jumped just in time, so my foot wasn’t planted when he hit me,” Beckham said.

Beckham also took one corner and sent one long ball to Quavas Kirk, providing a small reminder of his vision and accuracy and prompting Mourinho to note that “his right foot has eyes.”

Oh, and Tigres won the World Series of Football on goal difference.

“It was nice to get out there and kick a soccer ball again,” Beckham said. “I haven’t trained all week, I haven’t kicked a ball all week.”

His ankle was “swollen slightly” and it’s unclear if he will play Tuesday against Pachuca in the SuperLiga (although that didn’t stop the Galaxy from promoting that he will play in that game on the illuminated advertising sign around one half of the field).

Still, Beckham said his foot wasn’t as swollen as it was two or three days ago and his goal is to be fully fit for the Galaxy game against Chivas next Saturday at the Coliseum.

“He might not play in the next two games, we don’t know,” said Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop.

He called the game a “building block” and was visibly relieved to get Beckham’s debut out of the way.

Mind you, so was Becks.

“This last week has been one of the most incredible of my life attention-wise,” he said.

Among the celebrities paying attention and in attendance tonight: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, basketball player Kevin Garnett, Mary-Kate Olsen, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Katie Holmes.

Updated: Galaxy beat writer Billy Witz has more details.

Here’s columnist Paul Oberjuerge’s view.

Columnist Steve Dilbeck chimes in.

And it sounds like sports media columnist Tom Hoffarth really enjoyed tuning in.

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Chelsea 0 Galaxy 0 (Half Time)

Chelsea overwhelmingly had the better of the possession in the first 45 minutes, but didn’t have their shooting boots on in only their third game of the preseason.

Young Galaxy defenders Ty Harden and Troy Roberts looked out of their depth at times, but Chelsea were unable to capitalize despite some shaky defending from the two in what is undoubtedly the biggest game of their respective careers.

Although there was a marked lack of midfield creativity from the Galaxy, which found it difficult to maintain possession, they weren’t without scoring chances.

A Cobi Jones cross skidded off Kyle Martino’s head in the 19th minute that just flashed wide.

And Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Czech had to stretch to foil an Abel Xavier header from a Landon Donovan free kick in the 39th minute.

But Chelsea are clearly not firing on all cylinders yet.

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Chelsea at the Galaxy

Tigres disposed of the Suwon Bluewings on the strength of three first half goals, two from Jose Fonseca and one from Walter Gaitan in the opening game.

Now it’s on to the main event.

There are two changes to the Galaxy’s starting line-up from the Tigres game earlier in the week: Peter Vagenas is on the bench, while Chris Klein isn’t on the roster at all. In come Cobi Jones and striker Alan Gordon.

And yes, David Beckham is on the bench, but he did not participate in the pre-match warm-up.

Chelsea starts John Terry, Tal Ben Haim, Richard Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira in defense.

New signing Florent Malouda as well as Frank Lampard and Michael Essien comprise the midfield.

Up top: Shaun Wright-Phillips, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba.

Kick off is at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

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Result: Chelsea 1 Suwon Bluewings 0

An unmarked Didier Drogba scored in the 80th minute to break the scoreless deadlock in the nightcap, knocking in a ball at the far post Shawn Wright-Phillips had intelligently scooped over the Bluewings defense.

The game, which started at a fairly pedestrian clip, livened up as it wore on.

Chelsea never looked particularly challenged and moved to 2-0 on its preseason tour of the U.S., after beating Mexico’s Club America in the Bay Area over the weekend.

Based on tonight’s Chelsea performance, Yallop has every right to be worried – and not just about his job.

Updated 11:59 p.m.

Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho said after the game that after seeing his squad in 10 training sessions and two 45-minute games (he played virtually a separate line-up in each half of each game) he will for the first time this season against the Galaxy Saturday play the same 11 for an hour in a 4-4-2 formation.

Thankfully he only caught 10 minutes of the Galaxy game.

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Result: Tigres UANL 3 Galaxy 0

The Galaxy did come out in their alternate galactic blue for the second half, but the switch didn’t help; they let in two more goals and were pretty comprehensively beaten by the Mexican team.

The Galaxy actually had more threatening attacks than they did in the first half.

Most notably, newly-acquired midfielder Kelly Gray made a surging run from within his own half in the 56th minute that ended with Landon Donovan shooting wide.

Fonseca scored a second in the 72nd minute after Tigres had easily split the Galaxy defense.

Substitute Alejandro Vilalobos notched the third, again after the Galaxy failed to close down the Tigres attackers, allowing them far too much space.

We’ll see what Coach Frank Yallop has to say in the post match press conference.

Updated 9 p.m.

It took a grim Yallop 40 minutes to emerge from the locker room where their Galaxy had the second team meeting in four games.

It’s probably a stretch to describe what took place as a team meeting; midfielder Kyle Martino observed Yallop did most of the talking and used lots of “verbs and adjectives” in his 15 minute address.

“We’re playing with a lack of respect for him and the organization,” Martino said.

When Yallop finally arrived he didn’t mince words, declaring the first half one of the worst he has seen from a team he has been a part of including the almost 20 years he spent as a player.

“They almost played like they didn’t want to make a mistake – scared – like they didn’t want to make a commitment,” he said. “The big stage is getting to us a bit. … Some of them hid and some of them didn’t want to play.”

Striker Alan Gordon, who narrowly missed one of the Galaxy’s best chances of the second half, described the game as the “last straw” for Yallop.

“It’s hurting him watching us play like this,” said Gordon, who was seeing his first action of the season. “He told us we’re letting him down.”

Gordon said the players are conscious that Yallop’s job may be in jeopardy.

“I like him as a coach, as a person,” Gordon said. “When I go out there I’m fighting for him, I’m fighting for me and I’m fighting to keep him here.”

This sums it : up

Updated: Galaxy beat writer Billy Witz has all the gory details here.

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Tigres UANL 1 Galaxy 0 (Half Time)

The game is live on Telefutura.

Eleven minutes in and Argentine Walter Gaitan slips the ball to Jose Fonseca for the opening goal, shredding the Galaxy defense in the process.

It could be a long night for the Galaxy, sporting a back four of Troy Roberts (making his first start of the season), rookie Ty Harden, relative newcomer Abel Xavier and Ante Jazic against two classy, experienced strikers.

Fonseca almost claimed a second in the 25th minute from a free kick, out-jumping Xavier at the far post.

The Galaxy are playing at a desultory clip, but it suits Tigres with the Mexican season not resuming until next month.

The Galaxy placed their white shirts in the center circle at the end of the half.

Hopefully, they will come out in blue for the second 45 minutes. Either that or they are surrendering.

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Gameday Tuesday

A David Beckham-less Galaxy plays Tigres at 5:30 p.m. in the World Series of Football opener at the HDC; in the night’s second game, England’s Chelsea plays Korea’s Samsung at 8:30 p.m. live on Fox Soccer Channel.

Dumb name for a pre-season tournament? I thought so as well. Here’s my regular weekly column.

Meanwhile, here’s more from Galaxy beat writer Billy Witz on Beckham’s inaugural practice Monday.

Here’s a little background on Tigres from Wikipedia.

And here’s some info from the same source on Samsung.

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World Series of Football Rosters and Training Schedules

For fans who can get time off in the middle of the week to check out the training sessions for the four teams involved, here’s who you can see and when you can see them in addition to today:

Galaxy
# Player
5 Chris Albright
23 David Beckham
14 Edson Buddle
1 Joe Cannon
0 Steve Cronin
10 Landon Donovan
35 Lance Friesz
9 Gavin Glinton
21 Alan Gordon
22 Kelly Gray
3 Ty Harden
6 Kevin Harmse
4 Ante Jazic
13 Cobi Jones
15 Quavas Kirk
7 Chris Klein
18 Kyle Martino
20 Carlos Pavon
2 Mike Randolph
12 Troy Roberts
19 Josh Tudela
8 Peter Vagenas
16 Kyle Veris
17 Abel Xavier
Head Coach: Frank Yallop
Training open to the public: 10:30 a.m. Friday on university field #1).

Tigres
— Sebastian Abreu
18 Lucas Ayala
2 Julio Caceres
3 Jesus Chavez
5 Fabin Cubero
22 Enrique Escudero
26 Jose Fonseca
10 Walter Gaitn
28 Edgar Garcia
20 Juan Pablo Garcia
19 Jonatan Horacio
21 Jaime Lozano
11 Guillermo Marino
34 Oscar Martinez
30 Jesus Molina
17 Jesus Palacios
35 Joel Perez
4 Flavio Rogerio
15 Mario Ruiz
14 Nicols Ruvalcaba
23 Javier Saavedra
1 Cirilo Saucedo
25 Jesus Urbina
8 Alejandro Vilalobos
16 Mauel Viniegra
Head Coach: Americo Gallego
Training open to the public: 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on university field #2.

Chelsea FC
18 Wayne Bridge
6 Ricardo Carvalho
1 Petr Cech
3 Ashley Cole
1 Joe Cole
37 Jack Cork
23 Carlo Cudciini
19 Lassana Diarra
11 Didier Drogba
5 Michael Essien
40 Hilario
21 Salomon Kalou
8 Frank Lampard
4 Claude Makelele
15 Florent Malouda
12 John Mikel Obi
16 Arjen Robben
7 Andriy Shevchenko
9 Steve Sidwell
26 John Terry
24 Shaun Wright-Phillips
Head Coach: Jose Mourinho
No training open to the public after Monday’s practice.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings
5 Jung Hwan Ahn
10 Ki Jong Bae
14 Ji Hoon Baek
17 Won Hee Cho
18 Sung Hwan Choi
— Kwan Gibo
4 Eduardo Goncalves de Oliveira
20 Tae Goon Ha
2 Soon Hak Hong
25 Yoon Sung Jung
6 Dae Eui Kim
15 Dae Hwan Kim
23 Hyun Joon Kim
3 Jin Woo Kim
21 Hee Ju Kwak
24 Gibo Kwon
16 Hyun Jun Lee
7 Kwan Woo Lee
8 Min Gui Moon
13 Kung Woong Nam
1 Mato Neretljak
11 Seong Bae Park
9 Jasenko Sabitovic
19 Dong Hyeon Seo
12 Young Rok Shin
22 Sang Min Yang
Head Coach: Bum Kun Cha
Training open to the public: 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday all at university field #2.

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