EPL: February 2012 Archives

I'm under a directive to burn some vacation hours so will take an extended break through next Tuesday.

That means no column next week, but one of this country's best soccer writers has stepped in with an apt Galaxy-centric column that breaks down the past and, hopefully, future sucess of the club.

In other local soccer news:

*No fewer than seven - yup, seven - MLS teams including the Portland Timbers, Houston Dynamo, Montreal Impact, Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire (I'll let you guess the other two) are training at Home Depot Center this week.

Want to see some upcoming scrimmages?

Here's a (partial) schedule:

*10:30 a.m. Friday HDC Portland-Montreal
*Noon Saturday Oxnard College Chivas USA-Chicago Fire.
*10:30 a.m. Sunday HDC Portland-Houston
*11 a.m. Wednesday HDC Portland-Chicago.

Games involving the Galaxy are open to the media, but remain closed to the general public, BTW (the Galaxy and Dynamo meet at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the HDC).

*Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers reflects on signing for Leeds - and then seeing the coach that signed him promptly getting fired.

*No, Aston Villa you don't get to keep the Galaxy's Robbie Keane until a couple of days before the March 7 CONCACAF CL quarterfinal season opener (which isn't mentioned in this story). Villains, indeed.

*Guess which Galaxy player just got picked for their national team?

*If you only watch one game this weekend...make it Manchester United-Liverpool (4:30 a.m. Saturday ESPN2).

Also of note:

Landon Donovan and Everton against Chelsea (6:30 a.m. Saturday Fox Soccer)
Robbie Keane and Aston Villa against Manchester City ( 8 a.m. Sunday Fox Soccer)

*Finally, The U.S. exhibition game against Brazil will be played May 30 at Landover, Md., U.S. Soccer announced today.

Robbie Keane scores against Newcastle United Sunday, but couldn't prevent the Birmingham club losing 2-1 on Tyneside (AP Photo).

*An uninvolving Super Bowl Sunday on this side of the Atlantic Ocean (even the commericials were pretty dull, I thought) was saved by a gripping game on the other side of the pond, as Manchester United fought back from 3-0 down to tie Chelsea in a game (among the best we've seen in the EPL this season) seen live nationwide on Fox.

*The Galaxy's Robbie Keane had got things rolling earlier Sunday with his third goal in four games since joining Aston Villa on loan in a 2-1 loss to Newcastle United. Incidentally, the latest unsubstantiated tabloid rumor has Villa's Stephen Ireland allegedly joining LA on loan.

Similarly, Landon Donovan was unable to prevent Everton gaining only a 1-1 draw with lowly Wigan Athletic this past weekend.

*Former Galaxy and Chivas USA midfielder Marcelo Saragosa has joined D.C. United, his fourth MLS, the club announced today, after spending two seasons in the Azerbaijan first division.

*Looking ahead this week, several MLS teams are heading to Ventura County to train where they will be hosted by the PDL Fusion.

*Inglewood's Jose Villarreal, who signed for the Galaxy just days ago, has surgery today for what appears to be a long-standing medical issue, while the process of winnowing draft picks has begun at the club.

*I'll have more in Tuesday's column about Edson Buddle rejoining the Galaxy; I'm off this morning to his first training session/press conference with the club in a year.

Chelsea-Manchester United is live on Fox at 7:30 a.m.

A preview is here.

The "game before the game" marks the second live Barclays Premier League game in two weeks on Fox. On Jan. 22, Fox drew 1.3 million viewers nationwide for Arsenal's 1-2 loss to Manchester United, making it the most watched live EPL match ever on U.S. television.

Rob Stone, Eric Wynalda and the insufferable Piers Morgan host.

Also:
Arsenal-Blackburn Rovers is at 4:55 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2
Norwich City-Bolton Wanderers is at 11 a.m. Saturday (delayed) on Fox Soccer Plus.