Galaxy: May 2008 Archives

No Becks. No Donovan. No win for the Galaxy. Again.

"We gave the journalists ammunition to say we can't play without these two," Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit said.

Wait a minute. That's what he said after the Rapids U.S. Open Cup game.

You get the idea.

And there was no imagination in midfield, bite in defense or (much) Alan Gordon, um, fire power up front either.

Updated.

The Galaxy plays Toronto at 12:30 p.m. on FSN without possible England captain David Beckham and Field Turf shy Abel Xavier, but apparently motivated by AEG head honcho Tim Leiweke who told the team to get their butts in gear - or else.

And, as usual, Beckhamania has ensued in Trinidad & Tobago.

Closer to home, Chivas USA plays the Columbus Crew at 7:30 p.m. at Home Depot Center with a touchy Brad Guzan.

I'll be back later from the HDC updating the game as usual.

Today's swag: a free ChivaGirls poster. Oh, and midfielder Jesse Marsch will hang out from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Hawthorne Best Buy, 5000 W. 147th St.

In the PDL, the Ventura County Fusion won its first game of the season Friday, while the San Francisco Seals beat Orange County Blue Star 3-2.

First off, U.S. Coach Bob Bradley today named a 24-player roster for next week's game against Spain that's pretty much the same as the squad for the England game with the addition of recalled Colorado Rapids midfielder Pablo Mastroeni.

The Galaxy jetted off to Toronto today for Saturday's game in Canada (12:30 p.m. Direct Kick).

Chivas USA plays at Home Depot Center Saturday against Rolling Hills' Estates' Robbie Rogers and the Columbus Crew.

More on both games Saturday.

In PDL games locally tonight it's:
San Francisco Seals at Orange County Blue Star 5 p.m. Concordia University.
Fresno Fuego at Ventura County Fusion 7:30 p.m. Buena High.

Saturday:
Los Angeles Legends at Southern California Seahorses 7:30 p.m. La Mirada High.

W-League Saturday
Ventura County Fusion at Pali Blues 7 p.m. Palisades High.

Women's Premier Soccer League Friday
Los Angeles Rampage v Claremont Stars 8 p.m. Granada Hills.
West Coast FC v Ajax America Women 8 p.m. JSerra Catholic High School.

It looks like the U.S. misses Landon Donovan as much as the Galaxy.

Without Donovan (tight groin) the U.S. fell 2-0 to England today in London. Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan made a second half appearance for the U.S. to earn his sixth cap, but a disappointing U.S. team failed to show much. David Beckham had an influential 45 minutes, however, creating England's first goal from a free kick, naturally.

"First, I would give credit to England," said U.S. head coach Bob Bradley. "Overall, I thought that the first 30 minutes we dealt pretty well with the speed of the game. As we moved on in the half, certainly we hurt ourselves with giving away some fouls around the box to a dangerous team on set pieces, and they took advantage of that. In the second half there was an attempt to push a level up on our end, but we couldn't sustain enough pressure, and in that regard England on the night was quite good. The second goal for them was excellent passing movement and I give them credit."

The lineups:
USA: 1-Tim Howard (18-Brad Guzan, 46); 6-Steve Cherundolo (27-Frankie Hejduk, 46), 22-Oguchi Onyewu, 3-Carlos Bocanegra (Capt.), 12-Heath Pearce; 8-Clint Dempsey, 13-Ricardo Clark (26-Maurice Edu, 78), 4-Michael Bradley, 7-DaMarcus Beasley (11-Eddie Lewis, 68); 9-Eddie Johnson (14-Nate Jaqua, 89), 16-Josh Wolff (19-Freddy Adu, 68).

ENG: 1-David James; 2-Wes Brown (13-Glen Johnson, 58), 6-John Terry (capt.), 3-Ashley Cole (14-Wayne Bridge, 83), 5-Rio Ferdinand; 7-David Beckham (17-David Bentley, 46), 4-Owen Hargreaves, 8-Frank Lampard (21-Gareth Barry, 57), 10-Steven Gerrard; 9-Jermain Defoe (25-Peter Crouch, 68), 11-Wayne Rooney (22-Joe Cole, 79).

Game story here.

Closer to home, U.S. soccer announced today the first round pairings in the U.S. Open Cup.

With the Galaxy out after last night's loss to the Colorado Rapids, the local representatives are PDL team the Los Angeles Legends.

The Legends host Crystal Palace Baltimore at 7:30 p.m. June 10.

It's a two for one post tonight since I just returned from the Galaxy-Colorado Rapids U.S. Open Cup qualifier at the HDC and don't intend to rise early in the morning to blog.

The Galaxy squandered a flurry of first half chances and then fell to the Rapids on an 82nd minute Conor Casey goal.

And, yes, we've heard that before.

Limited blogging tonight since I wrote a (Rapids-centric) game story for the Denver-based Rocky Mountain News and was otherwise engaged. Read it here.

The Daily News version is here.

Video highlights here.

Meanwhile, Landon Donovan and David Beckham the U.S. and England face off in London Wednesday (that's today for most of you reading this).

A (brief) sampling of stories includes:
*Bob Bradley on Beckham and a head to head comparison of England and the U.S.

Oh yeah, and England is fretting about a possible U.S. bid for the 2018 World Cup.

Finally, as a green card-carrying, English-born, U.S. college-educated resident married to a (naturalized) American citizen I feel this man's pain.

Me? I'm wussing out and hoping for a tie.

'Night All.

It was largely one-way offensive traffic in the first half of this U.S. Open Cup qualifier, with the Galaxy dominating, yet spurning, most of the opportunities that came their way.

Carlos Ruiz, taking a page from the David Beckham playbook, had the most exciting chance, spotting goalkeeper Preston Burpo out of position and sending a hard shot clunking off the post from just a yard inside the Rapids' half. He also saw another vicious 23-yard shot parried onto the post by Burpo in the 36th minute.

Colorado actually had more shots on target (2) than the Galaxy (1), but the Galaxy looked the most dangerous team especially in the opening half hour.

Stephen Keel was forced to clear a shot off the goal line and almost scored an own goal that required a Burpo save inside the opening 10 minutes alone.

Good evening from sparsely populated Home Depot Center, where the power of the U.S. Open Cup apparently fails to match the draw of the Lakers (surprise, surprise).

As usual for the U.S. Open Cup, both teams are exploring their respective depth charts.

The Galaxy, missing both Landon Donovan and David Beckham for the first time this season, makes five changes to their starting 11.

Long-term injury victims Ante Jazic and Carlos Ruiz are back in defense and attack respectively, while veteran Pete Vagenas also returns.

Coach Ruud Gullit opts for a three-man attack, with Edson Buddle and Alan Gordon alongside Ruiz.

Rookie Ely Allen is in midfield.

The Rapids have just three holdovers from their weekend game: Kosuke Kimura, Colin Clark and Nick LaBrocca.

Conor Casey makes his first start of the season in attack, while former Chivas USA goalkeeper Preston Burpo makes a start. Rafael Gomes also makes his first start of the season in defense.

The Rapids left six starters at home including Pablo Mastroeni and Ugo Ihemelu.

Herculez Gomez is on the bench.

No column today after the long weekend, but the Galaxy are back in action tonight in Carson against the Colorado Rapids in a U.S. Open Cup qualifier at Home Depot Center.

Valentin played in and started two of the three U.S. matches in France, by the way, while Gavin and Jordan each started one. The U.S. lost all three games at the tournament. Long-term injury victim Pete Vagenas could also play tonight.

The Galaxy lost 4-0 to the Rapids in the season-opener and the two teams last met in the U.S. Open Cup two years ago with the Galaxy winning 3-1 to clinch a semifinal spot.

The Rapids took an early lead through Clint Mathis before Quavas Kirk equalized just before half time. Landon Donovan scored twice in extra time to give the Galaxy the victory.

There's no TV, but I'll blog from the game as usual.

Meanwhile, the hype is building for the U.S.-England game Wednesday with Fabio Capello naming Chelsea's John Terry captain in a bid to cheer him up after his penalty kick miss in last week's Champions League final.

David Beckham apparently has a good chance of playing, while Columbus Crew midfielder Frankie Hejduk has been called into the U.S. squad.

In other national team news, U.S. Women's midfielder Leslie Osborne tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during training at Home Depot Center last week and is out of the Olympics.

Osborne, 25, has played 60 times for the U.S., but faces up to 10 months out with the injury.

In local games this past weekend, David Estrada scored three times and Camillo Rojas added a goal and an assist as the Galaxy Rios U-20s defeated the Poway Vaqueros 6-0 at Home Depot Center Saturday. Palos Verdes Estates' Kyle Nakazawa (UCLA) also scored as the Rios improved to 2-0-0 on the season and are alone in first place in the USL Super-20 League Pacific Southern California League.

In PDL action it was:
Bakersfield Brigade 1 Southern California Seahorses 0
Ventura County Fusion 0 San Francisco Seals 1
San Fernando Valley Quakes 0 Los Angeles Legends 5
Orange County Blue Star 3 Fresno Fuego 4

In the W-League:
Los Angeles Legends 1 Vancouver Whitecaps 2
Los Angeles Legends 0 Seattle Sounders 0

Finally, those psyching themselves up for Euro 2008 can relive the last nine finals in a condensed one-hour version of each game showing on ESPN Classic at 4 p.m. through June 5.

Tonight it's the 1976 final between two nations that don't exist anymore: West Germany and the Crech Republic.

A curious game against the Wizards with curious goals naturally led to a curious outcome: the Galaxy have a winning record for the first time since October 2005, according to MLSNet reporter Greg Dario.

Trivia time: Who was the Galaxy coach then? (Answer at end of post).

The Galaxy scored three unanswered goals to snatch their first come from behind victory of the year.

No wonder Ruud Gullit was about as happy as I've ever seen him, cracking jokes and then laughing heartily at them.

Best line was on Beckham's garbage time, yet slightly wondrous goal from fully 70 yards:

"If he was to miss that, his reputation would be gone."

Landon Donovan had a pretty good line, too:

"Maybe goalies will think twice about coming out of their goals at the end of games like that. It doesn't help their stats."

Gullit was effusive in praise of Donovan (calling him the key factor of the game) and unflinching in his reasoning for sitting an out of form Abel Xavier at the start of the season:

"I put Xavier on the bench to stimulate him. He was not happy about it."

But, he acknowledged Xavier had "responded well" in his second consecutive start.

Gullit said he took Franchino out early because he was having a "difficult time," BTW.

Aside from Beckham's goal the two main talking points was Landon Donovan's suspect-looking penalty kick award and Buddle's apparently offside goal.

Wizards Coach Curt Onalfo declined comment on the quality of the referee's decision; midfielder Sasha Victorine jumped right in:

"I don't think it's a penalty kick to be honest."

Donovan disagreed, naturally, saying Tyson Wahl tripped him and observing that the Wizards defender didn't exactly argue with the decision.

HD telecast commentator Marcelo Balboa said replays clearly showed Donovan was tripped.

However, Balboa also said replays showed that Edson Buddle was a half-yard offside on his goal, something even Buddle didn't know about.

The Galaxy began the game in "ridiculous" fashion, Gullit said, giving the ball away too easily and looking nervous, should have "buried" the game early, but eventually won a "great victory."

Hmmmm.

Here's Chris Klein on why the Galaxy have played much better in the second half of games most of the time:

"It's a very good question. The bigger question is why we haven't played so well in the first. We've got to start putting 90 minutes together."

Here's Donovan on the Galaxy's outlook this season given the parity/unpredictability of MLS:

"If we focus we can be very good, but if not we'll be back with the pack."

By the way. I'll have more later on this week on Donovan about collecting his 100th cap against England Wednesday as well as comments from Canadian Ante Jazic about playing Brazil in Seattle later in the week.

Game story is here.

The LA Times ripped into the officiating in this one.

Finally, don't look now, but injury-ridden Chivas USA is riding a two-game winning streak.

Chivas USA was missing eight senior players through injury.

Anaheim's Jorge Flores had a good night: It was the second goal of the 2007 Sueño MLS winner's career in as many games, in just his third ever match and first game as a starter.

Trivia Question answer: Steve Sampson.

It was neither pretty nor convincing, but the Galaxy (4-3-2) secured a 3-1 win against the Wizards (3-3-2) Saturday to go top of the Western Conference against a team that ceded more territory than the French in the Ardennes Forest in WW II.

A soft penalty won by a diving Landon Donovan (worth about an 8.5 at least) in the 54th minute and a winner by Edson Buddle that had a whiff of offside about it 20 minutes later gave the Galaxy the three points.

David Beckham added the third seconds before the end, when Kevin Hartman left his goal to come up for a last-ditch Wizards corner kick. Becks collected the clearance on the outside of his own box, dribbled up the wing, heard the crowd yelling that Hartman was well out of position, looked up and sent a long shot from about 70 yards into the empty net.

The Wizards also had a shot cleared off the line, while Buddle hit the crossbar five minutes from time.

Carlos Ruiz came on in the 86th minute and with his first touch tried to win a free kick - or penalty - in or near the Wizards box. He didn't get the call.

Incidentally, Joe Franchino was pulled just before half time in favor of Ely Allen in what was a tactical move.

Allen was guilty of a horrendous miss on the hour mark, when Beckham squared the ball to him perfectly only to see it completely mishit just outside the box.

Back with more from the locker rooms later.

A lone piece of class from the Wizards' Argentine forward Claudio Lopez was enough to separate the teams going in at the half.

Lopez, a veteran of the likes of Spain's Valencia and Italy's Lazio, made Brandon McDonald look hapless before slamming home his third goal of the season five minutes before half time in a move that came out of nowhere.

The Galaxy almost responded immediately, David Beckham nodding the ball past an apparently awed Michael Harrington, but not Kevin Hartman who saved from an acute angle two minutes later.

In truth that was about it for excitement.

The Galaxy didn't look particularly sharp and as usual the Wizards were content to bunker in and look for the counter attack.

Guess that worked.

Chivas USA beat the Rapids 2-1 in Colorado tonight, with Jesse Marsch and Jorge Flores scoring.

The result means the Galaxy can top the West if they can come back to win since they will leapfrog the Rapids.

Not surprisingly, Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit keeps faith with the same starting 11 that shelled Dallas 5-1 last Sunday.

Steve Cronin is in goal; Chris Klein gets his MLS-record 94th consecutive start (beating Kevin Hartman's record), along with Sean Franklin, Abel Xavier and Greg Vanney in the back. In midfield, it's David Beckham, who jets off to England right after the game, Alvaro Pires, Brandon McDonald and Joe Franchino. Up front: hat trick hero Edson Buddle and MLS goalscoring leader Landon Donovan, who also climbs on a red-eye to England tonight for the game against the U.S..

South Bay product Kevin Hartman is in goal for the 3-3-2 Wizards, behind the same back four that drew against New York: Chance Myers, Jimmy Conrad, Tyson Wahl and Michael Harrington.

Carlos Ruiz is on the bench and available for the first time since the season opener.

In midfield, Davy Arnoud replaces Ryan Pore, alongside Jack Jewsbury, Carlos Marinelli and Sasha Victorine.

In attack are Claudio Lopez and Scott Sealey.

Chivas USA and the Colorado Rapids are without a goal in their game, incidentally, which is about 30 minutes in.

Galaxy Preview

Late with today's post and in part you can blame this excellent restaurant (it's essentially a Japanese pub/barbecue place) that is a convenient dining option (and one of the few) near Home Depot Center either before or after (it stays open late) tonight's Galaxy game.

Especially recommended: the melt in your mouth chicken livers and the crunchy fried cartlidge (no, really).

And brace yourself if you go: We call it the "yelly restaurant."

Kampai!

Looks to be another chilly and possibly wet evening in Carson for the Galaxy-Wizards game (no local TV for this one).

Need motivation to go to the game? Tickets are up to 50 percent off through a Ticketmaster special offer. The code to know: FANATIC.

Former Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman (UCLA, CSUDH), who grew up in the South Bay, is looking forward to the game, although not necessarily because he gets to face David Beckham for the first time:

"To be honest, I'm just looking forward to getting back to playing in front of friends and family."

Read the whole story here.

I'll bundle up and blog from the game.

Chivas USA Preview

Meanwhile, Chivas USA (2-4-2, 8 pts) are on the road in Colorado hoping they have enough healthy bodies to put on the field against the Western Conference-leading (4-4-0, 12 pts) Rapids (kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. on Prime).

Loyola Marymount product Bobby Burling is likely to play on his return home, though.

Chivas USA need to make a little bit of history for the second consecutive game to get a victory: the team has never won in Colorado, although the record stands at one loss and four ties.

ETC.

*The U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team dropped its second game of the Toulon International Tournament to Ivory Coast, 1-0, Friday. UCLA product conceded the penalty kick that led to the goal; Galaxy players Bryan Jordan and Michael Gavin saw action in the game, while Julian Valentin did not.

*Mexican National Team Coach Jesús Rámirez announced the roster Friday for the upcoming internationals against Argentina June 4 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and Peru four days later in Chicago:

goalkeepers Guillermo Ochoa (Club América), Oswaldo Sánchez (Santos), José de Jesús Corona (Tecos); defenders Carlos Salcido (PSV Eindhoven / HOL), Johnny Magallón (CD Guadalajara), Oscar Rojas (América), Ricardo Osorio (VFB Stuttgart / GER), Aarón Galindo (Eintracht Frankfurt / GER), Patricio Araujo (CD Guadalajara), Hector Moreno (AZ Alkmaar / HOL), Adrián Aldrete (Morelia), Julio César Domínguez (Cruz Azul); midfielders Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul), Francisco Arce (Santos Laguna), Andrés Guardado (Deportivo la Coruna / SPA), Antonio Naelson (Toluca), Sergio Amaury Ponce (Toluca), Luis Pérez (Monterrey), Gonzalo Pineda (CD Guadalajara); forwards Carlos Vela (Osasuna), César Villaluz (Cruz Azul), Sergio Santana (CD Guadalajara), Edgar Andrade (Cruz Azul), Jared Borgetti (Monterrey).

The game is sold out, BTW.

A curious game against the Wizards with curious goals naturally led to a curious outcome: the Galaxy have a winning record for the first time since October 2005, according to MLSNet reporter Greg Dario.

Trivia time: Who was the Galaxy coach then? (Answer at end of post).

The Galaxy scored three unanswered goals to snatch their first come from behind victory of the year.

No wonder Ruud Gullit was about as happy as I've ever seen him, cracking jokes and then laughing heartily at them.

Best line was on Beckham's garbage time, yet slightly wondrous goal from fully 70 yards:

"If he was to miss that, his reputation would be gone."

Landon Donovan had a pretty good line, too:

"Maybe goalies will think twice about coming out of their goals at the end of games like that. It doesn't help their stats."

Gullit was effusive in praise of Donovan (calling him the key factor of the game) and unflinching in his reasoning for sitting an out of form Abel Xavier at the start of the season:

"I put Xavier on the bench to stimulate him. He was not happy about it."

But, he acknowledged Xavier had "responded well" in his second consecutive start.

Gullit said he took Franchino out early because he was having a "difficult time," BTW.

Aside from Beckham's goal the two main talking points was Landon Donovan's suspect-looking penalty kick award and Buddle's apparently offside goal.

Wizards Coach Curt Onalfo declined comment on the quality of the referee's decision; midfielder Sasha Victorine jumped right in:

"I don't think it's a penalty kick to be honest."

Donovan disagreed, naturally, saying Tyson Wahl tripped him and observing that the Wizards defender didn't exactly argue with the decision.

HD telecast commentator Marcelo Balboa said replays clearly showed Donovan was tripped.

However, Balboa also said replays showed that Edson Buddle was a half-yard offside on his goal, something even Buddle didn't know about.

The Galaxy began the game in "ridiculous" fashion, Gullit said, giving the ball away too easily and looking nervous, should have "buried" the game early, but eventually won a "great victory."

Hmmmm.

Here's Chris Klein on why the Galaxy have played much better in the second half of games most of the time:

"It's a very good question. The bigger question is why we haven't played so well in the first. We've got to start putting 90 minutes together."

Here's Donovan on the Galaxy's outlook this season given the parity/unpredictability of MLS:

"If we focus we can be very good, but if not we'll be back with the pack."

By the way. I'll have more later on this week on Donovan about collecting his 100th cap against England Wednesday as well as comments from Canadian Ante Jazic about playing Brazil in Seattle later in the week.

Game story is here.

The LA Times ripped into the officiating in this one.

Finally, don't look now, but injury-ridden Chivas USA is riding a two-game winning streak.

Chivas USA was missing eight senior players through injury.

Anaheim's Jorge Flores had a good night: It was the second goal of the 2007 Sueño MLS winner's career in as many games, in just his third ever match and first game as a starter.

Trivia Question answer: Steve Sampson.

*The U.S. Under-23 National Team plays the Ivory Coast at 9 a.m. today on Fox Soccer Channel from France.

*Fontana's Maurice Edu of Toronto FC has been called into the senior national team for next week's game against England, presumably as a replacement for the injured Benny Feilhaber.

*The Galaxy's Ante Jazic has only just returned from injury, but the defender has been recalled by Canada's National Team for its May 31 game against Brazil in Seattle.

*In other MLS news, former Galaxy midfielders Jovan Kirovski and Kelly Gray have joined the San Jose Earthquakes from the Colorado Rapids, with former Chivas USA reserve goalkeeper Preston Burpo moving in the opposite direction.

*ESPN has announced that Wednesday's UEFA Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea - the first-ever between two English teams - was ESPN2's highest-rated and most-watched UEFA telecast in history.

From the ESPN press release:

The telecast was seen in an average of 798,000 homes (and by 1,097,000 viewers), and received an 0.8 rating. The network's previous UEFA record was the 2006 final, seen in 613,000 homes (and by 770,000 viewers), based on a 0.7 rating.

On ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language telecast earned a 4.5 Hispanic coverage rating, representing 153,000 Hispanic homes, the highest rating the network has ever received.

ESPN Classic will re-air the telecast as an instant classic at 5 p.m. Saturday.

*Meanwhile, Electronic Arts' UEFA Euro 2008 video game has gone on sale, featuring 52 teams.

From their press release:

A new game mode called Captain Your Country will enable gamers to put themselves on the pitch, earn the captaincy of their team, and truly inspire their country to glory. Gamers will be able to celebrate their success on-field through user-controlled celebrations that will add to the pageantry and atmosphere of the event.

*Cal State Northridge women' soccer has announced the signing of eight high school seniors to letters of intent: sweeper Nicole Cruz and defender Emily Geckle (both Thousand Oaks High); goalkeeper Christina Herrera (Pasadena High); defender Marie Hirsch (Notre Dame High); midfielder Marissa Miller (Righetti High); defender Katie Russ (Canyon High); midfielder Brielle Slepicoff (Saugus High); and midfielder Sinead Vaughan (Royal High).

*Only two local PDL games scheduled this weekend.

At 7:30 tonight the San Fernando Valley Quakes play at Los Angeles Legends.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, it's the Bakersfield Brigade at Southern California Seahorses at La Mirada High.

*The Women's Premier Soccer League begins play locally this weekend.

Games scheduled locally:
Saturday- Ajax America Women- Los Angeles Rampage at noon at Nansen Field in Rolling Hills Estates.
San Diego WFC SeaLions- West Coast FC at 7 p.m. at Cathedral Catholic High in San Juan Capistrano.
Claremont Stars- SD United at 5:30 p.m. at Claremont High School.

*Finally, if you thought MLS officiating was bad, check this out.

Have a great weekend.

Always a little jarring when events take you away from something familiar and it's a little hard to recognize at first when you get back isn't it?

Hope you like the new look of the blog. Feedback always appreciated.

It was something I knew was coming, but not the time line and in fact I didn't know the change had been made until a reader informed me. It's probably why I was unable to blog after the Toronto-D.C. United game where Coach Tom Soehn is increasingly looking the best bet to follow Steve Morrow out the rotating coaching door next.

Penalty highlights of the UEFA Champions League final are below, by the way.

Galaxy fans may remember Afshin Ghotbi, an assistant coach with the Galaxy during Steve Sampson's reign and notable for his role in developing John O'Brien, who has turned up coaching in his native Iran.

Finally, the experimental U.S. Under-23 National Team dropped its first game of the Toulon Tournament 3-2 to Turkey in the early hours of Wednesday morning despite second-half goals from Eric Brunner and Sammy Ochoa.

The U.S. lineup: 18-Dominic Cervi; 13-Blake Wagner (7-Tony Beltran, 46), 3-Eric Brunner, 6-Julian Valentin, 25-Jonathon Leathers; 16-Corey Ashe, 10-Benny Feilhaber - capt. (21-Brek Shea, 67), 8-Greg Dalby, 17-Lee Nguyen (7-Kamani Hill, 46); 19-Sammy Ochoa, 9-Gabe Ferrari.
Subs Not Used: 1-Chris Seitz, 2-Rob Valentino, 4-Kyle Davies, 5-Michael Gavin, 11-Ellis McLoughlin, 14-Bryan Arguez, 15-Bryan Jordan, 24-Quentin Westberg
Head Coach: Peter Nowak

Wednesday's Telly

6:30 a.m. Fox Soccer Channel U.S. Under-23 National Team-Turkey in Toulon.

11:30 a.m. ESPN2 Manchester United-Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League Final.

4:30 p.m. Direct Kick Toronto FC-D.C. United.

Bradley's Boys

U.S. Coach Bob Bradley has named a 22-man roster that will travel to London to prepare for the friendly against England on May 28 at Wembley Stadium including Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan and the Galaxy's Landon Donovan:

goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (Out of Contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United); midfielders Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Eddie Lewis (Derby County); forwards Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nate Jaqua (Out of Contract), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Josh Wolff (Out of Contract).

And here's the England squad:

David James (Portsmouth), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Chris Kirkland (Wigan); Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), John Terry (Chelsea), Stephen Warnock (Blackburn), David Wheater (Middlesbrough), Jonathan Woodgate (Middlesbrough); Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), David Bentley (Blackburn), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough), Owen Hargreaves (Manchester United), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Ashley Young (Aston Villa); forwards Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Dean Ashton (West Ham), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth), Michael Owen (Newcastle), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).

Noteworthy: Galaxy forward Landon Donovan, 26, is one cap away from becoming the fourth-youngest male player to reach 100 international appearances. After becoming the all-time U.S. goalscorer Donovan Wednesday would surpass the nation's most capped player - Galaxy Assistant Coach Cobi Jones (164) - as the youngest U.S. player to hit the century mark.

Galaxy Gossip

Galaxy players already managed to get an MLS coach fired this season and it wasn't Ruud Gullit. Dallas Coach Steve Morrow got the hook after his team's plumbing the depths of ghastly performance last weekend.

Tidbits on a date with the knife for Gullit, Galaxy UEFA Champions League final picks (c'mon, name names) here.

Under-20 Galaxy Rios forward Tristan Bowen has been named the to the U.S. Under-18 Men's National Team for the upcoming Lisbon International Tournament, where the U.S. will take on Norway on May 21, Portugal on May 22 and Sweden on May 24. The team plays at the HDC Saturday in the season opener.

Also named: defender Jose Diaz (Chivas USA Academy) and midfielder Mike Roman (Real So Cal).

Foxy Programming

Fox Soccer Channel has announced a four-year renewal of its broadcasting rights to televise programming from England's governing body for soccer.

That includes the F.A. Cup as well as the final, finally back on free TV in the U.S.

Other games include the Community Shield and England internationals.

FSC also snared rights to the CONCACAF Champions League, for four seasons beginning in 2008/2009. FSC airs 56 games this year.

I caught up with former Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid in today's column.

Is a Crew-Galaxy MLS final in Carson possible, perhaps?

Spent the day working on Tuesday's column about former Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid (see next post), but noted these items in passing:

The Galaxy's Edson Buddle, 27, he of the mazy run around/through four Dallas defenders and hat trick was voted Major League Soccer's Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters. Buddle has 57 career MLS goals.

An alternate view: Anaheim's Jorge Flores get a shout-out from the most comprehensive soccer blog around - DuNord - for his performance this weekend.

Details of the Beckham incident Sunday: Beckham received a yellow card in the 76th minute after he got into a shoving match with Adrian Serioux and Arturo Alvarez of FC Dallas (2-3-3). Serioux, who brought Beckham down with a slide tackle, was given a red card and ejected.

"It was a terrible tackle. I could have broken my leg," Beckham said. "It's not my decision to give out cards. The player [Serioux] was saying, 'Welcome, baby, welcome,' afterward."

It was Beckham's second yellow card in two Texas appearances.

Or as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram put it:

In an effort to avert any misunderstanding in the British Parliament, Serioux hails from Canada. We colonists know Beckham is a museum piece.

Watch:

And former Chivas USA-UCLA striker Matt Taylor keeps popping up.

From a U.S. Soccer press release:

U.S. Women's National Team head coach Pia Sundhage will bring 27 players to a two-week training camp at Home Depot Center in Carson starting today.

At the end of the camp, Sundhage will choose a 20-player roster to compete in the 2008 Peace Queen Cup in South Korea, where the U.S. will play Australia (June 15), Brazil (June 17) and Italy (June 19).

Two players currently recovering from minor surgery - goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart (knee) and captain Christie Rampone (gall bladder) - will join the camp should they be fit enough to participate. Defender Keeley Dowling and midfielder Angie Woznuk return to camp after missing action while recovering from back injuries.

With Barnhart sidelined, Sundhage has called in 2004 Olympic gold medalist Kristin Luckenbill to join Hope Solo and Briana Scurry in the U.S. net.

Sundhage has also called in one player who has yet to see training camp action, giving a look to uncapped defender Kendall Fletcher, a former UNC star and veteran of the U.S. U-21 Women's National Team.

Defender Ali Krieger, who is currently playing for FFC Frankfurt, the top women's club in Germany and one of the best in Europe, will join camp on May 25 after she is released from club duty.

The roster: goalkeepers Kristin Luckenbill (Paoli, Pa.), Briana Scurry (Dayton, Minn.), Hope Solo (Richland, Wash.); defenders Rachel Buehler (Del Mar, Calif.), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis, Mo.), Stephanie Cox (Elk Grove, Calif.), Keeley Dowling (Carmel, Ind.), Kendall Fletcher (Cary, N.C.), Ali Krieger (Dumfries, Va.), Kate Markgraf (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), Heather Mitts (Cincinnati, Ohio), Cat Whitehill (Birmingham, Ala.); midfielders Shannon Boxx (Redondo Beach, Calif.), Tobin Heath (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Angela Hucles (Virginia Beach, Va.), Carli Lloyd (Delran, N.J.), Leslie Osborne (Brookfield, Wis.), Lindsay Tarpley (Kalamazoo, Mich.), Aly Wagner (San Jose, Calif.), Kacey White (Arlington, Texas), Angie Woznuk (El Cajon, Calif.); forwards Lauren Cheney (Indianapolis, Ind.), Natasha Kai (Kahuku, Hawaii), Heather O'Reilly (East Brunswick, N.J.), Amy Rodriguez (Lake Forest, Calif.), India Trotter (Plantation, Fla.), Abby Wambach (Rochester, N.Y.).

Finally, (indulge me) Norwich City fans everywhere are glad to see Darren Huckerby hyped as a possible MLS signing by former Canaries striker Ted MacDougall.

Just when it was least expected, the Galaxy put on one of the most devastating offensive performances in recent club history, demolishing FC Dallas by a four goal margin in a 5-1 victory Sunday that included an Edson Buddle hat trick.

It was the sort of game that sent you rushing to the record book:
*This was the Galaxy's biggest MLS victory since a a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay in August 2001.

*This was the first road Galaxy 5-1 MLS victory since a Aug. 5, 2000 win over the Wizards.

*Chris Klein made the 93rd consecutive start of his MLS career, tying him with ex-Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman (Peninsula High) for the most consecutive starts in MLS history.

*Buddle's hat trick was the 14th in Galaxy history and the second this season.

*This was the first time Dallas surrendered five goals in a regular season game since a 5-2 loss at Los Angeles in the last game of the 2006 season. The five goals were the most Dallas has ever surrendered at Pizza Hut Park in a regular season game.

*Today's attendance of 22,331, was the largest regular season crowd for a Dallas game at Pizza Hut Park.

The win propelled the Galaxy up the standings.

Meanwhile, the W-League Pali Blues won their first home game decisively Saturday.

The W-League Ventura County Fusion won, but the PDL men lost.

The W-League standings.

Also In the PDL this weekend:
Lancaster Rattlers 0 Los Angeles Legends 5
Southern California Seahorses 1 Lancaster Rattlers 0
Orange County Blue Star 1 San Francisco Seals 1

The league table.

At noon in Dallas on Prime and Telefutura.

Game preview here.

And the crowd here.

Basics here.

Former Galaxy Coach and South Bay boy Sigi Schmid continued his undefeated streak at the helm of the Columbus Crew today, drawing 0-0 against fast-improving Toronto FC

The league-leading Crew are now undefeated in six games, while Toronto's five-game unbeaten stretch establishes a new club record.

Great atmosphere and competent commentators on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp feed added to the EPL Lite feel (almost half of Toronto's lineup played in the U.K.).

Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers had a shot cleared off the line.

You can almost heart Sigi saying: "Goals change games."

By the way, assuming Sigi answers my e-mail, I'll have more on the Crew and Rogers in my Tuesday column.

Off to the Chivas USA game in a few minutes and you've got to wonder: are these two teams meant for each other?

From this morning's Washington Post:

Chivas USA, crippled by injuries to its back line and next to last in the Western Conference with a 1-4-2 record, might be the perfect opponent for an equally stressed team.

"We are as bad as they are," United midfielder-forward Santino Quaranta said. "They're struggling, and so are we."

Let's hope it's a half-decent game.

Lastly, a reminder the Galaxy PR folks sent out to me this morning: "I wanted to make sure that you know our game will also be on FSN Primeticket on Sunday with pregame show at 11:30am."

Nope, didn't. Thanks.

With a gorgeous weekend for watching if not playing soccer forecast, here's a preview of the options on tap locally this weekend.

Chivas USA plays D.C. United at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Home Depot Center and live on Fox Soccer Channel, while the Galaxy is on the road in Dallas for a game that airs at noon Sunday on Telefutura.

It's a big day in England Saturday with the annual finale to the season, the F.A. Cup final. The game begins at 7 a.m. local time on pay-per-view and at your favorite English pub.

In live action, W-League expansion team Pali Blues plays its first-ever game in Pacific Palisades Saturday against the Los Angeles Legends.

In the Pacific Development League, the Lancaster Rattlers plays the Los Angeles Legends at 7:30 tonight at Cougar Stadium in Glendora.

Other PDL games this weekend include:
Ventura County Fusion at San Jose Frogs
Southern California Seahorses at Lancaster Rattlers at 7 p.m. at Pete Knight High.
Orange County Blue Star at San Francisco Seals

Have a great weekend. I'll blog from Carson as usual Saturday and be back later with a game preview.

The Galaxy's Landon Donovan Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers of the Columbus Crew, Fontana's Maurice Edu of FC Toronto and Chivas USA's Brad Guzan and Sacha Kljestan were among a pool of 33 players U.S. Coach Bob Bradley has selected for consideration for three upcoming friendlies.

Rogers is one of five uncapped players included in the pool. Others looking for their first cap: San Luis Obispo's Chris Seitz, Orange's Michael Orozco, Modesto's Heath Pierce and goalkeepers Troy Perkins and Dominic Cervi.

DaMarcus Beasley returns to the squad after injury.

There is at least one surprise. Or as one colleague so eloquently put it when he saw the pool: (former Galaxy forward) "Nate frikkin Jaqua???"

Prominent names not included: Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, Bobby Convey (injured) and Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein of Los Alamitos, who suffered a serious knee injury last week.

Pool: goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (Out of Contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC), Troy Perkins (Valerenga IF), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United); midfielders Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids); forwards Jozy Altidore (New York Red Bulls), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nate Jaqua (Out of Contract), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Josh Wolff (1860 Munich).

The U.S., which is on a five-game unbeaten run, plays in England May 28, Spain June 4 and against Argentina in New Jersey June 8. The three games lead up to the June 15 opening World Cup qualifier against Barbados at Home Depot Center.

The 22-man roster for the England game will be announced next week.

Said Bradley: "With the challenging schedule of friendlies we have organized to prepare for World Cup qualifying, this is an excellent opportunity to continue to evaluate our player pool and at the same time balance the workload. Many of our players have just completed seasons in Europe, and the MLS schedule is in full swing, so it is important that we manage the time wisely to give ourselves the best chance to be successful in the important matches this summer."

Damaged Goods

The most notable thing about the ever-lengthening Galaxy injury report is that David Beckham, sore foot and all, isn't on it:

OUT - Charles Alamo (R-Knee Surgery)

DOUBTFUL - None

QUESTIONABLE - Ely Allen (R-Hamstring), Edson Buddle (R-Hamstring), Landon Donovan (R-Calf), Alvaro Pires (L-Knee), Carlos Ruiz (R-Knee Surgery), Peter Vagenas (R-Quad)

PROBABLE - Ante Jazic (R-Ankle Surgery)

Jazic played for the first time since December on Tuesday against Vancouver and will continue to train this week. All other injured players, with the exception of Alamo, are schedule to take part in portions of training this week in the lead up to the game against FC Dallas this weekend.

Meanwhile, Alamo continues on the second phase of his rehabilitation process

Barca Back

In other MLS news, Barcelona inked a partnership deal with the league that boils down to the Spanish powerhouse playing six games in the U.S. over the next five years.

Barcelona played CD Guadalajara at the Coliseum in 2006, as part of a three-game U.S. tour, drawing 1-1 in front of 92,650.

Olympic Run-In

U.S. Soccer announced today that the U.S. Women's National Team's final two games before the Olympics will be against Brazil July 13 in Colorado and July 16 in San Diego. Tickets, priced between $22-$85, go on sale Tuesday.

"It's always good to get great games before you go to the Olympics and what better team to play than Brazil," said U.S. midfielder Shannon Boxx of Torrance, who has started 12 of the 14 games the USA has played this year. "It's always an exciting game playing Brazil so these will be good tests to give us confidence heading into the Olympics. Obviously, we didn't do well against them in the World Cup so it will be beneficial for our team to play them a few times beforehand in case we do meet them in China."

UCLA Schedule

The UCLA men's program released the 2008 schedule today opening against Maryland Aug. 29 at Home Depot Center in a game televised nationally.

The Bruins will have nine games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

Here are the home games at Drake Stadium:
Date Opponent
Aug. 29 Maryland
Aug. 31 UC Riverside
Sept. 12 Indiana
Sept. 20 Santa Clara
Sept. 28 Cal State Northridge
Oct. 1 UC Santa Barbara
Oct. 5 San Diego State*#
Oct. 17 Washington*
Oct. 19 Oregon State*
Oct. 31 California*#
Nov. 2 Stanford*#
Nov. 5 Cal Poly
* Pac-10 Conference game
# Doubleheader with UCLA women's soccer team

The Galaxy lost to the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 in Edmonton Tuesday with David Beckham nursing a sore foot by game's end.

Great.

And where is Peter Vagenas?

A helluva less pointless game is Wednesday's Glasgow Rangers-Zenit St. Petersburg UEFA Cup Final.

Locally, there's a free viewing party for Rangers fans at downtown Torrance's best dive bar The Crest.

Kickoff is at 11:30 a.m. on Fox Soccer Channel.

Lastly, UCLA has signed U.S. youth international midfielder/forward Eder Arreola (Chino Hills/Edison Academic Center), forward Prince Lapnet (Silver Spring, Maryland) and defender Victor Yanez (Riverside/Patriot High) to national letters of intent

For today's column I looked at the imploding Chivas USA defense and the potential consequences for their season.

Meanwhile, David Beckham and the Galaxy arrived in Edmonton Monday for tonight's extraneous game against the Whitecaps where more than 30,000 tickets have been sold.

Longtime injury victim Ante Jazic may return to action tonight for the Galaxy.

Landon Donovan will apparently be absent though, while Canadians are lamenting Beckham's likely non-appearance at the game against FC Toronto at month's end.

Incidentally, the game is televised beginning at 6 p.m. locally on Channel 22.

Coach Peter Nowak named three Galaxy players to an experimental U.S. Under-23 National Team squad for the upcoming Toulon Tournament.

"This tournament will give us an opportunity to have a look at some players we have had in previous camps, and also a look at the new faces," said Nowak. "We don't want to be short-sighted with our selection for the Olympics. We want a whole picture that includes a variety of players, and to make sure we see every option before we make final choices."

Selected were Mike Gavin, Bryan Jordan and Julian Valentin.

The U.S. plays Turkey May 21, Ivory Coast May 23 and Italy May 25.

All games are on Fox Soccer Channel.

The full squad: Goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake), Quentin Westberg (Troyes AC); defenders Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake), Eric Brunner (out of contract), Kyle Davies (Southampton), Michael Gavin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Kamani Hill (Vfl Wolfsburg), Jonathan Leathers (Kansas City Wizards), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), Julian Valentin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Rob Valentino (New England Revolution), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas) ; midfielders Bryan Arguez (Hertha Berlin), Corey Ashe (Houston Dynamo), Greg Dalby (SC Charleroi), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Lee Nguyen (Randers FC); forwards Gabe Ferrari (Sampdoria), Bryan Jordan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Ellis McLoughlin (Hertha Berlin), Sammy Ochoa (Tecos).

No recall for Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers, but then if Nowak was paying attention over the weekend, he knows what the Columbus Crew midfielder is capable of:

Updated: Rogers' two-goal performance earned him MLS Player of the Week honors (his first such award) Monday from the North American Soccer Reporters.

It's is the Crew's best-ever start to a season and Sigi Schmid's, too.

If this were a London tabloid, the headline would read "Reeling Ruud Rips Becks."

In actuality, of course, the criticism of David Beckham by the Galaxy coach was couched in more eloquent terms than that, but it was criticism nevertheless.

"He played too far up," Gullit said. "Mikey and David, they played themselves out of the game."

Credit in part goes to Dave van den Bergh, said Red Bull Coach Juan Carlos Osorio, who credited the former Dutch international with "very effectively" playing against Beckham and visibly frustrating him.

Beckham almost conceded he had met his match in the experienced former Ajax midfielder.

"It's always nice to have a battle on the field," he said, acknowledging a "couple of clashes" that were "nothing out of the ordinary."

Incidentally, Beckham agreed with Gullit's assessment of his performance.

"There we