Recently in Home Depot Center Category

Sol (10-1-4) at Washington Freedom (4-4-4) live at 3 p.m. on Sox Soccer Channel.

Game preview.

Meanwhile, Daily Breeze reporter Gene Maddaus followed up on his report of the crackdown on bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors at Home Depot Center with this update today.

Carson code enforcement officer Glenn Miller confiscates the food - but not the cart - of a bacon-wrapped hot dog vendor outside last weekend's Chivas USA SuperLiga game. Authorities plan to crack down again tonight.

Daily Breeze photos by Sean Hiller

The tentacles of Los Angeles-based Anshutz Entertainment Group extend throughout not only Southern California pop culture and civic life, but around the globe to include such figures as dead pop icon Michael Jackson and nominal Galaxy midfielder David Beckham.

But AEG, always it seems unnecessarily heavy-handed given their increasingly powerful and visible corporate profile, are now going after bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors at tonight's Gold Cup doubleheader at Home Depot Center.

It's always more about money than astute public relations for AEG who should think about improving the quality of the food and service inside the stadium.

Even better: AEG should try legitimizing some of these carts by providing the required access to running water and restrooms and slapping on an extra 75 cent charge rather than give their (over) paying customers another reason to gripe about bad sports teams, price gouging and plastic public realms like L.A. Live.

Soccer fan Oscar Rodriguez is a bacon-wrapped hot dog devotee.

And so is former Daily Breeze food critic Chris Cognac:

CONCACAF announced today that it will use a record number of U.S. venues - 13 - for the Gold Cup set for July 3-26, including the opening doubleheader of the tournament July 3 in Carson at Home Depot Center.

What teams will play where will be announced at a later date.

"While 13 cities create logistical challenges, we think the benefits of reaching out to more venues are clearly worthwhile," CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer said. "The ability of so many people to see national teams play we feel is well worth the effort."

Allow me to translate: "Playing in 13 cities will allow us to extract even more money from a tournament that clogs up the soccer calender and is diminished even further in importance because it is not played every four years in the manner of such legitimate events such as the European Championship."

Meanwhile, the U.S. women are playing Norway as I write this in a meaningless Algarve Cup game (the U.S. is already in the final).

The U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team played to a scoreless draw with Honduras Sunday and now needs at least a tie with El Salvador Tuesday to advance to the next round of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, the qualifying tournament for the 2009 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.

UCLA goalkeeper Brian Perk recorded the shutout, while Chivas USA's Jorge Flores did not get off the bench.

The Galaxy have named David Kammarman as the club's director of soccer operations with responsibilities that include player personnel, scouting, talent evaluation, MLS communication and collective bargaining agreement compliance.

He replaces Paul Bravo, who left for the Colorado Rapids.

Kammarman, 37, has worked with three other MLS clubs - the Chicago Fire, D.C. United, and the MetroStars - as well as with ESPN on their broadcasts of MLS and U.S. National Team games.

He's also the identical twin brother of U.S. Men's National Team Press officer Michael Kammarman.

The Galaxy today announced that single game tickets are on sale.

Given the economy the Galaxy has kept the price hikes down to a minimum. General admission and the seats at the extreme ends of the upper tier - the two cheapest categories of seats - remain $25 and $15 respectively.

Other categories have increased between $5 and $2, making the club's most expensive ticket for a game $85 (not including club or fieldside seats). Fieldside seats, BTW, cost $275.

Would you pay prices like that to see a team that has failed to make the playoffs in three years, especially if Beckham doesn't return? Thought not.

BTW, if you want to complain about (or praise) facilities at Home Depot Center direct your comments to new General Manager Katie Druetzler-Pandolfo, who joined the HDC two years ago as event manager. She replaces Rod O'Connor, who left to become chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Energy. A few more TV's for fans stuck in those way to long concession lines would be a good start.

In another Galaxy related item, the team's youth program, formerly known as the Galaxy Rios, will now simply be known as the L.A. Galaxy Youth Academy. The academy fields Under-16, U-18 and U-20 teams.

I almost talked to a pair of the greatest female players of all time on the same day (sadly Marta's conference call back to the U.S. was canceled).

Read today's column here.

Say what you will about AEG (and I often do), but the company has made the financial commitment to bring two of the best male (no, I did not mean they re-signed Steve Cronin) and female players in the world to play in Carson.

Carson's Home Depot Center will be at capacity Friday for two games featuring Mexico's biggest clubs, Chivas and Club America.

InterLiga officials announced this afternoon the games had sold out.

Tickets for Thursday's doubleheader - between Morelia and Pachuca and a nightcap that pits Mexican champion Toluca against Tecos - as well as Sunday's finals are also "going fast," officials said.

Capacity crowds have watched the finals for the last three years in succession.

Tickets are available by calling 877-CHIVAS-1.

Cal State Dominguez Hills junior defender Kevin Gallaugher was today named the Division II National Player of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

He led the Toro defense to 14 shutouts on the year, including three in five games in the NCAA postseason. The defense gave up just 19 goals on the season.

It's the first such honor for the program in eight years, when Juan Carlos "JC" Bolanos led CSUDH to its 2000 NCAA Title.

"Throughout the year in our 27 games, I don't think Kevin had one bad game," reflects head coach Joe Flanagan, who also coached Bolanos during the 2000 run. "This award shows how complete and prepared of a player he is in every game, and the level he played at. As a great defender, he truly deserves the opportunity to be player of the year."

In other news that filtered out over the holidays:
*Two Galaxy players - David Beckham and Landon Donovan - are in Dubai training with two different European teams.

*HDC press box colleague Luis Bueno brings us up to date on Chivas USA midfielder Panchito Mendoza, who played over the weekend in CD Guadalajara's 2-1 win over Necaxa. Bueno translates what Mendoza had to say about the Mexican league in comparison to MLS.

*The New York Times Goal blog follows the lead of England's FourFourTwo magazine and asks famous players to name their best all-time team. Chivas USA's Claudio Suarez names his here.

*The U.S. men's Under-18 National Team on Sunday began a week-long 72-player camp at Home Depot Center. Among the locals being evaluated by former Chivas USA assistant coach and newly-appointed U-18 Coach Mike Matkovich are: defender Jesus Gonzales (Chino Hills, Calif.; FC Barcelona); midfielders Eder Arreola (Chino Hills; UCLA), Antonio Benitez (Azusa; LAFC Chelsea), Miles Byass (San Bernardino; Arsenal FC), Alejandro Cobarubias (Cudahy; Galaxy), Pablo Cruz (Azusa; LAFC Chelsea), Chris Ortega (Chula Vista; Arsenal FC), Patrick Otte (Thousand Oaks; Middlesborough Academy); Giovanni Rollie (Los Angeles; LAFC Chelsea), Michael Roman (Oxnard; Real So Cal); forwards Orr Baroush (Reseda; Chivas USA Academy), Marquis Brooks (Chula Vista; Galaxy),

*Celebrities confirmed for the second annual Mia Hamm & Nomar Garciaparra Celebrity Soccer Challenge, a Jan. 17 charity soccer match benefiting Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the Mia Hamm Foundation at Home Depot Center include: skateboarding pros Tony Hawk and Ryan Sheckler, U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh, former NFL running back Marcus Allen, Zachary Levi of Chuck, Jimmy Jean Louis of Heroes and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo. Tickets are $20 through the HDC box office or via TicketMaster.

Finally, a reminder that $50 gets you a tryout Jan. 17-18 with PDL team Ventura County Fusion. Details here.

Sporadic posting will continue through the new year. But check back tomorrow for my regular weekly column and a poll.

But I guess that's better than the 5 percent figure that was going to be on the March ballot.

Details here.

With a couple of exceptions - general admission prices rose all of $1 from $14 to $15 - Chivas USA has responded to the recession and its middling average crowd of about 15,000 last season - by reducing ticket prices for 2009.

End zone prices remain at $18, but side line tickets go from $32 to $26, midfield from $36 to $34 and preferred from $45 to $38.

The club has also introduced a new "family-oriented" corner section price of $22.

That's good because it appears the city of Carson early this morning instituted a Home Depot Center ticket tax of somewhere between 2 and 5 percent.

Meanwhile, Scots, Welsh, Dutch and, um, Lichtenstein fans can rejoice: GolTV will now carry those nations' World Cup qualifying games. The cable channel already shows games involving Italy, Germany and Spain.

A 10 percent ticket tax proposal didn't find enough support on the City Council a couple of weeks ago, but now a 2 percent tax is under consideration tonight.

U.S. Soccer announced today its customary new year friendly at Home Depot Center Jan. 24 following a week-long U.S. Men's National Team training camp.

The 5:30 p.m. game will air live on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision.

The U.S. beat Sweden 2-0 last January in a game that saw the Galaxy's Landon Donovan set the all-time U.S. scoring record. The U.S. is making its sixth visit to Home Depot Center where it has a 4-0-1 record.

Next year is a big one for the U.S. with CONCACAF Final Round qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the 2009 Confederations Cup.

Tickets, priced between $18 and $60, go on sale Monday.

Not much of a surprise there.

BTW, Carson shelved the idea of a Home Depot Center ticket tax - for now.

A thick pall of smoke is mostly blotting out the sun in Torrance this morning, miles from the worst of the wildfires in Orange County where hundreds have lost their homes.

A layer of gray ash is coating cars, sidewalks and everything else.

And there's a muffled, slightly subdued quality to the light and sound of this Sunday Southern California morning, lending an unreal edge to what has been a surreal last few days.

Welcome to Los Angeles in November.

Hopefully, things will have improved a week from now otherwise the air quality at Carson's Home Depot Center will surely affect MLS Cup.

And just a week ahead of the second biggest event of the year at the stadium (the X Games are the biggest), the city of Carson is again contemplating a ticket tax at Home Depot Center.

If I recall correctly legal experts have differed in the past over the legality of such a tax being imposed (the HDC sits on California State University property, which didn't, for instance, need any sort of planning permission from the city when the sports complex was built), but apparently it is now more than a possibility.

On one hand you can't blame the city of Carson, which lacks much of a sales tax base, for eying the revenue stream. The HDC hasn't done much to spur economic revitilization around the stadium (cleaning up graffiti on a KFC across the street appears the extent of it, sadly) yet makes planty of money for Anschutz Entertainment Group.

AEG, naturally, opposes the tax as the story points out:

Rod O'Connor, the general manager of the Home Depot Center, said that a 10 percent tax on tickets would be the highest in the Los Angeles area. He warned that one of the stadium's two professional soccer teams - Chivas U.S.A. - has already been exploring getting its own venue and that any additional taxes might prompt event promoters to take their business elsewhere.

"This puts us at a disadvantage," O'Connor said. "We feel strongly that the solution ought to be a fair solution that asks everyone to contribute a little bit, not something that is targeted at one business in our community."

It's an argument that might be a little more convincing if greedy AEG was more inclined to share the wealth themselves or at least give patrons a break from the likes of those crushing $20 parking fees.

And Chivas USA, struggling to broaden their fan base, is unlikely in this economic climate to make any move that would cost the club even more money, anyway.

Still, overall, the proposal feels more than a little like fiddling while Rome burns at this particular time, so perhaps that calls for an appropriately dark song to remind us of what's really important:

Updated 1 p.m. Sunday
UCLA has just issued this press release:

"Due to several fires in Southern California resulting in poor air quality, Sunday's NCAA Second Round match between top-seeded UCLA and San Diego has been postponed. The match has been rescheduled for Monday at 6:00 p.m. (PST).

The winner of Monday's match will advance to face fourth-seeded USC in the round of 16."

Was magician David Copperfield in the house for the second half?

Despite a disappearing act worthy of a prime time special, Chivas USA hung grimly onto their two-goal half time advantage and salvaged a crucial 2-1 victory, overcoming a pretty Josh Wolff bicycle kick with 20 minutes to go.

With both Colorado and Real Salt Lake winning today and temporarily climbing above them in the standings, Chivas USA needed all three points to maintain their tenuous grip on second place in the Western Conference and remain just two points above the pair nipping at their heels by night's end. Chivas USA even managed to close the gap to four points on leaders the Houston Dynamo, who could only tie 1-1 today with FC Toronto. There are four games left in the season for Chivas USA.

Back with more later from the locker rooms.

The Galaxy announced today they are selling tickets for Friday's game against the New England Revolution on the grass berm at the north end of the stadium - for $36 a pop.

Considering the cheapest seats in the stadium are $15 for the game that seems more than a little pricey, especially considering you have to bring your own blanket. By way of explanation though the Galaxy press release observes that the berm "will give one of the best views of the postgame fireworks over the South end of the stadium."

It's not the best place to watch the actual game though (despite the Galaxy insisting that it is), but on Independence Day it's all about the fireworks off the field anyway.

A capacity crowd is expected, so get their early to avoid the Home Depot Center parking hassles.

Call 877-3GALAXY for tickets.

It seems Sigi Schmid has designs on trading for the Galaxy's Carlos Ruiz, which seems a little strange since Sigi used to complain about how much time Fish spent in local night clubs when he was the coach here in L.A. Guess there are few nightclubs in Columbus.

The U.S. Women's National Team beat Norway - their first opponents at the Olympics - 4-0 today.

Hermosa Beach resident Abby Wambach had an assist and a goal in the 87th minute to register her 99th international goal (USC's Amy Rodriguez had the assist).

Next for the U.S.: Sweden on Saturday.

Finally, W-League team the Ventura County Fusion hosts the Seattle Sounders at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Buena High.

Gotta run - just 30 minutes or so left to register my picks for the MLS All-Star Game.