International Soccer: February 2012 Archives

*We're a matter of minutes away from the 11:30 a.m. Italy-U.S. game (ESPN2, Galavision), but there's plenty other games on TV today:

* At 5 p.m. on KMEX Mexico plays Columbia in Miami, followed by the Under-23 encounter between the U.S. and Mexico. The Americans have the Galaxy's Michael Stephens, Chivas USA's Jorge Villafana and Club Tijuana's striker Joe Corona and left back Greg Garza

*The Galaxy, meanwhile, play their second game of the Desert Diamond Cup against the New York Red Bulls in a contest that can be seen live at 7 p.m. here.

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.