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Buddle returns: The forward Galaxy fans never wanted to leave has returned to the club (Daily Breeze file photo).

The rumors were true.

Edson Buddle has returned to the Galaxy after spending a year in Germany where he scored 10 goals for second tier Ingolstadt.

"I am thrilled to be able to return to MLS and a club that has meant so much to me in my career," Buddle said. "When I left for Germany last winter, I said that I hoped to be able to one day return to the Galaxy and help lead the club to an MLS Cup championship. That day is today and I look forward to the challenges that now lie ahead."

Here's more from the club press release:

A fan favorite during his time with the Galaxy, Buddle was the club's top scorer or second leading scorer every year from 2007-2010, averaging nearly a goal every two games after being acquired in a trade with Toronto FC in exchange for Tyrone Marshall in June 2007.

He had his best season as a professional in 2010, scoring 17 goals and helping the Galaxy win their first Supporters' Shield since 2002.

The only player in MLS history to score 40 or more goals for two different clubs, Buddle has scored 90 goals in 231 regular season games during the first 10 years of his MLS career, making him the eighth leading scorer in League history.

Relive Buddle's 2010 goals here:

Sometimes it seems Galaxy midfielder David Beckham spends more time on a soccer field showing off his abs than his set pieces as he wanders the field shirtless at the end of games.

So this soft porn excerpt ad is nothing new to most soccer fans and will likely be one of the few Super Bowl references you'll find here this week ahead of Sunday's game between two teams that are not the Packers.

Here's a little background on the ad from today's press release:

Beckham's Bodywear line introduces nine underwear styles for men, focusing on quality, fit, function, comfort and design, and continues H & M's successful run of acclaimed guest designer collaborations - most notably Stella McCartney, Madonna, and Roberto Cavalli among many others.

Beckham and his design team spent 18 months developing the collection. The TV ad, filmed in Hollywood earlier this year, is slated to air during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVI.

And here's the video, which includes the ad and the immortal line "I love underwear," which proves, I guess, that if he receives enough money Beckham will say he loves virtually anything:

And if you're one of those who pays more attention to Super Bowl ads than the actual game, now you have an extra 30 seconds Sunday to pull yourself away from the TV and score some more bean dip.

Saving Solo: Goalkeeper Hope Solo and the rest of the U.S. National Team open their Olympic qualifying campaign Friday night in Vanvouver, B.C. (AP Photo).

You can watch the U.S. women play the Dominican Republic tonight at 7:30 online at concacaf.com

It's also available on television here.

And you can read an Associated Press preview from Sports Writer Joseph White here:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- The U.S. women's soccer team got some help Thursday in its bid to qualify for the London Olympics.

Well, actually, "The Help."

Known to sing a rock 'n' roll lyric or two to her players to get a message across, coach Pia Sundhage instead quoted from the critically acclaimed movie when she addressed the team ahead of Friday's opening game against the Dominican Republic. The Americans are in Vancouver for a tournament that will send two teams to London this summer.

"I'm a big fan of having a good start, so I want to surprise them," Sundhage said. "Sometimes we take things for granted, so I was standing there and my first words -- I didn't sing -- I look at them and I say: 'You're kind. You're smart. You're important.' That's exactly what they are."

As the No. 1 ranked team in the world, it would seem the U.S. women wouldn't need help of any kind to earn one of the two Olympic berths available in the eight-team CONCACAF tournament over the next 11 days. Getting to the World Cup or an Olympics was always a given: Their combined record was once 25-0-1 in qualifying for the sport's two biggest events.

Until 2010, that is.

The Americans went to Cancun and blistered through the group phase of the World Cup qualifying tournament -- winning three games by a combined score of 18-0 -- before getting stunned by Mexico 2-1 in the semifinals. The U.S. had to win a backdoor playoff against Italy to earn a spot in Germany, a hurdle mostly forgotten as the team made a captivating run before losing to Japan in the World Cup final.

The format for this tournament is the same -- except there's no backdoor playoff. The two teams that win the semifinals go to London; everyone else stays home.

"There's no Italy to back us up this year," midfielder Megan Rapinoe said.

That makes every game crucial, even the group matches against teams like the Dominican Republic (ranked No. 88) and Guatemala (No. 85), followed by the eagerly awaited rematch against Mexico (No. 21). One slip-up and the Americans might end up with a do-or-die semifinal game against No. 7 Canada, which is expected to win the other group.

"There's no better motivation than things not going as you planned," forward Abby Wambach said. "And definitely the last qualification didn't go as we planned. We thankfully had a second chance with playing the home-and-away series against Italy, and this time around we don't have that chance. All of us know that. It's not something that we even talk about.

"We're one of the best teams in the world, and we just can't show up for qualification and play and expect to win nowadays. Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, they're all really good teams, and they have a good chance of beating us on any given day."

So where there used to be ho-hum, there's now drama. While it shows that American domination isn't what it used to be, it's good for women's soccer as a whole as the sport tries to expand its reach and command attention at times when there's not a World Cup or Olympics going on.

Any tournament is going to have its idiosyncrasies, and this one is no exception. After all,
this is Canada in January, so the games are being played indoors at BC Place. Sundhage is trying to get the Americans to play a more possession-type game, which can be a little tricky when the ball is bouncing on artificial turf.

Defender Heather Mitts tweeted a photo of a bloody knee after Thursday's practice with the comment: "meet the BC turf."

Ironically, soccer could've been played outdoors when Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics two years ago. The city that didn't see a flake during the 2010 Winter Games has snow on the ground and freezing temperatures this week as it hosts a sport from the summer version.

There's also the compact schedule. Three group matches in five days, then a short break before the all-important semifinals and the somewhat anticlimactic final. The U.S. has a deep, veteran team, so Sundhage is expected to spread the playing time around so that everyone is fresh for the one game that matters most.

"Right now we are in a wonderful situation, where you have the starting lineup, and as coaches we'll look at the bench -- 'Wow. There are some good players,'" Sundhage said. "Regardless of who we pick for the starting lineup, we'll have good players. Now the key is whether they play well together, so that's something we need to look into with the games we have in front of us."

Torrance's Shannon Boxx has more to say in this video from U.S. Soccer:

*If, like me, you took advantage of the holiday break and headed for areas of the state less traveled this weekend, here's a quick look at local soccer happenings over the long weekend:

*First off, the MLS Supplemental Draft gets under way at 11 a.m. today.

*The Galaxy's Landon Donovan got an assist in an otherwise dreary 2-0 win Everton-Aston Villa 1-1 draw this weekend, in a game that also saw teammate Robbie Keane make his loan debut fo Villa as a sub. Former Galaxy striker Edson Buddle is also joining Donovan at Everton, albeit on a week-long trial.

*The Galaxy also confirmed Friday that defender Omar Gonzalez will miss seven to nine months after undergoing ACL surgery Friday in Santa Monica, an injury sustained in his first training session on loan in Germany.

*Meanwhile, fellow Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza is in camp with the U.S. National Team, which played the senior squqad in a Home Depot center scrimmage this weekend:

*USWNT Coach Pia Sundhage named 19 players from the World Cup squad to the 20-player Olympic qualifying roster announced this weekend, adding WPS top draft pick Sydney Leroux of UCLA to the mix.

*Chivas USA, which begain pre-season training Monday, announced the rest of their pre-season match schedule before heading to Portland for a previously announced tournament Feb. 27 through March 4:

*Friday, Jan. 27 vs. Ventura Fusion, Time TBD, Oxnard.

*Friday, Feb. 3 vs. FC Hasental, Time TBD, Home Depot Center.

*Tuesday, Feb. 7 vs. Colorado Rapids, Time TBD, Location TBD

*Saturday, Feb. 11 vs. Chicago Fire, Time TBD, Location TBD

*Thursday, Feb.16 vs. Galaxy, Time TBD, HDC.

*Wednesday, Feb. 22 vs. Club Tijuana Xolos, Time TBD, San Diego.

*Lastly, apologies to those of you who follow me at Twitter.com@LAsoccerblog and were subjected to spam this weekend after my account was hacked. Hopefully that has now subsided.

It's not, you understand, that I resent my regular Tuesday column being held to an as yet unspecified day.

It's that, if it is held, it's for a better reason than that obscene excuse of a game of pointy-ball college football I had the misfortune to catch in a desolate Torrance pub last night. That was the culmination to the season?

No wonder I stopped regularly watching American football (well, that and the fact the UW Huskies and Seattle Seahawks went through years of being only slightly better than Chivas USA).

And talking about nonsensical time-wasting, check out the over-wrought ad from MLS below hyping the increasingly irrelevent less than SuperDraft set for later this week:

Good grief. And if you want people to take this event seriously do you really want to remind them about Freddy Adu, especially given the massive role he's played in MLS and U.S. Soccer in general (ahem).

In other more worthwhile news, the U.S. will play Italy Feb. 29.

And before anyone asks, no, I've seen no update from the Galaxy yet regarding the injury to Omar Gonzalez.

Happy 2012 folks.

Hope you enjoyed the holiday break; I know I enjoyed the respite from what can be a blogging grind. Let's bring ourselves up to date with what's been going on over the holiday break:

*While David Beckham has reportedly decided against signing for French side PSG, (before we feel flattered it has everything to do with his four kids and nothing to do with MLS) fellow Galaxy designated player Robbie Keane has joined former club Tottenham Hotspur - but only to train.

*The Galaxy's newly-signed Jose Villarreall and teammate Jack McBean are among 36 players called into the U.S. U-20 squad that began training Monday in Florida.

*At the same time 24 Development Academy youngsters including the Galaxy's Justin Dhillon, William Raygoza and Jaime Villarreal (younger brother of Jose) and Chivas USA's Marco Delgado and Ben Spencer are training at the same time and place as the U-20 squad. The roster.

*The USWNT will open camp Saturday at Home Depot Center with 29 players called into the squad ahead of Olympic qualifying later this month.

*Bruins Kelyn Rowe and Chandler Hoffman signed Generation Adidas contracts with MLS, while the league also signed UCSB striker Luis Silva ahead of the MLS Combine that starts Friday in Florida.

Lastly, this is a little over the top, but hey, how much hype does MLS usually get?

After weeks of speculation, Chivas USA this afternoon confirmed the signing of Oswaldo Minda, a 28-year-old midfielder with 13 caps for Ecuador.

Minda has played with newly-crowned Ecuadorian champions Deportivo Quito since 2008, scoring 11 goals in 85 games.

Chivas fans can check out this YouTube video to see the sort of player they're getting:

What better way to get psyched for the 2012 season opener in Carson...:

Than to watch the best Chivas USA goals from 2011:

In other Chivas USA-related news:

*Wonder if it's three MLS clubs and out for former Chivas USA striker Maicon Santos?

*Chivas USA has announced a new partnership with Orange County youth club United FC. Read the press release here.

*CHICAGO (AP) -- Borussia Dortmund forward Terrence Boyd and UCLA midfielder Kelyn Rowe have been added to the U.S. under-23 roster for a training camp ahead of men's Olympic soccer qualifying.

Thirty players will gather for the camp with new coach Caleb Porter. It will be held from
Thursday through Dec. 23 at Lakewood Ranch, Fla.

The U.S. opens qualifying against Cuba on March 22, then plays Canada two days later and El Salvador on March 26, with all three games at Nashville, Tenn. The top two teams in the group advance to the semifinals of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, and the two semifinal winners qualify for the London Olympics.

The updated roster -

Goalkeepers: David Bingham (San Jose), Bill Hamid (D.C.), Sean Johnson (Chicago), Zac MacMath (Philadelphia)

Defenders: Gale Agbossoumonde (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany), Royal-Dominique Fennell (Stuttgarter Kickers), Sebastien Ibeagha (Duke), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston), Zarek Valentin (Montreal), Jorge Villafana (Chivas USA), Andrew Wenger (Duke), Sheanon Williams (Philadelphia)

Midfielders: Freddy Adu (Philadelphia), Bryan Arguez (Montreal), Joe Corona (Tijuana, Mexico), Danny Cruz (Houston, Mixx Diskerud (Stabaek, Norway), Dilly Duka (Columbus), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz, Germany), Sebastian Lletget (West Ham, England), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia), Kelyn Rowe (UCLA), Michael Stephens (Los Angeles)

Forwards: Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund, Germany), Will Bruin (Houston), Teal Bunbury (Kansas City, Jann George (Nuremberg, Germany), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim, Germany), Jack McInerney (Philadelphia), Andrew Wooten (Kaiserslautern, Germany)

*The team from Torrance's Japanese sister city, Kashiwa, was bounced from the Club World Cup today.

The lovely Neymar goal is worth watching:

Lastly, here's a video update from the USWNT camp going on out at Carson's Home Depot Center right now:

Will keep the Galaxy and Chivas USA very busy. Read the column here.

As if to confirm that, Chivas USA announced this afternoon that last season's MVP, goalkeeper Dan Kennedy, has signed a new contract with the club. For my money Kennedy is easily one of the best goalkeepers in the league.

"His consistency and leadership both on and off the field were exemplary last season, and now moving towards the club's objectives for 2012 of building a championship caliber team, securing Kennedy to a new contract was one of our priorities this offseason," said Jose Domene, Chivas USA General Manager.

Kennedy managed seven shutouts last season for Chivas USA, a remarkable achievement given the defense he was playing behind.

BTW: Chivas USA learned its opponent in its home opener today; it will be the Houston Dynamo in a game shown nationally on Galavision at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 11 from Carson.

Also, the Galaxy played its final game of the season in the wee hours of this morning.

Watch: