I don't think I have the energy to write up a full review. But... WOW!!!!! What an amazing game!

THREE goals for Donovan, TWO goals for Gordon. (Yes, Alan Gordon scored a brace!)

With the possible exception of Xavier and Buddle, I'm thinking I could be extremely comfortable with this lineup for the entire season.

This photo comes to us from Mag, who always links us to the good ones.

Mag wasn't able to see the whole games, so to give a reward for finding this, would anybody be willing to post a torrent?

My headline is almost directly from TimesOnline (UK.) Inflammatory, no?

And it's too bad, too, because the article is fascinating all about Ruud's culture shock in coming to the land of the salary cap.

One of the most interesting parts is about the trials and tribulations of fielding a Reserve team.

Or so says Ives in this post.

I'm on record in the comments of my last SBI Supporter's View saying that I wouldn't have used the allocation for Cory Gibbs due to his injury history and cost against the salary cap (not like I actually know what that is, of course). But I am not the guy(s) in charge of personnel over at the HDC (that can only be a good thing) and I guess their calculus told them to pull the trigger.

Before I get into the main point of this post, I recommend that you check out Kinney's draft thoughts below, as well as the comments from Nick. Good Stuff. Also, a quick note that I am having technical problems at the moment, so my posting may be decreased until we fix it... Okay.

There are several interesting forces at work, but first, two key paragraphs from Soccer America that mirror my thoughts:

One can sympathize with Twellman, to a point, especially in the light of New England's obstructionist history regarding players going overseas.

I'm assuming AEG didn't get where they are by being clueless about business. Right? And one of the key tenets of business is that you don't separate authority from responsibility. Meaning people should have some control over the things you're holding them responsible for.

Let's go wonkish and head to a business website for some basic terminology:

Authority is seen as the legitimate right of a person to exercise influence or the legitimate right to make decisions, to carry out actions, and to direct others.

Game highlights from MLS via youtube:

I cannot. stop. grinning. about Beckham's goal I'm filled to the brim with girlish glee. I'll be back with more comments. I just wanted to get the highlight reel up.

Now that it is The Day After, I have a few thoughts on what just happened.

Alexi Lalas' firing was at least a year too late and was a laughably inept hire in the first place. Lalas was good at many things, like being a salesman extraordinaire, doing color commentary, creating funny ESPN Sportscenter promotional spots, even defending for the US MNT.

Here is Serioux's foul on Beckham. Notice how he walks in front of the Galaxy bench on his way out. A little more "in your face" from him. I wonder if he will be disciplined beyond the red card.

Full game highlights here. And yeah, what a through ball from MacDonald on Klein's goal!

Updates at bottom.

So the hammer comes down.

The Los Angeles Times, in a story by Grahame Jones, reports that AEG has axed BOTH Alexi Lalas and Ruud Gullit in a meeting held today.

Jones reports,

In a pair of sweeping changes brought about by a Major League Soccer season in meltdown, the Los Angeles Galaxy today removed Alexi Lalas as team president and general manager and Ruud Gullit as coach.

Okay, first thing. Even though I've just posted two (count 'em, two) not real positive posts about Landon, I still like the guy. He's still one of the best we've got.

In 90% of games for any team, the person who scores two goals would be a hero. It's just that we needed more. I think it's a little too easy to take it out on the person who was capable of scoring more, but didn't.

The Galaxy looked sharper than they had in weeks last Saturday against the Revolution, which bodes well for the run they will have to make in order to get into the playoffs. However, this Saturday MLS has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to schedule league matches concurrently with a FIFA World Cup qualifier date.

Look, I could write a supplemental draft write-up. Or wait for Kinney or Oscar or Bob to do it. And they still may, I don't know. We're pretty independent here. But frankly, if just for the distance they work for the joke, I'm just gonna refer you to The Fullback Files' post on the matter, and commend to your attention the following:

Round 2 - Dan Stratford (midfielder, West Virginia, Fulham academy).

Tonight the Galaxy tries to keep its flickering post-season hopes alive in a must-win showdown in Bridgeview, IL against the Chicago Fire. Chicago has been struggling of late, losing the last two games by a combined score of 6-1, but the legendarily leaky Galaxy defense might be just what they need to get back on their game.

What are the stages of grief? Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance, right?

I'm not at "acceptance" yet. (And to make my life even worse, my newly beloved team, the scrappy, bankrupt little Luton Town, are currently getting slaughtered by Liverpool. And I have a ferocious headache.

First, as we've all been hearing all along and talking about but now its official, Goff reports that Christian Gomez's rights have been traded to Colorado Rapids. I'm not sure why we can negotiate trades so easily with Colorado. Its hard to cheer against them when they play other MLS teams since they love former DCU defenders.

Awww yeaahhh, here we go, here we go!

What a beautiful game to watch (in HD no less). Who was it who said "If they play him [Gordon] up high with Donovan running underneath him it might work." Ruud? Are you reading this blog again??

My bullet point analysis ...

But not here. Well, not precisely.

What I mean is that my column over at Soccer By Ives is now up. So in a fit of self-pimping, I'm linking to it.

Read and comment, there or here.

Also, consider this an open thread for any and all Galaxy/MLS/futbol conversations.

What's up?

HELLO:...And the parade continues. United has now added Gonzalo Martinez from Millonarios, and Dave Kasper provides us the resume:

Martìnez began his professional career in the Colombian First Division with Deportes Tolima in 1996 before moving to Italian Serie A side Udinese in 2001.

...and yet, I'm not heartbroken.

Yes, the loss is disappointing, but somehow even now it feels a bit abstract. Removed. At a distance.

I think part of it was the fact that Kansas City's stadium make you think you're watching an NCAA broadcast. It's not really real -- not yet. And the team we saw play for United wasn't bad, it just wasn't all there.

Kansas City Wizards 2 : 0 D.C. United
Six Word Novel Recap

Ask me the secret to comedy.

Media, Traditional and OtherwiseThe Washington Post, Steve Goff: "the 2-0 defeat before a sellout crowd of 10,385 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark did not sit well with a United team that retooled its roster in hopes of winning something other than a regular season title.

Here are the game highlights. Boy are Donovan and Beckham developing an amazing connection.

You know, Landon has to be thrilled to finally have the opportunity to say to his critics, "See? I wasn't the problem!"

What this doesn't really show was the replay of the final goal/non-goal in the last few minutes.

Before I get into the guts of this post, which will be short anyway, I just want to say that I do not consider myself to be a tactical or analytic genius when it comes to futbol. I expect much of what I say will be up for debate and that people will feel free to tell me when they think I'm a raging idiot in the comments.

I stole this image from a Flikr stream created by "thisguyprints". I hope he doesn't sue me.

A few weeks ago I took out my frustration with the 2008 season on the Galaxy front office, sending a lengthy e-mail to my season ticket rep and laying out my conditions for renewal. I turned that e-mail into this post from September 10th.

JOSH GROS, AU REVOIR: We start with the news of a qualified good-bye to Josh Gros, who is taking a year off and will then re-evaluate his health. We're going to put Josh in the good-bye column on the right, and note that we may say "hello" to him next year. I honestly have no basis to speculate, but we're all agreed that Josh's health must come first, and I would rather he retire permanently than come back in 2009 and put himself at risk for a more permanent injury.

In general, I'm trying to wait on player announcements until there is something formal said by the club. That's why we kept Troy Perkins out of the Goodbye list for so long. And, sadly, my knowledge of the Argentine first division is not extensive, so other than the links to Clarin that have been posted in the comments (and my thanks for those) and today's story in the Post, there's not much insight I can add other than saying "how do you pronounce his name properly?

Let's go back to that schedule post for a second. Anybody notice anything different from last year?

How about...balance? How about spread out games? How about no more than five matches in any one month? After last year's backloaded schedule, does this look like the path to heaven or what?

Ahh, the end of march, when MLS bloggers awake from their pre-season slumber and start covering their team. Or something like that. This Saturday, United kicks off the 2008 season on the road against the Kansas City Wizards. We're sure to have a full on preview before then, for now, suffice to say that the game is only available on DireckKick and MLSLIVE.

Yesterday I got an email from a Toronto blogger asking for a preview of the game from our perspective. It asked questions like, "What do you think LA's starting xi and formation will be?" and "Who's on form?"

And I'm thinking, "Umm...yeah. I've been out of the country for the two opening games.

Remember what we said last week? The job of a manager is to put his team in the best position to win. And in that job, Tom Soehn failed this week. Against Pachuca, down two goals, he had to press to get goals. Playing three in the back made sense as a tactical change.

Against RSL, Tom Soehn makes a perfectly legitimate decision to give Gallardo and Martinez and Wells a break.

Here's the thing about Abel Xavier.

People write in the comments about how horrible he is, saying things like, "So how does the ball get under Xavier's feet once again, causing Franklin to say WT* as it gets to Razov. That goal was purely Xavier's fault. Cronin covered, Franklin moves it wide, and Xavier looks for his walker to help himself get up.

All kinds of stuff we need to get through before the game tomorrow. (Tomorrow being Saturday, in case you're reading this on the wrong day. Wouldn't want to lead you astray and make you miss the game.)

First off, thanks to everybody who commented on my Abel Xavier post. I found your thoughts both knowledgeable and interesting.

That was a very satisfying win over FC Dallas, wasn't it? It had a little of everything in it: good scoring chances, good scoring, good ball movement, controversial fouls, a few yellow cards, some pushy-shovey, and a red card.

*A hat trick for Buddle. Nice dribbling and possession on the first goal, with a diagonal run by Donovan drawing the defense away long enough to get a well placed shot into the left side of the goal.

Just a few things of note to tide you over until the weekend match against Kansas City.

So unless you've been meditating in a soccerless vacuum, realizing that there's more to life than six pack abs, you likely already know the following:

* When Chris Klein starts this weekends game against K.

Loved, loved, loved the captions for this week's photo. Laurie's made me cry-laugh so unexpected, and brilliant!

So here we go, on our way to play Toronto FC. Hey, I know it will be early for you West Coast folks, but maybe we can play a drinking game.

• One finger for any time streamers are thrown at the corner flag.

What do you think Lalas has in store for us this time?

Will Ruud have any say?

Will Vagenas finally be traded?  (I say no, he has legacy just like Cobi did, but we'll see.)

Will we hang onto the young guys who are becoming good mid-level players?

Will Xavier go?

Is there any chance, any chance at all, of signing Bocanegra?

This should be fun, after that 4-0 arse-whoopin' we got in March. We are certainly a better team than the one that showed up at Dick's that day.

The Rapids, with a record of 5-5-0, are leading the Western Conference standings. However, with their 15 points, the Rapids would only be tied for 4th in the Eastern Conference standings.

I was on the fence about this post. It is silly, certainly. I thought I might discuss the horizontal symmetries of the two clubs' jersey sponsors.
See?
Or I might mention the fact that Greg Vanney is now a "Herbalife-sponsored player" (see: New Stars in the LA Galaxy) and has 10 appearances this season for the Galaxy after most recently playing for DC United.

Sam, commenting in this post, reprints portions of an SI.com article from Jonah Freedman, which goes in-depth on some of the goings-on in the wake of the recent miserable performance of the Los Angeles Galaxy on the field. I figured this kind of this deserves its own posting.

Here's how the article starts:

The soap opera that is the Los Angeles Galaxy just gets weirder and weirder.

With the formal announcement that United now has Franco Niell (Post, Times) on loan for the 2008 campaign, United has a decent sense of what they look like up-top and in front of the nets. Midfield and Defense are now the concerns, and training starts in less than a week. As Haydon says in the Times:

United is expected to make other key signings this week — possibly bringing in Peruvian goalie Jose Carvallo and Colombian defender Gonzalo Martinez — to replace goalie Troy Perkins and defender Bobby Boswell, both of whom recently left the team.