Kljestan hasn't signed a new MLS contract.

He hasn't joined Glasgow Celtic.

Yet Chivas USA was moved to confirm this evening that the club have "officially announced that midfielder Sacha Kljestan, U.S. Soccer's 2008 Young Male Athlete of the Year and Chivas USA's reigning team MVP, will return to the Red-and-White for the 2009 MLS season, which kicks off on March 21.

Read the column here.

(Sadly the wit and wisdom of Brian Clough - or at least my attempted tribute to it in the last line of that column is apparently lost on the copy editors here; it should read "the top one," singular, not plural).

Check out the trailer.

I had the pleasure of speaking recently with actor Michael Sheen about the film and his role as Brian Clough.

I'd never really spoken to Mike Magee before when he was with New York, but after he converted two penalty kicks Saturday in the Pan-Pacific alleged Championship and appears likely to make the roster I figured I should get acquainted:

Question: What did you think of the team's performance tonight compared to Wednesday?

Few players are more qualified than former Galaxy and likely future Chivas USA left back Ante Jazic (Jonny Bornstein has been playing left half during preseason) to provide a perspective on both clubs. Jazic played more than 40 games with the Galaxy over the last three years before being traded to their intra-stadium rivals in the off-season.

I'm heading out to the first-ever L.A. Sol practice shortly and realized I still had an interview with Kljestan recorded last week I had yet to post.

Kljestan is injured and didn't play Sunday in Chivas USA's win over the PDL Ventura County Fusion in Santa Clarita. He spoke about his expectations for the upcoming season, the interest shown by Glasgow Celtic in him and the U.

Today's rubber-stamping of the widely leaked announcement that the Portland Timbers would become the latest USL team to jump to MLS renewed memories of the NASL's legacy in Portland that bears more than a few similarities to that seen earlier in the week in Seattle and Portland and recounted here.

There are some times when you can't help reverting from journalist to fan.

Meeting and talking to Pele at the opening of Home Depot Center in 2003 courtesy of AEG was one of them; interviewing Zinidene Zidane Saturday in El Segundo via a French language interpreter thanks to adidas was another.

Truth be told, I've always remembered midfielder Dema Kovalenko more for his temper and two crunching tackles that broke the legs of Dallas defender Brandon Pollard (ending his career) and Ronnie O'Brien (almost ending his) than his work rate on the field.

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena, who had Kovalenko in his team with the Red Bulls, was I'm guessing looking for a bit of steel in what was on occasion a rather limp midfield last season and looked even worse this year with the departures of Pete Vagenas and Alvaro Pires.

I should really have called this post "Catching up with Danny Califf."

For some reason I don't think I had talked to Califf at length since he left the Galaxy after the 2004 season (outside of grabbing a few comments at a packed mixed zone after a national team game).

He was in an ebullient move on the opening day of the U.

At age 37, former U.S. international Tony Sanneh is on trial with the Galaxy in a bid to extend his injury-riddled career.

Sanneh began his MLS career winning back to back titles with Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena at D.C. United. But Sanneh has battled injuries of one sort or another ever since moving from MLS to Hertha Berlin in 1998, where he managed just 31 appearances in four years.

A prophetic statement by Omar Gonzalez' college coach on his Maryland player profile at the start of the 2008 season came true and the huge central defender was made the Galaxy's top draft choice.

Born and raised in Dallas, Gonzalez learned just a couple of days before the draft that the Galaxy were interested in him.

Former Galaxy midfielder Sasha Victorine scored two goals in five games after arriving from Kansas in mid-season last year and then suffered the worst injury of his career. I caught up with him the other day after training to get an update on his progress.

Question: How are you doing with rehab?