It was quite a week topped off by Arsenal beating Man Citeh in the big clash at the top of the table. Chelsea and ManYoo were a bit on the ugly side in doing the business against decidedly average competition and Spurs dropped back a bit with Everton surging back toward the top half of the table after a terrible start.

Okay, Galaxy, I apologize. You're not the biggest frauds in the league. You just played a two-game series against the actual biggest frauds in the league.
Maybe the Galaxy, like the Lakers, are perfecting the sequence of playing well enough to clinch home court/field, coasting through the rest of the regular season, then turning it on for the playoffs.

Premier League team news - ESPN Soccernet The News You Need To Know... ARS v. FUL - Cesc is out meaning Nasri (who is fit) will be even more central and that Wilshere and possibly Rosicky increase in value. Squillaci is also back which provides another moderately priced defender as an option although Koscielny is a better bet.

Sorry about the lack of a Live Chat today but I missed out on the fact that there was no early match today. We're in Tampa with my wife's sister and brother-in-law and it is a perfect beach day (sunny and 80 degrees F without a cloud in the sky) so the Live Chat for the afternoon matches isn't going to happen.

Easing my way back into the blog with a matchday open thread. I'm going to try to follow Ful/Wig, Brm/Liv and then Eve/WHU today. After a decent Saturday - goals from Drogs, Bendt and Tevez and hopefully three assists from AJ - I'm looking for points from THo, Gardner, Osman and Maxi. You?

BY ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, CALIF -- It was another impressive offense performance for the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night as the club dominated the Philadelphia Union, earning a 3-1 victory.

AJ DeLaGarza opened the scoring with the second fastest goal in Galaxy history 53 seconds after the opening whistle while Edson Buddle added two more goals to bring his season total to nine.

Los Angeles continued a tear that saw the Philadelphia Union succumb to an organized attack led by Edson Buddle and skipper Landon Donovan. Buddle scored his eighth and ninth goals in six games but even more impressively, dished out an assist on an early 53-second goal scored by AJ DeLaGarza. Joe Cannon helped San Jose to their third win of the season as San Jose finally doesn't look like an expansion team anymore.

AJ DeLaGarza's first goal of the year (making him the Galaxy's second leading scorer with his second career goal) is up for Goal of the Week in MLS this week. He's up against some pretty nice goals, including wonder strikes from Andy Williams of Real Salt Lake and Chris Wondolowski of San Jose, but you'd be hard pressed to find a nominee that came from better teamwork or a cleaner or more incisive series of passes (sorry Chicago).

Although the closing minutes were nail-biting, the Galaxy came away from Wednesday night's match in Colorado with a 1-0 win over the Rapids.

Before I share my thoughts, please click over to the MLS Stats page and take a look. You don't have to look at the stats just scroll down and look at the photos.

Looks like we nailed the Sounders starters, Evans and Marshall will both start. Only mild surprise is Miguel Montano in for David Estrada on the reserve list.

The Galaxy did switch up their starters a bit. AJ DeLaGarza went from starting all seven games to not even being on the reserve list.

Well, it wasn't pretty, but it wasn't a loss either.

The Galaxy were kept to a draw against Toronto FC on Saturday at the HDC. Both teams had chances but failed to convert. The Galaxy had the lion's share of chances but were frustrated by TFC keeper Stefan Frei, the post, and the crossbar.

Today is the last chance to vote for the MLS All-Star team, which will be taking on Manchester United on July 28th in Houston.

Several Galaxy players have been nominated, including Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle, Michael Stephens, Omar Gonzalez, Gregg Berhalter, AJ DeLaGarza, Todd Duivant, Juninho and Donovan Ricketts.

A week or so ago, one of our readers hit us up with a private email on the rumor with nine lives, the one that claims that Ronaldinho is definitely on his way to the LA Galaxy and definitely during this transfer window – the one that officially opened today.

Specifically our confidante, who says he can't come out right and say how he exactly knows for sure that the player in question will be in Galaxy uniform, lays it out like this:

"Ronaldinho will join the Galaxy in August.

UPDATE BELOW!

A week or so ago, one of our readers hit us up with a private email on the rumor with nine lives, the one that claims that Ronaldinho is definitely on his way to the LA Galaxy and definitely during this transfer window – the one that officially opened today.

Crocker Lions, AJ Imilkowski (2011)

From Brent Foster in the Waynesville Daily Guide High Hopes, Crocker soccer loaded after 16-3 season

Last season the Crocker High School soccer team reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament. But expectations for this year's squad are even higher as the Lions return 10 starters and 11 seniors from last year's 16-3 squad.

So the challenge was simple enough: Pick an MLS starting eleven that which has a total 2010 Guaranteed Compensation under $1,000,000.

The results were simple enough too. A pretty good team, I'd say. (Review it here.)

But as it turns out, the process of choosing the team and some insight about the league that came from it are probably what was the most interesting.

So I completely missed yesterday's match as I was flying across the country after spending Christmas in rainy Seattle. But considering the result, I'll try it more often.

Excluding our only league away win last season, Fulham haven't kept a clean sheet on the road, and won, since May 16 2009 when we beat Newcastle 1-0.

Two top-flight games off, Reds request postponement - Barclays Premier League - ESPN SoccernetWell, that certainly screws with the line-up I had locked in when I went to sleep last night. To summarize the link above...Fulham v. Pompey is officially called off (that's no Duffman or Dempsey for me and probably Baird and AJ for others as well).

Despite the interest surrounding Adam Johnson's future on Teesside at least, if we he does leave, we should be able to bargain for a very good price for the 22-year-old winger.

He scored two stunning goals last night which will only increase the temptation from Chelsea and Manchester City to sign him as they looked on at Doncaster Rovers last night.

Adam Johnson wants to talk to Manchester City to see what they can offer him in terms of football. The 22-year-old is likely to sign for Roberto Mancini's side if he is guaranteed first-team football from now until the end of the season meaning Gordon Strachan will have to work fast in securing more signings to strengthen the squad before the transfer window is shut.

Here we go live from Florida. My line-up is EvdS, Verm, Bale, Hutton, Valencia, Collison (gulp), AJ, Delph (as an enabler), Rooney, Drogs, and K2... Looking early at options to move off of my ManYoo guys since they don't have any games next weekend. Arsenal and Bolton look to be interesting based on the match-ups.

Here's my line-up... Hilario, Verm, Bale, Hutton, Fab4, Gerrard, AJ, Maxi, Drogs, Bendtner, and Doyle Please keep in mind as we discuss the BD that Chelsea, Villa, Citeh, Fulham, Spurs, and Rovers are all off next week. Burnley and Bolton have two matches. Arsenal has a great home match-up (Burnley) and ManYoo and Liverpool have great road match-ups (Wolves and Wigan respectively).

Line-up... Friedel, Verm, Bale, Hutton, Arteta, Milner, AJ, Malouda, MGP, Drogs, Bendtner Barn Door Watch: Fulham and Wigan have two matches with Fulham definitely being the more interesting with @Hull and Wigan (Wigan have @Citeh and @Fulham which will both be tough for them). <p>&lt;a href="http://www.

I'm not sure if I've talked to anyone who completely loves their line-up for this weekend but here's mine... Gomes, Bale, Jagielka, Smalling, AJ, Eth, Lawrence, Modric, Fuller, Tevez, Defoe Worried about the number of people who have PVC and I think we're all worried about our keepers... For next weekend, I'm looking ahead to Citeh (@WHU), Spurs (@Burnley), Chelsea (WIG), and ManYoo (STO)

(Image by Alex Gallardo/AP)
And those words are: Confidence is contagious.

Last night's game was the most complete game the Galaxy has put together this year, a dominating performance on both sides of the balls that thoroughly demoralized the struggling expansion side from Philadelphia.

Folks, if you are missing your mid-week Galaxy fix, then the team's official website has the cure. They'll be live streaming the US Open Cup match against Seattle tonight at 7 pm audio and video.

So if you want to see the game from the Starfire Sports Complex, mosey on over to www.lagalaxy.

Crocker Lions, AJ Imilkowski (2011)

From Brent Foster in the Waynesville Daily Guide High Hopes, Crocker soccer loaded after 16-3 season

Last season the Crocker High School soccer team reached the quarterfinals of the state tournament. But expectations for this year's squad are even higher as the Lions return 10 starters and 11 seniors from last year's 16-3 squad.

Crocker Lions 3
West Plains Zizzers 1
Teddy Zeigenbein opened the scoring when he scored on a breakaway in the 3rd minute. Devon Scott knotted the score for the Zizzers' only five minutes later but Zeigenbein combined with AJ Imilkowski who scored the eventual game winner in the 44th.

Edson Buddle and Sean Franklin celebrate Buddle first-half game-winning header

Get in, get out, get away with three points.

That was the story of last Thursday's match, which ended up resembling a bit of a smash-and-grab run by the Los Angeles Galaxy as they descended on PPL Park in Chester, PA, the home of the Philadelphia Union.

View full size photo »

The Sounders lineup was an easy one. We're expecting them to go with the same starting group they've used in five of the past six games.

Jamie Doak was good enough to write the following for us. Great stuff, Jamie, thanks! Sounds like we did okay.

Point played for, point gained. Sums up the performance really as we reverted back to a more Hodgson-like style.

As expected Newcastle flew out the traps, they're the form side and they played some very nice stuff, but nothing clear cut or nothing that our superb defenders couldn't handle.

In Saturday's game a recuperating Andy Johnson made six passes. I wasn't there, so I'm sure I missed the usual off-the-ball endeavor, but if you're that peripheral then you're a theoretical threat, not an actual threat.

On Wednesday we played the best team in the country on their own pitch.

Andre Johnson melted down and threw punches at Cortland Finnegan. Apparently, AJ's good reputation worked to his advantage as the Houston Texans wide receiver only got fined $25K. Considering that many thought Andre Johnson could be suspended, a $25K fine is basically nothing. Finnegan, a defensive back for the Tennessee Titans, received the same punishment for getting punched.

Real Madrid 4-0 Auxerre ( Karim Benzema*3, Cristiano Ronaldo) Real Madrid finished their Champions League campaign on a winning note as they thrashed Auxerre 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu. Karim Benzema netted a hat trick for Los Blancos, with Cristiano Ronaldo also scoring. Real Madrid vs Auxerre 1-0 ( Benzema goal) Real Madrid vs AJ [.