MLS Players............ playing in Las Vegas.
Columbus, Toronto, Galaxy, Chivas, Houston all represented.
They may be enemies on the pitch but off of it they know how to party down.
And why not? It was a tough season.
Thankfully what happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas thanks to The Offsides Rules who have much more to the story.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The details finally emerged on the Carlos Ruiz trade from LA to Toronto FC on Thursday and they were shocking to say the least. The LA Galaxy shipped Ruiz to Toronto FC for a pair of supplemental draft picks.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy has traded Carlos Ruiz to Toronto FC, sources told SBI on Tuesday evening. Details of the deal were not available yet. To make room for Ruiz on the roster, TFC has waived French midfielder Laurent Robert.

Briefly:

*As expected, Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan seems finally on his way to Aston Villa.

*The mighty Galaxy reserves got their first victory today of the season, beating Chivas USA 5-3 on a brace apiece from Carlos Ruiz and Alan Gordon, while young Izzy Sesay got the final goal.

.....but I will.

LA hasn't won in 11 matches. The last time we tasted victory was a couple of weeks before I left for Spain! We were in first place at that moment. Now we're tied for last. Our coach Ruud Gullit quit the team because the American system was too restrictive for the way he wanted to coach.

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.

Here we go - a depleted Galaxy team versus Salt Lake's finest.
Luis thinks former Galaxy player Clint Mathis can still do some damage. I'm thinking it might be Robbie Findley who hurts LA, but we'll see.
RSL: Nick Rimando, Chris Wingert, Nat Borchers, Jamison Olave, Ian Joy, Will Johnson, Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Clint Mathis, Kenny Deuchar, Fabian Espindola
LA: Josh Wicks, Chris Klein, Sean Franklin, Troy Roberts, Mike Randolph, Eduardo Dominguez, Josh Tudela, Greg Vanney, Bryan Jordan, Edson Buddle, Alan Gordon.

Landon Donovan arrived at half time in place of the invisible Alan Gordon and duly almost resurrected the Galaxy, engineering L.A.'s second half goal to make it 2-1.

The Revs hung on, however, and now the Galaxy go into Thursday's derby with Chivas USA without a win in three games.

The goal came in the 66th minute with Donovan sprinting 40 yards with the ball in a counter-attack that culminated with David Beckham scoring from 14 yards for his fifth goal of the season.

Five changes for the Galaxy this evening after last week's loss to New England and no wins in the last three games.

Most fans will undoubtedly be pleased to know that even with an ankle injury to central defender Sean Franklin that was announced Wednesday the hapless Abel Xavier is nowhere to be seen.

Photo by Thomas Shea from Superliga 2008 website

As we enter the knock out stages of Superliga 2008 let me state that while the intensity level was as high for these matches last year the football has been much better this year. No offense to anybody but an LA Galaxy side featuring Alan Gordon and Edson Buddle as starting forwards and an injured David Beckham would not have advanced to the knock out stages of this year's tournament.

This is one of these games that could represent turning points in the season - for both teams.

Will Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas have a job come Tuesday?

The final score was 3-2 Earthquakes, with the winner coming from Ryan Cochrane in the 89th minute.

While the timing of the goal must have felt like a knife in the gut to the now 6-8-5 Galaxy, the winner was no more than San Jose deserved.

Photo by Scott Varley

Cobi Jones' MLS coaching debut sadly became a footnote on a night when former U.S. National Team coach Bruce Arena emerged as the next likely Galaxy coach.

So largely did the game, which included an 89th minute Mike Randolph shot that crashed off the bar after a long David Beckham pass, a dramatic stoppage time equalizer from Alan Gordon and a fractured jaw from a Sean Franklin elbow to veteran Chivas USA midfielder Jesse Marsch that Preki was understandably not at all happy about:

"Sean Franklin elbows Jess Marsch.

The Galaxy (6-4-2), the highest-scoring team in MLS and sitting first in the Western Conference plays the Columbus Crew (7-4-1), which is lying second in the Eastern Conference.

The Galaxy have won four of their last five games propelled by the scoring exploits of Edson Buddle, who has eight goals during that stretch.

The Los Angeles Galaxy are back to a familiar position, on the losing side of the score sheet. I haven't been able to watch the Galaxy vs FC Seoul yet but I have it on the DVR. Alan Gordon is a guy that I have criticized a lot but he got the go ahead goal for the Galaxy on a David Beckham free kick that came to him behind the defense.

As always, the Super Clasico brings forth quite a bit of emotions from players on both sides. The games themselves are heated and intense but after the match is when the emotions can sometimes spill over.
Chivas' locker room after April's 5-2 loss was very quiet. It was quiet there a lot during April and early May but that match was particularly quiet.

The LA Galaxy will have to be without striker Carlos Ruiz for 4-6 weeks after his knee injury he picked up in their season opener against the Colorado Rapids.  Towards the end of that game Ruiz tore the meniscus and sprained the medial collateral ligament of his right knee.

What do the Galaxy do without Ruiz?

Talk about two teams who can look great one week and terrible the next.

The Los Angeles Galaxy looked like a pub team in losing to Toronto a week ago, but took the field at Home Depot and rattled off three unanswered goals against a Rapids team that had looked so impressive a week earlier.

Thought that headline would get your attention.

But before we get to that revelation, a second female U.S. soccer player has gone down with a serious injury and will miss the Olympics. Find out who here.

OK, onwards with the trivial journalism of the day including this "report" from Forbes Magazine, (whose major contributions to journalism these days seems to consist of pumping out lists) which names David Beckham as the world's fifth most powerful celebrity.

I watched the LA Galaxy clobber the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend thanks to
Edson Buddle's hat trick. David Beckham's name was barely mentioned a half dozen times, he was that inconsequential in the win. So far he has been rugged, injury free, playing almost a 1000 minutes, scoring some important goals, and assisting in half a dozen more.

The Eastern Conference (and MLS) leading Revolution (9-4-3) visit the Western Conference leading Galaxy (6-5-3) tonight seeking to extend their undefeated streak over L.A. to eight regular season games, a record that dates back to April 2004.

The Galaxy haven't lost an Independence Day game since 2001, however, so it appears something has to give.

This is a game stunning in its mediocrity and as one press box wit pointed out if you change the names this could be Scunthorpe verses Grimsby. And that's probably being unkind to Grimsby.

The first half highlights consisted of a wide open Alan Gordon missing a header from all of five yards out (never seen that before have we?

Put a fork in them. They are done.

With seven games remaining in the regular season, the Galaxy went to Kansas City to visit the other worst team in the league. This time they were a full strength, facing a squad that has the most anemic attack. Boasting a somewhat improved defense and a new focus on basics since the arrival of King Bruce, this game really should have been a competitive victory for the Galaxy.

The game ended in a 2-2 tie, Chivas USA falling behind to a first half Landon Donovan goal, then clawing back with two goals from Atiba Harris and Paulo Nagamura inside 13 minutes early in the second half.

The Galaxy equalized through an Alan Gordon header in stoppage time.

That prolongs the Galaxy winless streak to eight, by the way.

For anyone who might have missed the game (or overindulged in intoxicating beverages and missed key portions of the game, like, say, Alan Gordon's stoppage time goal), here are the highlights.

Watching this, I was struck by the fact that these were four quality goals. (And Nurse is a huge acquisition for Chivas.

A smattering of Galaxy related reads for your perusal:

*Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney looks at Landon Donovan's MLS MVP chances. (On track for a career-best season, Donovan is doing his best to impress so he can jump ship to Bayern Munich, Europe in general or really anywhere as long as he flees the increasingly erratic Galaxy).

Pachuca Celebrate victory in Superliga 2007/AP Photo  As we enter the knock out stages of Superliga 2008 let me state that while the intensity level was as high for these matches last year the football has been much better this year. No offense to anybody but an LA Galaxy side featuring Alan Gordon and Edson Buddle [.

As we enter the knockout stages of SuperLiga 2008, let me state that while the intensity level was as high for these matches last year, the football has been much better this year. No offense to anybody, but an L.A. Galaxy side featuring Alan Gordon and Edson Buddle as starting forwards and an injured David [.

Mark your calendar. Set your TiVo. Here's your soccer week in Southern California.

Sunday:
*Real So Cal Boys Under-16 Team lost 2-0 to Dallas Texans Red at the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships.

*Also, the Galaxy Reserves drew 2-2 with Dallas through goals by Alan Gordon and Bryan Jordan.

Winless for more than three months and in dire need of maximum points to avoid falling out of the playoff race altogether, the Los Angeles Galaxy cruised to a 5-2 victory over D.C. United on Saturday night - capped by a Landon Donovan hattrick - and instantly vaulted themselves back into postseason contention.

After giving up a goal just 71 seconds into the match - and earning deafening boos from the almost capacity crowd - the Galaxy came back to score three straight, the first three goal outburst in a half since May for L.A.

It should have been four - Edson Buddle couldn't beat D.C. goalkeeper Louis Crayton (a Liberian who played most of his career in Switzerland and was picked up by D.

Landon Donovan had a hat trick and an assist to lead the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 5-2 victory over D.C. United on Saturday night. Donovan, who`s the Major League Soccer top scorer with 19 goals, recorded the second three-goal game of the season and his career.
Alan Gordon and Peter Vagenas each added a goal.