LA Galaxy president and general manager Alexi Lalas has admitted that David Beckham is causing some problems for the team, but not the type that Santino Quaranta suggested yesterday. Instead he feels the main issue is with expectations.

"We are going to win with David Beckham and we are going to lose with David Beckham. We will not win every single game and he is not going to score five goals every single game.

Jurgen Klinsmann has announced that he is ready to return to the world of full-time soccer management, but where will he end up. Will it be is old club Tottenham Hotspur or is Chelsea calling or could Alexi Lalas pull off a huge coup and land him in LA? Let's see, if I was a soccer manager, which club would I go for?
In other news, Eddie Johnson had a bit of a shopping spree over the weekend as he purchased $85,000 in jewelry while in LA.

Well Alexi Lalas said he wanted a sexy name and if published reports are to be believed he got one. Ruud Gullit may not be the right manager for the Galaxy but he certainly has a name in the world of international football, which will create yet another publicity splash for a club so lacking in on field performance but with a Hollywood air to it.

The always fun Jose Mourinho has said that he wouldn't mind coaching in the US at the end of his career, which is some 20-years away. When Alexi Lalas heard the news, he announced that LA is the only place for Mourinho and that they will have him on their sidelines for the 2027 season.
Okay, that last part is a lie, but Mr. Chelsea wouldn't mind being part of the growth of soccer, just not anytime soon.

LA Galaxy Alexi Lalas is hitting out at MLS for the 'ridiculous schedule' they have to play between now and the send of the season.

"We have bent over backwards to help everybody but the Galaxy," Lalas said. "A lot of people have made a tremendous amount of money on the back of what the Galaxy has brought to their markets this year and I hope that they remember that going forwards.

We might know by the end of the day if a German or a Dutchman will guide the Galaxy next season. Rumor has it that Alexi Lalas and the LA franchise have narrowed their options for manager down to Juergen Klinsmann or Ruud Gullit.
Klinsmann is the constant shinning hope of US soccer organizations as he was a fantastic player, had a great spell coaching Germany in 2006, lives in America and knows the US game.

Reports from England suggest that former German coach Jürgen Klinsmann is close to taking over the LA Galaxy sidelines from Frank Yallop.

Jürgen Klinsmann could be about to take over as the head coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy after Frank Yallop, the incumbent, admitted to feeling the strain of managing a losing team under an increased media glare since the signing of David Beckham.

Former Galaxy player and brand new Red Bull Santino Quaranta is like most American soccer fans in that he has a very strong opinion about LA's general manager Alexi Lalas. And, shock, it's not a very happy opinion.

In his short time in Los Angeles, Quaranta has seen quite a lot. And, not coincidentally, the craziness began with the arrival of Alexi Lalas as president and general manager in April 2006.

Dang me, but those troubling philosophical questions won't stop coming. Why do I continue ranking these teams by number knowing that, in my head, Major League Soccer's (MLS) 13 teams actually cluster into "quality tiers" - i.e. groups of one, two, even four teams? The reality is the teams don't line up in [...]

How comfortable does that look? About as comfortable as speaking on a panel with your former boss (who is only marginally competent) that fired you. What's really bugged out though is you now have a better job than the one you were fired from - you were let go by Jordache but now are working for Calvin Klein - and he's likely to be checking the want ads by Christmas.

Frank Yallop will no longer be Alexi Lalas's whipping boy as he has said 'good bye and good luck' to the Galaxy in favor of guiding the reborn San Jose Earthquakes again.
Yallop told LA's players after Sunday afternoon's charity exhibition match against Hollywood United. This move comes right before the Galaxy start their post-season world tour.

Pachuca is the little club that could. Late last night in front of a sellout crowd at the Home Dept Center they one their fourth trophy in nine months as they defeated a disgracefully outclassed LA Galaxy side in a penalty shootout. Landon Donovan missed an opportunity to win the match for the Galaxy when his pk in the 5th round was saved by Miguel Calero.

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Pachuca CF
10pm ET/ 7pm PT - Home Depot Center
TV: Telefutura (Spanish)
Internet: MLStv
Could the first SuperLiga, a competition that has seen some of the best club soccer played in America in the last ten years, really conclude in such a lopsided contest? Pachuca comes into the match as recent winners of Mexico, CONCACAF and South America's Copa Sudamericana, while LA is having a hard time remembering the last time they won a game.

With the recent rash of firings/resignations of Major League Soccer (MLS) coaches - not to mention the barely moral decision to keep around one coach well past his use-by date (though there is hope yet) - chatter about replacements, as well as the talents and qualities that will make said replacements worth the dinero, dominated [...]

Back in the saddle after my many travels and busting out the TvT a few days late! Purge yourself of the turkey-sloth and horrified glances at the status of your post-shopping credit accounts, it's off to the DVR and back into the line of fire . . . Tickle CONCACAF is finally starting to put some thought into their own version of the Champions' League, and it looks promising.

Tucked toward the bottom of a well-reasoned take on the Ricardo Clark situation, Ian Plenderleith passed on some news I might have known had I read The DCenters a little more closely over the past couple weeks (you guys caught this, right?): "Speaking of difficult challenges for US teams in Central America, tonight DC United faces [...]

SF over at he The Offisde Rules has fun today mocking the Los Angeles Galaxy for strutting their stuff as though they were some super club. I love it. It's as though Lalas and the rest of the folks at AEG think they've turned the Los Angeles Galaxy into the new New York Cosmos. They got Beckahm and now Ruud Gullit so.

When Ives Galarcep posted chatter about a rift between LA Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop and general manager Alexi Lalas, at least one interested party quickly picked up on the story. My Soccer Blog directed me to the latest comments from Santino Quaranta, who had a thing or two to say what things looked like during his time in LA - who, if you'll recall (and I can't find the original article) was once quoted just days before being traded as viewing LA's locker room something like freaked-out.

I don't know much about blogging, but I do know that when I walk away from something I posted and keep thinking of better ways to make my point that I posted a bunch of gibberish.
As much as I like bits and pieces of my original post on the reported chilly tiff between LA Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas and LA head coach Frank Yallop, here's another, shorter, better (peanut-butter sandwich cookie) crack at it.

- I'll lead with a doozy of a concept. A Houston Chronicle article on the local team's recent staggers pointed out that said local team has only SIX regular season games remaining. Nah, I said. Then I checked the standings. Holy crap. The same applies to Kansas City. It's [...]

With it looking a whole lot like no current head coach in Major League Soccer (MLS) will lose their job by the end of the year, now seems a good time to look at who might suffer the fatal blow after the(ir respective team's) season ends. Coming after the season, this is less a [...]

The 2007 Major League Soccer season is over. Los Angeles, Colorado, Columbus, Toronto and Salt Lake all failed to make the playoffs. Who should be held responsible? Should Los Angeles fire Lalas? Yallop? Both of them? Why hasn't Colorado fired Clavijo after his failing to live up to his 3 year plan? Did Mo do enough to show that he's building a Toronto team that can make the playoffs in 2008?

Steven Cohen of World Soccer Daily seems convinced that Steve McClaren is going to be next manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy. Why would McClaren who has the England job, albeit tenuously and managed Middlesbrough be interested in a second tier Major League Soccer job, a job that was ditched by Frank Yallop in order to take over an expansion team? I can point blank without any sources on the matter dismiss the talk of McClaren, Fabio Capello or any of the other sexy international names associated with the Galaxy job.

Well Alexi Lalas said he wanted a sexy name and if published reports are to be believed he got one. Ruud Gullit may not be the right manager for the Galaxy but he certainly has a name in the world of international football, which will create yet another publicity splash for a club so lacking in on field performance but with a Hollywood air to it.

It's a misty and cool January Sunday - nearly a year ago - and I'm wending my way from downtown Los Angeles to Palos Verdes – a gorgeous and very exclusive coastal region south of the city (not far from Carson, home of Chivas USA & LA Galaxy). The landscape changes from the flat freeway-crossed grid of south LA to the open, breezy boulevards of Lomita (I think), and after an hour I'm lost in a

Tickle

• The U-20's got dumped by Austria, but they had a pretty good run at the U-20 World Cup. I'm fairly certain we'll be seeing a few of those boys step up to the full national team as qualifying for 2010 progresses.
  
• USL teams are absolutely abusing MLS in the Open Cup with the quarterfinal brackets reading USL 4, MLS 3 with one game pending tonight as Chivas take on the Sounders.

- 'Twas a subtle thing, but a couple intriguing switches hit the standings thanks to Week 21. First, Chivas USA swiped FC Dallas' spot as one of the "Conference Seeds" out West - i.e. Chivas now sits in 2nd place in the West, which means, so long as they stay there, they're above the [...]

Three weeks ago many people including here on this site speculated aloud as to Frank Yallop's coaching future and whether or not he'd be able to motivate his last place Los Angeles Galaxy team for the remained of the MLS season.
Well guess what? Yallop and the Galaxy are on a roll, having won four games in a row and they are doing it Yallop's way.

Tickle Holy crap, the Owls hang five on the Saints to make it four wins from six and a run of four unbeaten. Wednesday are now poised to push into the top half of the table. A decent run through the busy holiday season could see them joining the playoff fray. Ah, the lovely roller coaster that is Sheffield Wednesday . . . While we're on the Fizzy Soda Pop League, anybody else think that the

Cirque du LA continues as Santino Quaranta packs his bags for the Misty Mountains - oops, make that the swampy miasma of north Jersey - in exchange for a conditional fourth round draft pick. My, how the mighty have fallen! Conditional fourth round draft pick? Is that more or less than a bag of balls and some orange cones?
I'm thinking the Bruce is getting a steal here at the expense of "Crazy" Alexi and his fire-sale approach to roster management.

I've been hearing rumors to the effect that Lalas and Yallop aren't exactly BFFs. It seems a lot of the recent trades (many of which I still don't understand) are all the work of the ginger one. Now I'm finally hearing about it from a reliable source.
If you want my opinion--well, your reading my blog so your gonna get it--dump Lalas before he does much more damage to the team.

* To be clear, LA Galaxy GM did not, in any way, respond directly to anything written in this space...I think he only goes after the Brits...
- May as well lead with Alexi: Mark Ziegler spent some time with both Lalas and LA head coach, Frank Yallop - though probably not in the same room. Ziegler got some quotes that might explain the apparent spazzing in LA to the outside world:

"'There is the conventional wisdom that you ride the storm out and let things settle, and certainly there's a time and place for that,' Lalas says.

"What I am saying is that the [David Beckham] media blitz is going to bring new meaning to the term overkill."
- Ives Galarcep, Soccer by Ives, 07.13.07

That's precisely what has me feeling a bit of ambivalence about adding to the frenzy - and that goes double with Posh in tow, who, the more I see of her, gives the impression that we've imported a second Paris Hilton.

Alexi Lalas told Marca Sports Daily on Friday that Luis Figo was still likely to come to MLS, although he will not be playing for the Galaxy. I'm not sure if this is just bluster by Lalas to get in the European press at a time when David Beckham's injury woes worsen and after the Galaxy embarrassed themselves in two friendlies where the European press assembled (it should be pointed out that the Galaxy have played very well since those two friendlies), or if this is something real.

I don't often "go to press" - e.g. post on the fly - just because I see a big thing ambling down the pike (though, yes, I'm a on-his-back whore for rumors). But with ESPN reporting with faith in "multiple sources" that Frank Yallop will step down as head coach of Los Angeles Galaxy, [...]

It's been a day now since I heard about Yallop's departure from the HDC. I still think it's a mistake to let him go. Now, I'm afraid the AEG brain trust will make an even bigger mistake. Seriously, Queiroz did an awful job with the Metros. Why would he do any [...]

Anyone else catch the Beckham presser, and listen to the coded transmissions from Alexi Lalas regarding the LA Galaxy locker room and his relationship with Frank Yallop? Very interesting. One recurring trope was the idea of the LA Galaxy "family." They're a happy family, they're a happy family, they're a happy family, them, mom, and daddy*.
*Not their best song, which remains Bonzo Goes to Bitburg where a political sentiment was actually expressed with nuance, humanity, and poignancy.

Some days I understand why Brucio from du Nord just goes wacky with the links. There's a hell of a lot out there. - Ian Plenderleith closed his FC Dallas celebration for USSoccerplayers.com by (merrily?) grumbling about last week's Wunder Rumor about Frank Yallop stepping down and Jurgen Klinsmann stepping in to save the LA Galaxy. [...]

Tickle

• Jaime finally nets #109. Appropriately it's on a penalty. Hopefully we don't have to wait to few months more (or for the next pen, whichever comes first) for #110.
• Deep and dangerous. That's what Liverpool are looking. They ran out the B team against Toulouse in the Champions' League qualifier and thumped the French side 4-0.

Apologies to loyal readers, but the column will be delayed a day and shorted due to FC Soccersnob's Pitch Relocation Efforts which will be more Chicago-style than San Jose if you know what I mean.
SuperLiga
It all comes down to this. The worst team in MLS getting pounded into Bolivia by a Mexican club. Really, would anyone feel that less confident in the American entry if RSL donned Galaxy jerseys tonight?