Remember way back in March when we told you that Alexi Lalas was in the hot seat and that if things did not change drastically for the LA Galaxy his head would roll? Well it appears that the real powers behind the Galaxy namely, the men who orchestrated the Beckham deal namely, Phil Anshutz and Tim Leweke are not happy according to Steve Goff.

My first attempt at capturing the spirit of this game was a sketch of me covering my eyes, an appropriate choice because that's how I watched the the final fifteen minutes of the Los Angeles Galaxy's season opener. But the image at left, which captures my reaction to the Colorado Rapids' third goal and [.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

You knew things were bad in Los Angeles Galaxy land after Sunday's loss to San Jose. Now, we have some insight into just how bad things have been.

SI.

Ronaldinho still believes he can play at the top level in Europe so he will not be moving to LA. And with these words, Ronaldinho's representatives kill Alexi Lalas's dream of a modern day Cosmos franchise (original Spanish article).
It appears the Galaxy offered the Brazilian €32m of $50m-per-year, with half coming from salary and the other half from image rights.

Just how bad is it in the LA Galaxy organization right now? Bad enough that some heads could roll after yesterday's surprising loss on the road to expansion side San Jose. Yesterday, SI.com's Jonah Freedman uncovered some very interesting things going on with the Galaxy, AEG president and CEO Tim Lieweke visited the Galaxy locker room [.

Just received this link to Max Zeger's article on the possible, but sounding more probably, trade.

And I know that Benny Feilhaber's looking to come back to the States as well.

Here's a piece of Zeger's post:

Alexi Lalas has been trying to ship Carlos Ruiz somewhere for a while now.

Pitch Invasion proudly welcomes a new contributer today. Mike Gumballhead will comment philosophically on pressing issues of world football whenever he is gripped by an overwhelming fever, as he was today by the Galaxy's latest shrewd move towards world domination. It's long been my suspicion that Alexi Lalas is a genius cunningly disguised as a ginger [.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Maybe it was fitting that Ryan Cochrane, a player Alexi Lalas helped draft with the original San Jose Earthquakes four years ago, scored San Jose's game-winning goal on Sunday. Better yet, maybe it was more fitting to see Frank Yallop celebrate a victory over the manager he was dumped for, a manager whose job is in jeopardy.

We were sent the following email over the weekend:
Happy Sunday Rumors: Heard from someone in the LAG FO that all staff members are being called into a CLUB STAFF MEETING sometime tomorrow .. .. Hmmm .. .. Could be nothing as tomorrow is some sort of Season Ticketholders Event as well, but I doubt it .

Ruud Gullit stepped down as coach of Los Angeles Galaxy after they found themselves in the fourth place in the MLS Western Conference despite Beckham.
Alexi Lalas, the man responsible for luring David Beckham to the Major League Soccer (MLS) club became one of the heads that rolled in the sweeping changes that Timothy J.

We put two and two together again and hopefully as in our Alexi Lalas and Ruud Gullit rumor, this pans out as well.
Two weeks ago we received the following short email:
"Hello Rumors,
I have it on good authority that Kasey Keller has signed with MLS. No idea where he will go but probably Seattle.

If you're a resident of Los Angeles, I need you to go to the Home Depot Center and do whatever you can to get Alexi Lalas fired.  Alexi Lalas knows his team needs defenders, and he is close to the signing of Cory Gibbs, but the BBC is reporting that LA has made an approach [...]

Of course, I couldn't pass on the chance to get a Galaxy reaction to this whole thing. In between tapings of our Alexi Lalas interviews, I went ahead and asked him about Landon Donovan and Preki, and as usual Alexi did not disappoint.
He said he was taken aback a bit that it was Preki who was complaining.

Wizards technical director, Peter Vermes will remain with the Wizards. Bob Luder is reporting that Vermes had been offered the job of GM with the LA Galaxy, following the firing of Alexi Lalas. Vermes turned the position down. Honestly I can't blame him for it. The situation in LA is a circus and almost a no win situation for the man that takes the GM position.

It's pretty sad when two soccer columnists who represent what is supposedly one of the nation's top newspapers are so incompetent and out-of-touch with reality. Last November, I called New York Times soccer columnist Jack Bell a wanker for writing an idiotic article criticizing Fox Soccer Channel for broadcasting the Premier League, the world's most popular [.

Post-1994 World Cup: Breaking Into First Division Soccer
After the 1994 World Cup in which the US team showed great progress from 1990, the European soccer establishment started to notice two things; that the Americans do indeed play soccer and that a few more of their players are worth signing.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Ruud Gullit is packing his bags and Alexi Lalas is looking for work for the first time in years. What is left in the wake of the Los Angeles Galaxy's blood-letting is a team in need of direction and in desperate need of someone capable of cleaning up the mess.

The Galaxy are ugly and getting uglier.

Sniping. Name-calling. Signs of locker room discontent. Is the Galaxy big enough for all this?

This is a team whose confidence looks shot and whose players are riven with doubts.

The basic question: how can a team with David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz in the line-up not only look so bad in Sunday's tortured 4-1 loss to Dallas, but have failed to win in the last six games?

Rating: 4 (Good)
The other boot seems to be falling in LA. Or rather, with LA. According to today's World Soccer Daily (check back here later for audio), new Galaxy manager , Ruud Gullit and Alexi Lalas are at odds. Apparently it has come out that one of the things that lead to Frank Yallop leaving was Lalas hand picking players.

Previously in the past couple of weeks we at MLSR have been trying to connect the dots between rumors that Alexi Lalas would get the sack, to Donovan's new found interest in going to Europe, Pete Vagenas possibly wanting to go to China, to the recent news that Galaxy manager, Ruud Gullit put his house up for sale.

There was a bloodbath in Los Angeles today as Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas got the boot and coach Ruud Gullit packed up his balls and went home. The official story is that he resigned. There's a chance it may actually be true. LA fans aren't hugely surprised by the Lalas news. He [...]

We all know the usual awards after a big game, right? MVP, Best Goal, blah blah blah. Those are so boring. So, instead, we bring you The Offside's Awards for the Eastern Conference Final: The Ones They Really Deserved. The "How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?" Award to: [...]

Neither Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas nor Coach Ruud Gullit would comment today on reports the Galaxy are close to signing former Newcastle and Aston Villa midfielder Nolberto Solano.

NEWS: Honestly, tell me you didn't see this coming with a straight face. Do it. I dare you. AEG warned the Galaxy last week, and now the heads are rolling. Both Ruud Gullit and Alexi Lalas have been relieved of...

For weeks, it seemed the writing was on the wall for either Ruud Gullit or Alexi Lalas. The Galaxy's terrible results dictated that someone would have to pay the price.
It seems both have as both Gulllit and Lalas are gone.
Gullit resigned for personal reasons while Lalas and AEG have also parted ways.

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.

.....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.

Well, it seems a few things have happened in the last few days. Guess I should catch up a bit. The big news, for LA fans, is that Fish will be returning. LA fans are split by this move. They either love or hate it. I'm in the camp that believes no [...]

Sorry about the slow day...y'know, life. MLS Rumors posted an interesting tid-bit over this weekend: "Now we hear that sparks have been flying and fires stoked during the Galaxy's Asia tour and World Soccer Daily is reporting that the rumor in LA is that Lalas will be gone by July. Gullit's no non-sense approach to squad [.

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.

Cobi Jones faced the media for the first time Tuesday as the Galaxy's interim coach.

Jones said kinder things about predecessor Ruud Gullit than some of the players I talked to Tuesday. And he was saying all the right things as far as former GM Alexi Lalas was concerned, too:

"It's a loss of someone that was very dedicated to this club and this organization, not only the Galaxy but AEG.

The answer, of course, is neither, but after reading Greg Lalas' recent 3-5-2 column on Goal.com on how to build an MLS side, I think it best to say that the one who actually has the job is the one who should be worried. (Especially if the new season ticket numbers revealed this week are to be believed.

Graham Jones of the LA Times with the story that comes as no surprise to anyone.
LA Galaxy owners AEG fired both team president/general manager Alexi Lalas and head coach Ruud Gullit today.
The dead give away came when Gullit put his house up for sale last week, then claimed his "wife just didn't really like the place".

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy will introduce Bruce Arena as the team's new head coach at a press conference scheduled for 2pm ET today.

Arena and assistant coach Dave Sarachan will take over for former Galaxy head coach Ruud Gullit, who resigned a week ago, and their first game at the Galaxy helm will be Saturday against the Chicago Fire.

Photos by ISIphotos.com

In a stunning, though not completely surprising turn of events at the Los Angeles Galaxy, both Ruud Gullit head coach and team president Alexi Lalas are looking for new jobs.

Alexi Lalas was let go yesterday and it reminded me of an email exchange we had when he was first named general manager of the San Jose Earthquakes in 2004.
i offered him some unsolicited advice about running an MLS team, because the front office side of MLS was new to him and we both were under the AEG umbrella.

(Summary is not available.)

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.

So much for the "Sexy Football" Ruud Gullit was expected to bring when he took over the Los Angeles Galaxy just nine months ago. The AP is reporting that Gullit and GM Alexi Lalas are both out of a job, and that Gullit will be succeeded by Galaxy legend Cobi Jones on an interim basis. The Gullit Era [.

LA Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group must read this blog. Less than a week after my post about why the Galaxy need to fire Alexi Lalas. Today Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of AEG announced that  Ruud Gullit has resigned as coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy for personal reasons, and president/general manager Alexi Lalas [.