Sir Alex Ferguson yesterday claimed that Ronaldo's excellent free kick goal in United's 2-0 win over Portsmouth, was the best ever in Premier League history. The Lord of the Ferg drooled: "Have I seen a better free-kick in the Premier League? No, that must be the best. "It was within two or three [.

The 2008 MLS schedule is just a few weeks away from release, but there are a number of problems they need to overcome. Here are the scheduling issues as presented by Steve Davis:
- SuperLiga
- Concacaf Champions League
- US Open Cup
- 2008 Olympics
- ESPN2 Thursday night broadcasts
- World Cup Qualifying (the league will play on international dates)
- No national broadcasts from San Jose
- Stadium scheduling conflicts
- Beckham
- International friendly competitions
That's a lot to cram into a 31-week regular season and no doubt some items (US Open Cup) are going to get the short end of things.

Today's column looks at Monday's roster and salary budget compliance day in MLS, but it wasn't until this morning that we learned the Galaxy has waived Celestene Babayaro, Kyle Martino and Kelly Gray.

The latter two aren't much of a surprise as the column points out, but Babayaro getting cut is.

Steve McClaren, last seen getting sack-beaten by the whole of England, says he learned a lot during his 18-months in charge of the national team and that he is very interested in returning to coaching. He would prefer to return to the Premier League, but is willing to go anywhere as long as the team can challenge for the top spot in their league.

Remember last season when the pseudo fans demanded their money back because Mr. Beckham wasn't able to play in the game against the Rapids because he had just played a game for England, flown back to play for the Galaxy the next day and, rightly, realized the schedule was ridiculous?

The situation here was probably partly perspective - some consider wingers to be essentially forwards that sit farther back, while midfielders win the ball on the defensive end and trigger the attack. Either way, though, David Beckham had a point, and his patience was wearing thin during this press conference exchange.

Golden Balls is everywhere, isn't he? But the one place I thought I could be sure I would never see Becks and Co. was at an AEK game. + = WTF?! Could this really happen? It's just a rumor right now, but check it!

You've been rickrolled! No, seriously, it's a real story.

The Times is reporting that although Fabio Capello has left David Beckham out of the England squad, he still has a chance of moving beyond his current tally of 99 caps. Times journo Matt Dickinson writes: "Beckham was told over the telephone by Capello late on Wednesday evening that he had been left [.

On Friday, Denilson made it official, he is done with FC Dallas as he signed with Brazilian side Palmeiras. It is no shock that he is gone as FCD basically told him take a big pay cut, thus no longer being a designated player or don't come back. Since Denilson likes to make money, he decided to move along.

Houston 1-6 Gamba Osaka
Has Houston ever been tossed around the way they were last night against J-League Cup Champions Gamba Osaka? All over the pitch, the team looked the weaker side as Gamba's technical control combined with their lethal counter-attacks gave them the game. Brazilian striker Bare made the top defense in MLS look like amateur night with his unbelievable ability to sneak right past his mark and into one-on-one situations with Pat Onstad.

The Galaxy and Chivas USA opened training camp Monday.

A couple of items that didn't make it into the column:

*Paraguay's all-time leading scorer and former South American Player of the Year Jose Cardozo was supposed to be at the Chivas USA camp Monday with a view to coming out of retirement.

Galaxy opens camp and the local media is there to cover it.
Billy Witz of the Daily News and Grahame Jones of the LA Times were out there, as well as Damian Calhoun of the Orange County Register. Also, Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports was there, though I only caught him from a distance.
It was nice to see the fellas out there, and it was also nice to be one of the smaller guys for a change!

Several different English media reports indicate David Beckham will win a recall to the England team Thursday when Fabio Capello names his squad for next Wednesday's game in Paris against France. Becks is widely expected to notch his ton of caps in that game and as an added bonus for Galaxy fans will be nice and rested for the MLS season opener that weekend (ahem).

On his birthday, Becks got a peek at concrete evidence of his influence in the U.S.

Chivas USA officials said today that Japanese World Cup veteran Takayuki Suzuki has left camp, while Frenchman Marko Muslin has arrived.

In other camps, it sounds like there was a nasty collision at U.S. Women's National Team training today in Carson.

In Bradenton, Fla.

The first round of the Pan-Pacific Championship is over and if there was any surprise, it was just how poorly LA and Sydney played. Houston and Osaka put together quality performances so the final on Saturday night should be a good game.
LA Galaxy 0-1 Gamba Osaka
If LA fans were hoping to see a new look to their club, they were sadly disappointed.

While the Galaxy's David Beckham is winning his 100th cap for England today in a game only available on pay channel Sentanta here, the 28th-ranked U.S. led by Landon Donovan will wear its new anthracite (charcoal grayish?) away jersey for the first time against 24th-ranked Poland in a game shown live at 12:30 p.

The trio of Cubans who defected during Olympic qualifiers last month have turned up at the Galaxy. Guess LA doesn't want another Maykel Galindo to get away.

David Beckham, meanwhile, offers his insiders view (ahem) of the Galaxy season so far in his latest blog post.

The ramifications of a potential all-England UEFA Champions League final when it comes to playing EPL games overseas (remember that proposal?

I really like this sweater. It's a great color. I didn't ask Becks where he got it, though, or I'd be the candidate for "Most Bizarre Becks Question" at the press conference. The reporters were talking before he appeared about how Beckham brings out some kooky questions, especially in the last two sessions.

He's a great reader of the game, smart with his passes and can kill you on dead balls and he's now part of DC United. Marcelo Gallardo has joined the club as the league's newest Designated Player.
He might not have the hair, fashion or following of Beckham, but Gallardo will be called upon to perform the same basic role of central playmaker.

For what it's worth, English tabloids were aflutter this weekend with "exclusive" news of an apt opponent and venue for the Galaxy's David Beckham to collect that 100th England cap he craves.

More here and here. No confirmation from U.S. Soccer.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy begin the second week of training camp today.

The reviews of the first ever Pan-Pacific Championship are in and we've got a flop on our hands. Even with David Beckham and hometown hero Brian Ching on the pitch, the combined attendance for the two double-headers was a mere 38,215. On top of that, the field turf was horrible.
So what to make of this tournament?

David Beckham and manager Simon Fuller of "American Idol" fame have an option to buy an MLS team in 2011 when his Galaxy contract expires, according to a "60 Minutes" report scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

Neither MLS nor the Galaxy would comment.

Beckham receives a salary of $5.

In recent days, the LA Galaxy have opened up a lot of salary space putting to their plans to land someone big. Turns out their eyes were on 'little fish' Carlos Ruiz.
FC Dallas has made it official, Ruiz is no long a member of the team. In return for the trade, FCD got 'an undisclosed amount of Allocation money and LA's natural second round pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft.

These days Blackburn Rovers winger David Bentley is hitting the headlines for the positive reasons. He is being favoured by England coach Fabio Capello in place of David Beckham and his club are eager to draw him into a long term contract deal. Bentley is also playing the football of his life these and when [.

The English FA and US Soccer have almost worked out all the details for a meeting at Wembley stadium on Wednesday, May 28th. If the game does take place, Fabio Capello is likely to select David Beckham for the roster, meaning he will finally earn his 100th cap for his country.
On the US side of things, look for a full roster to be called in for this one as the European season will be finished and the only MLS sides that play during the week are DC and New England (on Thursday night).

Beckham's jersey sets off a legal war.
Alexi Lalas aims for a Solomonic solution.

The first sentence of this article, that is.

David Beckham talks about the Galaxy's 2-1 loss to New York.

Chivas Chatter Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan left the U.S. training camp in Carson to sign with EPL team Aston Villa.

Guzan and Everton's Tim Howard are likely to share U.S. goalkeeping duties for years to come.

It's been a pleasure watching Guzan mature between the posts at Home Depot Center and the move is well-deserved.

English fans are predictably upset by the EPL proposal to stage regular season games overseas, but Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas is (equally predictably) happy about the idea.

And here's the Galaxy blog on why teams and the media don't pay a huge amount of attention to trialists in camp.

David Beckham is pursued by Abel Xavier during a training session with LA Galaxy at the Home Depot Center on February 13, 2008 in Carson, California. New Galaxy head coach Ruud Gullit looks on in the background. The 2008...

Apparently TJ Simers has a problem with David Beckham's performance, or lack thereof, since arriving on our shores. Interestingly, if you look at DB's goal-scoring record (admittedly not the only metric to appraise a player, especially one of his position and limited ability) it doesn't differ that much from his time at Real Madrid, where he averaged a goal in nearly every 8 games.

A new Upper Deck Retail Store opened today in Huntington Beach, which if not actual cause for excitement on a slow news day at least gives me an excuse to blog about the the company's newest set of MLS cards. Issued after the end of the season (so we get a now-retired Eddie Pope in action, for instance on card 88), the cards have some (usually incomplete) stats, pallid text and reasonable photography.

Just in case any reminder was needed regarding the peripheral role MLS plays in the sports mainstream in this country, a trip to Las Vegas on the opening weekend of the season provided it.

Avoiding news about MLS (so I could watch TiVo'd Galaxy and Chivas USA games Monday night and this morning respectively) was disconcertingly easy.

Salaries reports always make for interesting reading and a recent report on soccer salaries is no different. Some players are just stealing money.
Here is the Only Time Will Tell All Overpaid Starting XI.
Goal: Carlo Cudicini, Chelski, $5.6 million.
Defender: Asier Del Horno, Athletic Bilbao, $4.

A.C. has been away from her computer for most of the day so I thought I'd post a link to the story she wrote for Soccernet on David Beckham and his match against the Red Bulls.

Hey, Galaxy fans. Miss you horribly, but it's good to know that you're in good hands while I'm gone. With Jen sick, though, I thought I'd offer up some thoughts on tonight's game so that she can post when she's inspired and energetic and not when she feels like she has to.

So. About tonight's game.

Becks was responding to a question about whether he'd miss the Colorado Open Cup game and the next two MLS matches.