The DVD is the A&E-produced History of the MLS Cup, which was released just before last year's championship game.

I was sent two review copies (that I haven't looked at) so will give one sealed, never-viewed 91-minute history of the cup (great for re-gifting this holiday season!) to the first person who correctly predicts the score of Sunday's game in the comments section of this blog post.

Click to continue reading...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake
Sunday, November 22nd at 7:30 CT on ESPN

How many high pressure wins does it take to erase the title of underdog? After entering the tournament as the lowest seed, Real Salt Lake might need one more as they try to complete their Cinderella Story toward Sunday's David vs.

Click to continue reading...

Before the playoffs began, the consensus was that the teams in the Western Conference were more prepared to the lift the MLS Cup in Seattle on November 22nd. Little did we know then how prophetic that sentiment was, as we now have both entries in the Final representing the West. The Los Angeles Galaxy — the top seed out of the West entering the post-season — and Real Salt Lake — vanquishers of the best the East had to offer — face off at Qwest Field with the Philip F.

Click to continue reading...

The mix of young and old make the Galaxy a tough team to figure out for the expansion draft. (Getty Images)

We are quickly working our way through the 15 MLS clubs as we gear up for next week's expansion draft. The new kids on the block, the Philadelphia Union will get to select 10 players from the list of unprotected players that each club will have to submit by next Monday.

Click to continue reading...

And those words are: Western Conference Champions!

In another step in the worst-to-first journey that MLS Coach of the Year Bruce Arena has taken the team on, the Los Angeles Galaxy turned away a stiff challenge from the Houston Dynamo in 30 minutes of extra time with a 2-0 scoreline.

Click to continue reading...

The lights went out twice in Carson, California last night, but LA scored twice in the overtime portion to eliminate Houston and win the west.
I would like to salute myself for tactical wizardry in the area of PVR programming. I did not stay up all night to watch this, I pvr'ed it to watch Saturday morning. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy 0 Dynamo 0

This is a helluva game - or at least it has been since the lights came back on, with the Galaxy having the better of the attacking chances and restricting Houston to some long-range efforts.

First, in the 25th minute Stuart Holden cleared a Landon Donovan header off the line.

Click to continue reading...

Tonight starts the conference finals in the 2009 MLS Cup Playoffs. We all know the pairings going into the conference finals and for the most part we know who the league and ESPN are hoping to see in the MLS Cup.

We have our favorites and we certainly have our underdog. These next two games will put either a really high profile match in MLS Cup 2009 or one that sees a couple of western conference clubs battling it out like last year's two eastern conference teams did in LA.

Click to continue reading...

This match promises to be a dogfight. The season series between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo featured exactly one goal and a lot of physical defending. If that sounds a lot like what Chivas and the Galaxy went through for the bulk of their five games this season, its not coincidence.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo were two of the best teams in MLS all season, and on Friday night they will play for the right to play in and be the favorite in the 2009 MLS Cup Final. The Western Conference Final (11pm, ESPN2) features some of the league's best talent, and is loaded with juicy individual match-ups both on the field and on the sideline.

Click to continue reading...

And those words are: Meeting the challenge.

Right. So before the first playoff leg I predicted a series score of 2-1. Then before the second playoff leg, seeing the kind of chaos the two teams were creating and the resulting goals, I predicted 2-1 for the game on Sunday.

So, looking at a 3-2 aggregate and a 1-0 second leg scoreline, you can see that I bloody well can't predict anything when it comes to these two teams.

Click to continue reading...

I, too, am removing my name from consideration for DC United's head coaching position.
Bill has his own take on the nominees. That reminds me, I need to fill out my MLS awards ballot.
Quote: Voting will close on Monday, October 26 at Noon ET. Oops.
Well, the good news is, you won't be able to blame me for any of this year's winners. Click to continue reading...

1) I've updated the home/away records for each MLS team in each season through 2009:
Check them out here.
2) If Omar Gonzalez wins the Rookie of the Year award, he'll be the youngest winner ever. He was 20.72 years of age as of July 1st. The current record-holder is Carlos Bocanegra in 2000, at 21. Click to continue reading...

Sunny and 80 degrees here at the under populated Home Depot Center.

Kick off has apparently been pushed back to 2:25 p.m. to accommodate TV if you're wondering.

It's the same starting lineup this afternoon that both teams fielded for the respective MLS season finales.

Here's Arena's team: Donovan Rickettts, Sean Franklin, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant, Chris Birchall, David Beckham, Dema Kovalenko, Mike Magee, Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan.

Click to continue reading...

Welcome back to the playoffs!

It has been three long and, to be blunt, disastrous years since the last time the Galaxy played post-season futbol. That year they peaked at the right time after basically backing in to the playoffs and ended up taking the MLS Cup from New England on Pando Ramirez's only goal of the season.

Click to continue reading...

And those words are: Western Conference champions!

In a fitting display on their home turf, the Los Angeles Galaxy put the finishing touches on a worst-to-first regular season for 2009. After a horrific 2008, the culmination of years of front-office incompetence and on-field underachievement accomplished under the glare of international media, the Galaxy put together a season that culminated in a first-in the West finish and a return to the playoffs for the first time since 2005.

Click to continue reading...

The Galaxy come into the season's final game knowing a win will give them the top spot in the Western Conference and home field advantage in the playoffs because L.A. holds most of the tiebreakers over Houston and Chivas USA, which play each other at noon Sunday here at Home Depot Center, should either of those two teams finish tied with them on points.

Click to continue reading...

Kansas City dropped a 3-2 result to Seattle Sounders FC tonight at CAB after falling behind early and surrendering a late lead. The Wizards had been eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the day by other results but could have put Seattle's playoff future in question with a win. As it turned out, Sounders FC clinched a playoff berth after a great performance from Designated Player and #10 Freddie Ljungberg. Click to continue reading...

And that word is: Punchless.

Or it could be seven words: This team is nothing without Landon Donovan.

So let's start with the positive: shutting out Houston at home in front of a sell-out crowd and forcing Pat Onstad to actually make some saves. Once again Donovan Ricketts proves his worth making a busload of saves and the backline bends but doesn't break.

Click to continue reading...

Lots of stuff for Wolff again this week, who is having a career year in terms of goals and minutes played.
Josh Wolff's goal was his 11th of the season, a career high in MLS play for Wolff.
Wolff's goal was his 73rd in MLS play in his career, tying him with Edson Buddle for 13th all time. Click to continue reading...

And those word are: Gutting it out.

The Los Angeles Galaxy took three points at home from a determined Fire team populated with a large number of replacement for injured players. As has been the case all season, the defense provided the base from which the Galaxy was able to generate just enough offense to put the game away.

Click to continue reading...

Here are the Twitterverse Players League groups, A through G, after Friday night's draw. If you want to listen to the recorded audio of the draw, the podcast is available for download by clicking here.
GROUP A Charlie Davies Taylor Twellman Carl Robinson Brian Jordan
GROUP B Danny Dichio Dwayne DeRosario Danny Cruz Hunter Freeman
GROUP C JozyAltidore17 Alecko Eskandarian Michael Chabala Brad Knighton
GROUP D Sacha Kljestan Robbie Rogers Kei Kamara Bobby Rhine
GROUP E Brian Ching Bobby Boswell Lee Nguyen Vincenzo Bernardo
GROUP F Stuart Holden Rohan Ricketts Brian Namoff Chris Tierney
GROUP G Freddy Adu Giuseppe Rossi Edson Buddle Joe Cannon
GROUP H Maurice Edu Brad Guzan Jim Brennan Taylor Graham
Voting begins Monday, October 5th, with groups A through D. Click to continue reading...

The Los Angeles Galaxy takes on the Chicago Fire in a battle of second place teams on Friday, October 2 at 8PM. The game will be on ESPN2.

On paper this should be a tough, hard fought match between two teams that need to be peaking right now if they have hopes of going deep in the post-season.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by Getty Images
And those words are: Not the time to tinker.

Let me be clear at the beginning. I'm not a coach, I've never been a coach, and I don't have access to the kinds and amounts of information an MLS coach has at his disposal, nor the skills to interpret it. But, having said that, I just plain didn't understand Bruce Arena's starting lineup yesterday.

Click to continue reading...

An absent David Beckham. An invisible Landon Donovan. A Galaxy loss.

The Galaxy went meekly down 2-0 to the Columbus Crew Saturday even though the co-MLS leaders rested the likes of reigning MLS MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto, former Galaxy striker Alejandro Moreno and Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers ahead of Tuesday's CONCACAF Champions League game against Costa Rica's Saprissa.

Click to continue reading...

I have been very outspoken in the past in reference to Major League Soccer really dropping the ball in reference to player development by doing away with its Reserve Division.
Andrea Canales from Goal.com wrote an excellent article about not only how the absence of the Reserve Division is stunting the development of the young American professional player, but also negatively affecting our United States Under-20 National team. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
The Derby du Nord between Lens & Lille this past weekend ended in a 1-1 draw.
dN
Portsmouth became the first team in Premiership history to open the season with 6 straight defeats. Oof.
USL FIRST DIVISION PLAYOFFS
The regular season ended on Sunday, with Portland claiming the Commissioner's Cup. Click to continue reading...

As the playoff race has heated up in Major League Soccer, so have the goals that have been scored. This week we saw plenty of good goals but only a select amount were above the rest.

The best goal for me was either Sainey Nyassi's run against New York or Brad Davis' strike against RSL.

(Note QuickKicks on the league site did not have the Columbus/Chicago goals)

Order of video: David Beckham, Edson Buddle, Brian Ching, Yura Movsisyan, Brad Davis, Dax McCarty, Jimmy Conrad, Sainey Nyassi, and John Wolyneic.

Click to continue reading...

David Beckham starred in the Los Angeles Galaxy's 2-0 victory against Toronto FC on Saturday night at The Home Depot Center in L.A. Beckham notched the Galaxy's first goal in the ninth minute and assisted Edson Buddle on the second goal in the 83rd. New Toronto signing Julian de Guzman featured for the full 90 minutes for [. Click to continue reading...

One week after they completely fell apart in a 6-3 loss to FC Dallas, the Los Angeles Galaxy successfully regrouped, as a couple changes to the lineup, coupled with goals from David Beckham and Edson Buddle allowed the Galaxy to bounce back from last week's brutal loss with a 2-0 win over Toronto FC at the Home Depot Center. Click to continue reading...

AP Photo

And those words are: Getting it done.

One week after giving up the most goals in team history, the Los Angeles Galaxy put together perhaps their most complete game of the season (though the Fire game at Toyota Park is in the running), shutting out a talented Toronto FC side to become only the fourth team in MLS history to record a shut-out immediately after giving up six goals.

Click to continue reading...

Galaxy 2 Toronto FC 0

Game story

Toronto's Nick Garcia paid close attention to Edson Buddle. (AP Photo).

Best line of the night goes to Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena explaining why last weekend's debacle and this Saturday's game were so dissimilar:

"In all honesty Dave Sarachen coached the team last week and this week I was fully in charge.

Click to continue reading...

Galaxy 2 Toronto FC 0

Edson Buddle made it two in the 83rd minute, stroking home the ball from seven yards out off a one-time pass from Landon Donovan who had tapped along a low David Beckham cross. That's Buddle's fifth goal of the season and his second in two games.

The Galaxy should have scored more, Beckham most notably squandering an opportunity in the 80th minute after Chris Birchall had again set him up with a pass from a long Landon Donovan cross field ball.

Click to continue reading...

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena hasn't exactly rung the changes despite last weekend's record-setting 6-3 home loss to Dallas.

Sean Franklin has recovered from injury and replaces A.J. DeLaGarza (knee bruise) at right back in his first start since May, Chris Birchall makes his second MLS start in midfield, while Landon Donovan moves up front to partner Edson Buddle, perhaps the lone bright spot for the Galaxy last week when he came on as a sub.

Click to continue reading...

Or at least that's the consensus after the Galaxy's whooping by Dallas last week, losing 6-3.

Most of the analysis of last week's game concludes that the loss is a wake up call to the Galaxy, who may have been getting too comfortable with their winning record.

So, on to hosting Toronto FC tonight.

Click to continue reading...