Sometimes items from Soccer America can be a total miss but check out today's MLS Confidential
on the Galaxy. For anyone out there that couldn't get how the LA Galaxy was able to squeeze in
Edson Buddle to their salary cap, check this article out.
By bringing back Edson Buddle into the fold, even if he costs slightly more
than the $178,488 salary he earned in 2010 before leaving for Germany, the Galaxy probably hasn't
crunched its salary cap to any great extent, because of player departures as well as amassing
allocation money.
Edson Buddle is back. (Getty Images)
Edson Buddle is back in a LA Galaxy uniform. The deal to bring back one of the league's all-time
best goal-scorers happened today.
Buddle rejoins the Galaxy after being released from his contract with FC Ingolstadt 04 on
Tuesday. Los Angeles maintained his MLS rights following his free transfer to Ingolstadt last
January.
Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com
For the other 18 teams in MLS, knocking the Los Angeles Galaxy off their perch atop the league
just became a bit more difficult.
U.S. national team forward Edson Buddle is rejoining the Galaxy after being released from his
contract with FC Ingolstadt 04 on Tuesday, sources told SBI.
And I'm not talking about Beckham's 2-year $15 million contract.
I'm talking about Omar Gonzalez. Last month Omar pulled out of the national team training camp
for a very exciting loan move to Nurnberg. His very first day there he suffered a season ending
injury at the hands well, feet of his USMNT teammate Timmy Chandler.
EDITORIAL NOTE: I will be in LA beginning tomorrow afternoon to personally witness MLS Cup 2011, so
the illustrious King of the Plains People Graham Fox will helm the du Nord company truck on Friday,
and the Jester-Midwester Exemplar of Salisbury Paul Demko will enlighten you all on Monday. I will
be back to entertain you on Tuesday of next short week.
STARTERSI'm getting goosebumps already! MLS Cup is 6 days away.
dN
Bruce Arena of the LA Galaxy has been named the MLS Coach of the Year.
-That was an easy one. No one else was even close.
dN
The New England Revolution has hired Jay "He also played basketball for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke"
Heaps as their new head coach.
If you need any evidence of the uneven season the Rapids have endured so far in 2011, look no
further than this season's golden boot winner.
On a team with Conor Casey, Omar Cummings and Caleb Folan, it should have been that one of them
would win the title as the team's top scorer.
Surprises: However, it was not to be.
*Hermosa Beach resident Abby Wambach and Dancing with the Stars star Hope Solo join Diamond
Bar's Alex Morgan and former LA Sol stars Marta and Aya Miyama on the 10-player short list.
Swedish U.S. women's coach Pia Sundhage is also up for FIFA Women's Coach of the Year.
The full lists are here.
What was essentially a Galaxy reserves team - seldom used players who saw action Sunday in the
meaningless 3-1 loss to Houston included the likes of Dan Keat, Hector Jiminez, Jovan Kirovski,
Gregg Berhalter and 16-year-old Jack McBean - rounded out the season with a game that won't linger
long in the memories of most observers.
LA Galaxy (19-5-10) vs. Houston Dynamo (12-9-13)
October 23, 2011 -- Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
Attendance: 30,018
Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Adam Moffat 2 (unassisted) 27
HOU -- Bobby Boswell 5 (Adam Moffat 2) 48
HOU -- Carlo Costly 1 (Brad Davis 16) 74
LA -- Jack McBean 1 (Chad Barrett 5, Michael Stephens 1) 88
LA Galaxy -- Donovan Ricketts, Frankie Hejduk (Ryan Thomas 77), Gregg Berhalter (Sean
Franklin 46), Dasan Robinson, A.
Apparently Brek Shea has a mess of foreign suitors; they go by the names Chelsea, Liverpool,
Manchester United, and Manchester City.* I once had foreign suitors, English women with names like
Lucy and Karen. Now? It's just the Pakistani woman from the credit card call center who calls to
tell me my payment is late.
By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Sep 20, 2011) US Soccer Players -- In this edition of the 5
Questions, Tony wonders what connects Freddy Adu and Moneyball's Billy Beane and Brad Friedel's
status in England. What two Americans are interviewed by Simon Kuper for his engaging new book,
Soccer Men? Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, right?
Let's hope the Galaxy enjoyed their long 10-day layoff because as you can see by the schedule
with one exception from Oct. 5-15 the club will play the rest of the regular season with a game
every three or four days.
Getting things started is a rare (rescheduled) Labor Day match (live at 3 p.
Galaxy 0 Columbus Crew 0
Given too much space, the Crew's Robbie Rogers hit a cracking 35-yard shot in the 23rd minute
that Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders initially had trouble holding.
***************
Galaxy defender Gregg Berhalter received a deserved yellow card for a scissors-like tackle on
Bernardo Anor in the 16th minute, right in front of the referee.
Euphoria from last night's performance, let alone victory, has yet to disappear. The monkey for
the Seattle Sounders is possibly off their back after the 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Galaxy. In
reading through the quotes from last night Landon Donovan sums up the match best;
It was a good atmosphere, it was a good environment.
All effort and no ball sums up the entire Galaxy-United match.
We always miss players when they are away, but we could have won the game at the end of the
day. I don't think we didn't play well because of missing Landon. – David
Beckham
The only one good thing about tonight is that we lost these games at home last
year.
This post didn't go up on Friday like it was supposed to due to problem with Wordpress.
-NHJ
I know this is Friday morning, a time for looking ahead to the next game, not looking back at
the previous one, but we never got a review of the FC Dallas match up due to a combination of lame
amateur blogging and really heinous back-end problems with the blogging software.
This post didn't go up on Friday like it was supposed to due to problem with Wordpress.
-NHJ
I know this is Friday morning, a time for looking ahead to the next game, not looking back at
the previous one, but we never got a review of the FC Dallas match up due to a combination of lame
amateur blogging and really heinous back-end problems with the blogging software.
My standard game review is coming tomorrow, but i wanted to get my comments on what happened to
Steve Zakuani down before MLS makes its ruling. This is a long post, so settle in. Anyone who
watched the game or any other MLS game this weekend has heard (or seen) what happened. In the 3rd
minute Brian Mullan went in two-footed on Steve Zakuani and got his leg, breaking the tibia and
fibula (both lower leg bones).
Dominic Oduro -- Getty ImagesBRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- The Los Angeles Galaxy was without its star power
Sunday, but the struggling Chicago Fire could not withstand the rest of L.A.'s depleted roster as
Chicago dropped its third straight, 2-1, in front of 18,203 at Toyota Park.
Former Fire forward Chad Barrett and Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez provided the Galaxy's scoring as
L.
BY ADAM SERRANO
The LA Galaxy will be without Landon Donovan yet again.
Donovan won't play in Sunday's match against the Chicago Fire due to knee inflammation, which
will be his third straight match out of the line up for the Galaxy. Donovan's missing the match
with the Fire causes particular trouble for the Galaxy, which will also be missing midfielders
David Beckham, Jovan Kirovski and Juninho due to suspension.
By CALEB SONNELAND
The Houston Dynamo bolstered its attacking corps with the acquisitions of Spanish striker Sergio
Koke and Jamaican midfielder Je-Vaughn Watson on the final day before the early transfer window
closes.
Koke joins the club from Greek outfit Aris, where the forward netted 38 goals in 175
appearances.
The Galaxy celebrates Mike Magee's 12th minute gol against DC United
Okay, let's just get this out of the way at the top: Charlie Davies dove like a
scuba professional searching for treasure in the Caribbean. He dove like the snout of a pig into
the muck of the forest on the search for truffles.
Soooo.... you will notice that we conspicuously left last week's debacle in Sandy alone and
concentrated on... other things, like Tony Meola and Jovan
Kirovski's past with Manchester United.
I'm hoping that was the right decision and that by doing so we're relegating one of the worst
games from a good Galaxy team I've seen since the worst games from the bad Galaxy teams of
2007-2008.
Blogger Ben (@fivecantonas on twitter) alerted me to a post he put up with a little background
on Jovan Kirovski and the world sensation he was supposed to be. I knew he played for ManU, but
wasn't aware of all the details. It is hard to fathom how a player can fall from that height to a
much maligned journeyman who was released by the Galaxy last year only to be picked up again on a
presumably less lucrative contract.
Blogger Ben (@fivecantonas on twitter) alerted me to a post he put up with a little background
on Jovan Kirovski and the world sensation he was supposed to be. I knew he played for ManU, but
wasn't aware of all the details. It is hard to fathom how a player can fall from that height to a
much maligned journeyman who was released by the Galaxy last year only to be picked up again on a
presumably less lucrative contract.
Galaxy players in training at ASU earlier this month (from The Bleacher Report)
The 2011 MLS season, the 16th edition since play began in 1996, starts in one month.
No matter how you look at the off-season moves that Arena and crew made, there can be only one
conclusion: Bruce Arena sees this year as the year he brings the Cup back to Los Angeles.
Photo by Jose M. Romero
By JOSE M. ROMERO
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Vancouver Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi stood in a covered area above the
stands at Arizona State University's soccer stadium, wondering aloud what his team was doing.
Down on the field, the Whitecaps couldn't finish chances, and they couldn't overcome two key
turnovers that led to quick goals for the Los Angeles Galaxy in Monday's 2-0 preseason win for
L.
Rapids striker Conor Casey scored the opening two goals of the game six minutes apart to give
Colorado a 2-0 lead after just 25 minutes on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe.
Landon Donovan scored from a second half spot kick and Adam Cristman pulled the Galaxy level six
minutes later, but the Rapids responded by scoring twice more in three minutes to seal the Galaxy's
first preseason loss.
Here, as promised, is a short gallery by Staff Photographer Brad Graverson from the first day of
Galaxy practice on what was a beautiful day at Home Depot Center.
Look ma, no eyes (open): Juan Pablo Angel, who has been given the No. 9 jersey (Jovan
Kirovski, in a classy move, has given up that number and will wear No.
*The club will play the expansion Portland Timbers Feb. 8 and the San Jose Earthquakes Feb. 10
at Home Depot Center, although there's no word whether fans will be able to peer over a fence and
watch or the games will be behind closed doors.
The Galaxy will also play three games against MLS opponents while training in Arizona from
Feb.
Breaking this weekend was the surprising news that 2010 MLS MVP candidate Edson Buddle was
poised to make his long-discussed move overseas. What made it surprising was that the move was
not to Birmingham City, which is where he had long been rumored to go, but to FC Ingolstadt, a
Bundesliga 2 club that is currently in danger of being relegated to the third German soccer
division.
