For the first time in too long, the best team in Major League Soccer won the MLS Cup.

That's great for MLS.

Sure, nobody likes to root for Goliath to beat down David, but there were lots of reasons to hope and be happy Los Angeles won last night. Now that they've set Houston aside with a 1-0 victory (which would've been 2-0 if Robbie Keane had not been wrongly called offside on his goal), you don't have to think about some team that played as ugly as Colorado getting hot for a few weeks and then parading around for a year as your league champs.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

Landon Donovan makes the most of his play against the Rapids, and he did it again on Friday night, delivering the lone goal in the LA Galaxy's home win over Colorado.

This time, the goal came in the 36th minute as Donovan was unmarked when receiving a pass from Sean Franklin. Unlike his miss against Costa Rico on the same field in a USA friendly a week early, Donovan was clinical.

Major League Soccer announced it's All-Star First XI on Sunday, and no Colorado Rapids made the cut.

A 12th All-Star, the winner of the AT&T Text Voting, was revealed on Sunday on MLSsoccer.com.

On July 27, at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., the MLS All-Stars will face the defending English Premier League champions Manchester United in the 2011 AT&T MLS All-Star Game (live on ESPN2, Galavision, and TSN at 6:30 p.

There isn't going to be very much that's pretty about today's clash between New York Red Bulls and the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Galaxy are not yet last year's fluid ball-handling team and are still experiencing drop-offs in the defensive end and the offensive third. New York had the best midfield unit in the league when you combine talent with their ability to work with one another.

Leonardo as a brick wall standing up Chicago's attack before his injury.

As we head into Saturday's match-up against the expansion Portland Timbers, who sure seem to like score at home with seven gols in their two home matches, here are a couple of player updates.

First, as you no doubt saw on Sunday, Leonardo went down hard right at the end of regulation (remember Dominic Oduro playing the ass and trying to drag him upright as if he were faking to kill the game?

Chad Barrett scores his first gol for the Galaxy after astrally projecting his spirit into Chicago's attack causing open gol misses while he pounded his chance home.

It took until the (league-most) seventh game played but at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL, the LA Galaxy finally got a second gol from a striker, finally got more than one gol in a game, and finally got the full three points from a game in this 4800-mile road trip.

Edson. Edson. Come back.

Edson Buddle, How Do I Miss Thee?

How do I miss thee? Let me count the ways
I miss thee to the depth and breadth and height
Chad Barrett's shots do miss with all his might.
The ends of Becks' crosses very well placed
I miss thee as you did speedily race.

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.

This is the sixth piece of a seven-part series highlighting the most intriguing subplots of the 2011 MLS campaign. Our other MLS preview pieces are linked below: Number 7: Omar Bravo: Next Designated Player to Fail, or is Sporting KC the place for a revival? MLS Eastern Conference Preview: Five Most Intriguing Sides Number Six: [.

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.

The light of heaven shined upon us today and the Galaxy twitterverse burst forth with joy. We have been sent our Angel.

The Galaxy announced today that they have signed Juan Pablo Angel to a multi-year contract as the team's third DP (Becks and Landycakes being the other two). The big question now is whether our Angel can earn his wings.