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.

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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...

The aged Tony Sanneh replaced A.J. DeLaGarza at the half, which is not a good sign considering the Galaxy defense was already having considerable trouble with Dallas' speed. We're assuming DeLaGarza sustained a knock; they're checking on ther reason for the change. (Updated: it's a left knee sprain, how bad yet is unclear).

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Chicago Fire 0 Galaxy 2
The Galaxy's Mike Magee is denied by Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch. (AP Photo).

Games like these can change the direction of a season.

The Galaxy (8-4-10) got better as the game wore on, the 9-5-8 Fire worse at a sold out Toyota Park.

The result was a Galaxy away victory; they're now second in the Western Conference although Seattle can retake the automatic playoff spot with a win Thursday over New England.

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Special to IMS

With the MLS All-star game finished, the attentions of players, coaches and fans turn toward the 2009 MLS Cup. Only 8 points separate the league leading Houston Dynamo and the final spot in a tight race for the eight team playoffs. In contention for the post-season is former Minnesota Thunder player Tony Sanneh's team the LA Galaxy.

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Special to IMS

With the MLS All-star game finished, the attentions of players, coaches and fans turn toward the 2009 MLS Cup. Only 8 points separate the league leading Houston Dynamo and the final spot in a tight race for the eight team playoffs. In contention for the post-season is former Minnesota Thunder player Tony Sanneh's team the LA Galaxy.

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Grant Wahl's book The Beckham Experiment which is a masterpiece of sports writing also brings up the troubling subject of Landon Donovan and his continued lack of maturity. Wahl doesn't characterize it as such, but I have no choice but to see it as such.

As our readers know, I love Landon Donovan as a player.

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And those words are: Pleasantly Surprised.

I watched this game twice, once in person (commenting from the stands on Jen's pre-game posting) and once on the MLSLive.tv stream and both times I was impressed at how the Galaxy ended up playing their game and made the Dynamo adjust to them. How unusual!

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I know we played this game the other day after the Egypt match, but let's revisit it again. Where does the Spain game compare to the matches described below in the Post 1990 history of the US Men's National Team? The 1950 World Cup win versus England obviously was the best pre 1989 result for the US, but actually was the last US World Cup win for 54 years, so it didn't actually usher in any sort of era of good play from the USMNT.

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In terms of US National Team history very few days have matched yesterday in terms of pure drama. Just three days after Team USA equaled its worst ever loss to Brazil and six days after the national teams worst loss to Italy since 1934, the US found itself in a position to clinch passage to the semifinals of the Confederations Cup.

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Interview conducted & edited by Paul Demko.
Over the last two decades, Peter Wilt has been involved in practically every soccer league in the United States. Starting with the Milwaukee Wave indoor team, he's gone on to management posts with the Chicago Power, the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Minnesota Thunder and the Chicago Fire. Click to continue reading...

The last four meetings between the teams have ended in ties, including a 2-2 draw earlier this year that didn't really start until second half stoppage time when we saw three goals scored at Rio Tinto Stadium to cap a rather dull game.

RSL haven't won in seven games, while the Galaxy have one win in their last six outings.

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I've got two words for you in the aftermath of the Galaxy's second victory of the year, on the road in Toronto.

And those words are: Edson Buddle.

Two appearances in the last two games, both with less than 30 minutes to go in the match and two goals displaying heads-up play and clinical finishing.

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The Los Angeles Galaxy may be without defender Sean Franklin for the rest of the year, as the team revealed on Wednesday that the 2008 MLS Rookie of the Year has undergone surgery to repair a torn right upper hamstring tendon. Successfully performed at the Surgery Center of the Pacific in Santa Monica, the procedure requires a 4-6 month rehabilitation period, meaning Franklin could theoretically return to the lineup in the final month of the season if all goes well. Click to continue reading...

I gave myself the better part of two days before committing this Galaxy-FCD postmortem to the foreverness of the internets because I wanted to get past the bitter taste of frustration lingering in my mouth after Saturday's excursion to Frisco. I wanted to see if that would change what I had to say.

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I've been thinking long and hard and have finally developed a new strategy for the Galaxy to win instead of tie.

Let Dallas score early.

We are so practiced and adept at scoring when down a goal . . . if Dallas scores early enough we'll have time to score not only once, but twice!

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Ever wonder what happened to the guys from long ago? Yeah, me too, but that will take a little more digging. Until then, here's the latest on the latest former Galaxy guys.

After training with Seattle Sounders FC in the preseason, Ely Allen is now playing for USL's (Premier Development League) Seattle Wolves FC.

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STARTERS
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dN
I am pretty excited, because in the mail yesterday I got my copy of the brand new album by Sunn O))). It is called Monoliths And Dimensions. Their level of sub sonic heaviness may just sooth my wounded soul right now, like a white hot salve. Click to continue reading...

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                                                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

Without making anybody's head hurt like an episode of Lost, Josh Wolff sure does look like the 2002 version of himself.

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                                                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

Without making anybody's head hurt like an episode of Lost, Josh Wolff sure does look like the 2002 version of himself.

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Deja vu all over again for the Crew who seem to specialize in giving away late goals that rob them of wins. This time it was Eddie Lewis celebrating his 35th birthday with a goal in the 91st minute as the Galaxy came from behind to equalize.

Earlier Guillermo Barros-Schelotto took advantage of a defensive mistake by Tony Sanneh to put the Crew ahead.

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AP Photo

Crash and burn: The Columbus Crew's Danny O'Rourke earns a second yellow Sunday for tripping the Galaxy's Landon Donovan shortly before the end of the 1-1 game.

This is getting old.

The Galaxy have now scored more than 60 percent of their goals this season - seven - in the final 15 minutes of a game and are 0-1-6 when conceding the first goal.

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Wow. Did that suck or what?

Here are the high points:

The Galaxy is now unbeaten in seven games.

I'm sorry, I guess that just high "point".

Let me put this another way. The season is now almost one third over (I know the pundits keep saying "at the quarter point", but the G's have played 9 games in a 30 game season.

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Galaxy 0 Crew 1

The vastly experienced Tony Sanneh, who came on at half time for right back Sean Franklin, apparently decided it was perfectly safe for him to attempt to pass the ball along the top of the box after receiving a pass from goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts despite the close attention of Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

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My second consecutive noon Sunday Galaxy game and what a difference a week makes.

The clouds are clearing in Carson, but instead of 30,000 screaming green-bedecked Sounders fans in Seattle last weekend it's a half-empty stadium with the makings of an ugly game in store given these two teams' records.

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The Galaxy (4-4-2) make four changes to the starting lineup that saw them score two goals in second half stoppage time to tie Real Salt Lake 2-2 Wednesday night and extend their unbeaten streak to five games.

Tony Sanneh comes into the back four for Sean Franklin, who has a slight hamstring issue and is sitting out as a precautionary measure, Jovan Kirovski and Mike Magee get starts in midfield in place of Chris Klein and Eddie Lewis, while Alan Gordon gets the nod up top and Edson Buddle drops to the bench.

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Never give up a point on the road.

Galaxy Coach and General Manager Bruce Arena can look at the statistics just like every other coach and fan in Major League Soccer and knows that success depends on scrapping for points on the road and stockpiling them at home. (Actually I'm pretty sure that this is the basic premise of every league in the world.

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This was the best game of the season from the Galaxy by far. For long stretches the midfield dominated possession, taking the game to the San Jose defense, resulting in 12 shots (four on goal) and three corners. The Galaxy's make-shift frontline had consistent problems in the final thrid of the field, often failing to shoot or put the shots on frame, but the fact that the team was even in that position was something of a revelation after the first three games of the season.

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One of the not-so-surprising moves Bruce Arena made a week ago was starting Sean Franklin at right back. I think it came down to a matter of bodies; with the arrival of Gregg Berhalter, there was an excess in defense and both Tony Sanneh and Franklin got bumped out of the back as AJ De La Garza, Omar Gonzalez, Berhalter and Eddie Lewis made up the Galaxy's defense and picked up a shutout in the process. Click to continue reading...

*rubbing my temples* I am sensing a win. Why? Because it's about damn time!

No, no, that's not the only reason.

The bad news? The Earthquakes have a very good midfield. Bobby Convey, Simon Elliot (effective when with the Galaxy), Arturo Alvarez, and Darren Huckerby (scary assists leader).

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That didn't take long.

The Rapids went 1-0 up after what looked to be just 16 seconds (MLS says 17 seconds, BTW), Omar Cummings crossing to Conor Casey who scored what pretty much amounted to a tap in, while Tony Sanneh out wide and Josh Saunders and Omar Gonzalez in the middle could only look on helplessly as they were beaten to the ball.

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pa href="http://www.soccerbyives.net/.a/6a00e54ef2975b883301156eb929e6970c-pi" style="DISPLAY: inline"img alt="GreggBerhalter (ISIphotos.com)" class="at-xid-6a00e54ef2975b883301156eb929e6970c " height="492" src="http://www.soccerbyives.net/.a/6a00e54ef2975b883301156eb929e6970c-500wi" style="WIDTH: 332px; HEIGHT: 421px" width="324"/img/a/p pThe Los Angeles Galaxy's quest to completely rebuild a defense that was atrocious in 2008 took another step toward completion with the signing of veteran American defender Gregg Berhalter. Click to continue reading...

The Los Angeles Galaxy's quest to completely rebuild a defense that was atrocious in 2008 took another step toward completion with the signing of veteran American defender Gregg Berhalter.

The 35-year-old central defender joins an LA squad that was counting on Tony Sanneh and rookies Omar Gonzalez and Yohance Marshall to man the middle of the defense.

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a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27365656@N06/3409268239/" title="greg by designatedplayers, on Flickr"img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3302/3409268239_92db6f0daa.jpg" alt="greg" width="446" height="500" //abr /br /LA has officially a style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);" href="http://www.sportsnetwork. Click to continue reading...

Ah, the season home opener! Plenty of California sunshine (with the occasional cloud and rain shower), a full stadium (well, 18,000 announced attendance), a team fresh off pre-season (except for injuries to the starting keeper, starting forward, starting left back/midfielder, and possible starting holding midfielder plus the absence of the team's highest paid player) ready to redeem itself for the last two years.

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