So the New York Red Bulls made it to MLS Cup. I was wrong. Alexi Lalas was wrong. He has consequences to pay. People should expect me to be wrong. I was so sure RSL was gonna beat the Red Bulls, I'm glad I didn't agree to do anything in case of a Red Bulls victory. Lalas now has to shotgun a can of Red Bull before MLS Cup.

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We all know the usual awards after a big game, right? MVP, Best Goal, blah blah blah. Those are so boring. So, instead, we bring you The Offside's Awards for the Eastern Conference Final: The Ones They Really Deserved. The "How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?" Award to: [...] Click to continue reading...

Poor Alexi Lalas. He was a decent defender, but the rock star thing didn't really work out and he was a lousy General Manager (ask any New York or LA fan). But there's always punditry to fall back on, right? Maybe not. Here's Lalas doing some halftime analysis of the recent New England Revolultion vs Chicago [. Click to continue reading...

Sgt. Chris Cognac, who works for a South Bay Police Department, is also a food, wine and travel writer for the Daily Breeze and hosted "The Hungry Detective" on the Food Network. Cognac is a season ticket holder for the L.A. Avengers Arena Football team and will soon become a Chivas USA season ticket holder.

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.....but I will.

LA hasn't won in 11 matches. The last time we tasted victory was a couple of weeks before I left for Spain! We were in first place at that moment. Now we're tied for last. Our coach Ruud Gullit quit the team because the American system was too restrictive for the way he wanted to coach.

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Good afternoon folks. As we hit a bit of a lull before tomorrow's jam-packed slate of World Cup qualifiers it is time to take a closer look at things here at SBI.

I am pleased to report that the site surpassed the 1 million pageview mark for August, making it the first month SBI has reached the seven-figure mark.

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Readers of this site know I have been harsh on Alexi Lalas in the past. Like here, here, and here. To get some closure, I am going to go ahead and write Alexi's obituary as a GM in the hopes those who read it (i.e., MLS owners) will simply let his career as an executive [...] Click to continue reading...

Under Bob Bradley the USMNT has become reliant on set pieces for scoring and quite possibly more dependent on its center backs than any top 50 national team/photo from US Soccer

For all the criticisms of Bob Bradley's tactics by commentators including myself, the continued success rate the United States enjoys on set pieces is remarkable.

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Wizards technical director, Peter Vermes will remain with the Wizards. Bob Luder is reporting that Vermes had been offered the job of GM with the LA Galaxy, following the firing of Alexi Lalas. Vermes turned the position down. Honestly I can't blame him for it. The situation in LA is a circus and almost a no win situation for the man that takes the GM position. Click to continue reading...

Looking to turn around their 2008 season, the Los Angeles Galaxy have turned to former U.S. Men's National Team coach Bruce Arena, who was unveiled as the team's new head coach and general manager on Monday. He will fill the roles of recently departed former GM Alexi Lalas and head coach Ruud Gullit, who left the team exactly one week ago. Click to continue reading...

So I guess the one way to ensure that there are no power struggles at the top is to make sure that there is only one holder of power. Right?

At least that's apparently what AEG is hoping for.

Bruce Arena was installed today not just as the expected coach, but as General Manager as well.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy will introduce Bruce Arena as the team's new head coach at a press conference scheduled for 2pm ET today.

Arena and assistant coach Dave Sarachan will take over for former Galaxy head coach Ruud Gullit, who resigned a week ago, and their first game at the Galaxy helm will be Saturday against the Chicago Fire.

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I've read with some amusement the last few days the opinions of people I respect questioning the apparent decision by the LA Galaxy to hire Bruce Arena. From my vantage point after drifting along as simply a marketing entity and not a serious footballing side since the death of Doug Hamilton, no move can equal the potential hiring of Arena in signaling that the Galaxy are serious about competiting again in MLS.

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Alexi Lalas was finally canned, and Rudd Guilt resigned and once again the Circus that is the LA Galaxy is shining more than the product on the field.
MLS flagship team, (NOT) is once again shining more than Barnum and Bailey's, now Bruce Arena wants to be the ringmaster, and reports are that he has been hired to be the ringmaster. Click to continue reading...

The Superclasico has taken on secondary importance tonight with word that Galaxy owner Anschutz Entertainment Group wants Bruce Arena as the team's next coach.

AEG President Leiweke said as much to journalists in the press box after also appearing on ESPN2 during the first half of the game.

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The Galaxy front office has gone crazy.  They held the top spot in the allocation order, and the ability to sign Cory Gibbs, the defender they so desperately need, and what do they do.  They pass on Gibbs and sign a left midfielder.  Insanity right! Now that Alexi Lalas was gone, we expected to have some [. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA-Galaxy is a big game. We all are pretty much aware of that.

But it's also a game that can cost people their jobs.History dictates as much.


In trying to figure out a different angle for this match, I decided to pursue the high-stakes angle. Click to continue reading...

Cobi Jones faced the media for the first time Tuesday as the Galaxy's interim coach.

Jones said kinder things about predecessor Ruud Gullit than some of the players I talked to Tuesday. And he was saying all the right things as far as former GM Alexi Lalas was concerned, too:

"It's a loss of someone that was very dedicated to this club and this organization, not only the Galaxy but AEG.

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Back before the season began, WV Hooligan put out Fernando Clavijo, Sigi Schmid and Juan Carlos Osario as his top 3 for being in the coaching hot seat in the MLS. Sigi Schmid doesn't appear to be close with the Crew, along with head coaching rookie Dennis Hamlett's Chicago Fire, still in contention with New England for the Supporters Shield. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday the news had come down that Ruud Gullit and Alexi Lalas were on their way out of the LA Galaxy, but I didn't have the energy to write a post on it (Monday is my extended work day). After reading around it's just the latest chapter in MLS' premier soap opera. I'm not at all surprised that something like this happened at the Galaxy, especially after a very unsexy seven-match winless streak in a season where significant progress had to be shown. Click to continue reading...

He was supposed to change MLS and soccer in America forever. David Beckham's signing in January 2007 with the LA Galaxy was supposed to elevate his new club and by extension its league to heights never experienced before. Eighteen months later all parties (except AEG, the Galaxy's owners who have made a killing off the Beckham name) must ponder whether it was really worthwhile.

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I want to go back over some things I wrote yesterday about the dismissal of Alexi Lalas by Los Angeles. I said only negative things. But he deserves a ton of credit for being one of the biggest supporters of soccer in American and MLS in particular. He has a voice and knows how to use it. The Press love to talk to him, and he never lets us down. Click to continue reading...

The Los Angeles Galaxy look set to use their top spot in the allocation order to lock up left-sided midfielder Eddie Lewis, who is reportedly returning to Major League Soccer after spending the better part of a decade playing in England.

Lewis, 34, most recently played for Derby County during their historically futile 2007-08 season in the English Premier League. Click to continue reading...

This was not too long ago.

"Alexi Lalas believes David Beckham's legacy can be greater than Pele's for football in the United States."

Exciting times lay ahead. The crowds would come. The MLS could begin to write its epitaph as a retirement league. The LA Galaxy would be on level terms with the European super clubs.

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We put two and two together again and hopefully as in our Alexi Lalas and Ruud Gullit rumor, this pans out as well.

Two weeks ago we received the following short email:

"Hello Rumors,
I have it on good authority that Kasey Keller has signed with MLS. No idea where he will go but probably Seattle. Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Ruud Gullit is packing his bags and Alexi Lalas is looking for work for the first time in years. What is left in the wake of the Los Angeles Galaxy's blood-letting is a team in need of direction and in desperate need of someone capable of cleaning up the mess.

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Now that it is The Day After, I have a few thoughts on what just happened.

Alexi Lalas' firing was at least a year too late and was a laughably inept hire in the first place. Lalas was good at many things, like being a salesman extraordinaire, doing color commentary, creating funny ESPN Sportscenter promotional spots, even defending for the US MNT.

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So Alexi and Ruud get the screen-door-hitting-asses treatment in Galaxy-land to a resounding chorus of "Finally" and "What took you so long?" in the futblogosphere. Cue the ambiguity . . . Tickle Lalas' Abomination sure has been fun to watch as they tripped and stumbled their way to somewhere below mediocracy. Click to continue reading...

Alexi Lalas was let go yesterday and it reminded me of an email exchange we had when he was first named general manager of the San Jose Earthquakes in 2004.

i offered him some unsolicited advice about running an MLS team, because the front office side of MLS was new to him and we both were under the AEG umbrella. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit, a distant and cold figure to players and media alike, is gone.

GM Alexi Lalas, witty and personable, but ultimately self-defeating, overly manipulative and simply too clever for his own good has followed him.

"I think very highly of Alexi", AEG President Tim Leiweke told the LA Times.

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Ruud Gullit stepped down as coach of Los Angeles Galaxy after they found themselves in the fourth place in the MLS Western Conference despite Beckham.
Alexi Lalas, the man responsible for luring David Beckham to the Major League Soccer (MLS) club became one of the heads that rolled in the sweeping changes that Timothy J.

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I went to Dodger stadium to cover Chivas USA's Claudio Suarez throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. I needed quotes for my SuperClasico preview, plus I thought a pic of Nomar and Claudio would look good on the blog. I didn't intend to stay for the game, but it turns out that I parked in the wrong spot. Click to continue reading...

LA Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group must read this blog. Less than a week after my post about why the Galaxy need to fire Alexi Lalas. Today Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of AEG announced that  Ruud Gullit has resigned as coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy for personal reasons, and president/general manager Alexi Lalas [. Click to continue reading...

I had set out to write some of my column on the Chivas USA-Galaxy match and how the luster was off from this game. Then, I scrapped it and decided to write an all-Olympics column. I filed it, and then the Galaxy story about Ruud Gullit and Alexi Lalas broke.

We're still going with the Olympics stuff for tomorrow but when I follow up on the Galaxy and the Super Clasico later in the week, it will be with today's news in mind. Click to continue reading...

There was a bloodbath in Los Angeles today as Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas got the boot and coach Ruud Gullit packed up his balls and went home. The official story is that he resigned. There's a chance it may actually be true. LA fans aren't hugely surprised by the Lalas news. He [...] Click to continue reading...