The Galaxy announced their list of protected players in advance of Wednesday's MLS expansion draft. So the Seattle Sounders will be able to choose from among the unprotected players, but they will only be able to choose one.

A few surprises in this one. But mostly what I would expect.

Protected players: David Beckham, Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan, Sean Franklin, Alan Gordon, Ante Jazic, Bryan Jordan, Eddie Lewis, Brandon McDonald, Alvaro Pires, Troy Roberts.

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Deb is the soccer mom charged with taking the MLS Cup from NY to LA before the game on Sunday. In this episode she stops to pick up Chris Klein, Ben Olsen, and Sacha Kljestan. She reveals that 100% high fructose corn syrup is good for the kickin muscles. The really need a rest stop but Deb wants to make good time and keep going.

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MLS
Nick Garcia - San Jose - Started and played 90 minutes in San Jose's 3-2 loss to Salt Lake.
Scott Sealy - San Jose - Started and played 78 minutes in San Jose's 3-2 loss to Salt Lake.
Jose Burciaga Jr. - Colorado - Dressed but did not play against New York.
Chris Klein - LA - Started and played 90 minutes recording an assist on LA's lone goal in their 3-1 loss to Chicago. Click to continue reading...

Five days after breaking out of a 12-game winless streak in stunning fashion, the Los Angeles Galaxy again reverted back to their old form, allowing the Chicago Fire to capitalize on sloppy play and mental breakdowns on their way to a 3-1 victory on Thursday night.

Chris Rolfe, who had found himself riding the pine lately under Fire head coach Denis Hamlett, was injected back into the starting lineup and took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring once in each half. Click to continue reading...

Tonight the Galaxy tries to keep its flickering post-season hopes alive in a must-win showdown in Bridgeview, IL against the Chicago Fire. Chicago has been struggling of late, losing the last two games by a combined score of 6-1, but the legendarily leaky Galaxy defense might be just what they need to get back on their game.

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Here's your weekly recap of former Wizards. I've removed former Wizards whose season is over (Pat Healy, AJ Godbolt, etc) as well as players who are not playing with the first team (Will John).

MLS
Nick Garcia - San Jose - Game against Houston was postponed due to Hurricane Ike
Scott Sealy - San Jose - Game against Houston was postponed due to Hurricane Ike
Jose Burciaga Jr. Click to continue reading...

After giving up a goal just 71 seconds into the match - and earning deafening boos from the almost capacity crowd - the Galaxy came back to score three straight, the first three goal outburst in a half since May for L.A.

It should have been four - Edson Buddle couldn't beat D.C. goalkeeper Louis Crayton (a Liberian who played most of his career in Switzerland and was picked up by D.

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The Galaxy enter today's home game (8:00 pm PDT - FSC) in the grip of a club-record 12 game winless streak, taking just six points from the 36 on offer. They sit at the bottom of the Western Conference on 26 points, four points out of the last Western playoff spot. It's been over 100 days since the team's last win and it is the first time since mid-July that both Landon Donovan and David Beckham will be playing together in front of the Home Depot Center crowd.

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New feature I'm going to try to do on Wednesdays now. I'm going to go through former Wizards and give an update on what each player in season has actually done with their new club.

MLS
Nick Garcia - San Jose - Played 81 minutes in San Jose's 1-1 draw wtih Houston
Scott Sealy - San Jose - Played the full 90 against Houston. Click to continue reading...

I won't trouble you guys will all the details in the front of the release we just sent, since you already know that we're fighting for our playoff lives, as are the Galaxy. I also won't try to tell you who David Beckham is or that he played Wednesday as England crushed Croatia 4-1 on the road. Here, though are quotes from him and Jimmy about the game Saturday. Click to continue reading...

So who's headed for Kansas City on Saturday to see David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Chris Klein (DeSmet) and Jack Jewsbury (Kickapoo) play? The Wizards have announced a Food Drive in conjunction with the game

The Kansas City Wizards, M&I Bank and Harvesters Community Food Network have come together for a food drive prior to this Saturday's Wizards game against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

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Hey guys, check out the press release just sent out and bring three or more non-perishable items to gain access into a special pre-game party hosted by M&I Bank. Help us help others!

Kansas City Wizards Partner with M&I Bank, Harvesters for Food Drive Prior to Saturday's Match Against Los Angeles Galaxy

(September 9, 2008) – The Kansas City Wizards, M&I Bank and Harvesters Community Food Network have come together for a food drive prior to this Saturday's Wizards game against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Click to continue reading...

Here we go - a depleted Galaxy team versus Salt Lake's finest.
Luis thinks former Galaxy player Clint Mathis can still do some damage. I'm thinking it might be Robbie Findley who hurts LA, but we'll see.

RSL: Nick Rimando, Chris Wingert, Nat Borchers, Jamison Olave, Ian Joy, Will Johnson, Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Clint Mathis, Kenny Deuchar, Fabian Espindola

LA: Josh Wicks, Chris Klein, Sean Franklin, Troy Roberts, Mike Randolph, Eduardo Dominguez, Josh Tudela, Greg Vanney, Bryan Jordan, Edson Buddle, Alan Gordon. Click to continue reading...

Before we get started, it's worth noting that Deputy MLS Commissioner Ivan Gazidis announced on the commissioner's blog on the league Web site Friday that the issue of scheduling will belatedly be reviewed.

About time. And why couldn't Garber blog about that himself? He's in Cuba for the U.

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With MLS blithely carrying on with a regular schedule this weekend despite the heavy World Cup qualifying fixture list around the world, criticism is mounting about the harm the domestic league is doing to its credibility at home and internationally.

Coaches hate it, players hate it, fans hate it, but the MLS suits don't appear to understand the harm they are doing to the league.

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The Galaxy looked sharper than they had in weeks last Saturday against the Revolution, which bodes well for the run they will have to make in order to get into the playoffs. However, this Saturday MLS has, in its infinite wisdom, decided to schedule league matches concurrently with a FIFA World Cup qualifier date.

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Turns out Bruce Arena's first Galaxy team looks a lot like Ruud Gullit's last team - not that he's got many options of course.

David Beckham is on his way to China for the Olympics closing ceremonies, Landon Donovan is recovering from last night's Guatemalan hackfest, um, game, Carlos Ruiz is now a Toronto player, eh, and new signing Eddie Lewis has the evening off too, recovering from the nasty blow to the head he took, no doubt.

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The one thing players stress about new Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena is his man management skills:

"His best quality is as a man manager and as a team manager," said defender Chris Klein, who has had stints under Arena with the national team. "He's always gotten the most out of players and if you ask guys who played for him many more times than I have, they'll say the same thing - when you play under Bruce, he's going to get the most out of you.

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This is one of these games that could represent turning points in the season - for both teams.

Will Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas have a job come Tuesday?

The final score was 3-2 Earthquakes, with the winner coming from Ryan Cochrane in the 89th minute.

While the timing of the goal must have felt like a knife in the gut to the now 6-8-5 Galaxy, the winner was no more than San Jose deserved.

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And that is why we are 0-3-3 in the last six games.

That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

In teaching theory, "Stephen Krashen offers three ‘affective variables' that have been identified as being related to language-acquisition : these are ‘motivation', ‘self-confidence' and ‘anxiety'.

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Photo by Thomas Shea from Superliga 2008 website

As we enter the knock out stages of Superliga 2008 let me state that while the intensity level was as high for these matches last year the football has been much better this year. No offense to anybody but an LA Galaxy side featuring Alan Gordon and Edson Buddle as starting forwards and an injured David Beckham would not have advanced to the knock out stages of this year's tournament.

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The difference in this game is again the easily flustered Galaxy defense, who froze as Sacha Kljestan, proving why he was a deserving pick in today's announced MLS All-Star XI, ran menacingly at them to lay the ball back to Ante Razov, who sent an assured, perfectly-placed strike out of the reach of Cronin for the 113th goal of his career.

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I was skeptical when SuperLiga was first announced last year.

Did we really need yet another tournament clogging up the schedule?

Well, the quality of the soccer won me over last year, especially after it became clear the Mexican teams involved were motivated and not just here on vacation.

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Just got back from Dallas and wanted to post a quick stat from the game last night. Last night's game was Davy Arnaud's 150th game for the Wizards in league play. With his start last night, he passes Wizards great, Mo Johnston on the league games played list. Arnaud is now in 5th place overall now, behind Nick Garcia, Kerry Zavagnin, Preki, and Chris Klein, all of whom have played over 200 games for the Wizards. Click to continue reading...

Here we go, here we go now. I'm actually semi-awake. I even had a little breakfast (fried egg sandwich, tea).
Predictions, folks? Got a little while to get them in before kickoff to claim bragging rights.
LA: Steve Cronin (GK), Mike Randolph, Ante Jazic, Chris Klein, Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle, Alvaro Pires, Abel Xavier, David Beckham, Ely Allen, Sean Franklin
"The hottest team in the league" says JP of DC. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit was absent from today's training session because he went to Holland for personal reasons, according to officials. Gullit is expected to rejoin the Galaxy in Washington, D.C., for Saturday's match with D.C. United.
``We won without David (Beckham) and Landon (Donovan) and then we won with Landon, so now we'll win without Ruud,'' Galaxy defender Chris Klein joked.

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Los Angeles Galaxy was hot early, as Landon Donovan scored within the first five minutes after Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer dropped a cross. Despite struggling to establish a rhythm on the field, the Galaxy struck early in the second half too, when Edson Buddle charged into the box to put away a shot. Click to continue reading...

The California heat wave welcomes MLS soccer this evening.

Crew: William Hesmer, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Danny O'Rourke, Ryan Junge, Brad Evans, Guillermo Barros Schellotto, Brian Carroll, Nocolas Hernandez, Robbie Rogers, Alejandro Moreno

Galaxy: Steve Cronin, Chris Klein, Sean Franklin, Abel Xavier, Mike Randolph, David Beckham, Ely Allen, Alvaro Pires, Ante Jazic, Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan

Actually, the sun has dropped enough that none of the seats get hit directly, and there's a cooling breeze - perhaps from the ocean. Click to continue reading...

The Galaxy (6-4-2), the highest-scoring team in MLS and sitting first in the Western Conference plays the Columbus Crew (7-4-1), which is lying second in the Eastern Conference.

The Galaxy have won four of their last five games propelled by the scoring exploits of Edson Buddle, who has eight goals during that stretch.

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Who the hell needs bodyguards when you've got Chris Klein out there doing his best, most-intimidating Jurassic Park-style velociraptor impersonations? If any of you other kids are thinking about hugging David Beckham on the fly, remember this image. You could be next.

And as my comrades in blog over at The Original Winger point out, you could also be on TMZ --possibly the only folks on the planet to ever refer to Mr. Click to continue reading...

  Have you heard about the new Chris Klein doll? You wind it up and it protects the David Beckham doll.* Kudos to Kleiner for decking the idiot fan who ran onto the field Saturday night and hugged Beckham (not that there's anything wrong with that - unless you like security escorting you out). The story in the London [. Click to continue reading...

Last night's game against the Rapids had a little bit of everything in it. I'm not even sure where to begin.

After establishing a 3-0 lead, and after two red card sendoffs at the end of the second half (Gordon, LA, and Erpen, Colorado), the Galaxy lost its defensive pressure and possession allowing the Rapids to score two of their own by the 74th minute.

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The LA Galaxy will have to be without striker Carlos Ruiz for 4-6 weeks after his knee injury he picked up in their season opener against the Colorado Rapids.  Towards the end of that game Ruiz tore the meniscus and sprained the medial collateral ligament of his right knee.

What do the Galaxy do without Ruiz?

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The following story is an abridged version of an in-depth interview that West Plains Coach, and History teacher, Nick Schmitt conducted with Mike Howard earlier this month in anticipation of reaching 500 wins. The complete interview will be available as part of Schmitt's book, tentatively titled "Pursuit of a Championship: The History of High School Soccer in Southwest Missouri" which he hopes to have available in the Spring of 2009.

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The Los Angeles Galaxy are back to a familiar position, on the losing side of the score sheet. I haven't been able to watch the Galaxy vs FC Seoul yet but I have it on the DVR. Alan Gordon is a guy that I have criticized a lot but he got the go ahead goal for the Galaxy on a David Beckham free kick that came to him behind the defense.

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