Playoff-bearded Robbie Rogers leaves Columbus Wednesday;

Robbie Rogers is not happy with the team's mandatory playoff beard - it feels weird, he said Friday at Home Depot Center.

And the demand for tickets for an MLS Cup played in the South Bay where he grew up is intense: "I'm not answering phone numbers I don't have in my phone," he said, observing players get four tickets apiece and that he can't shake down teammates for any spares.

MLS today named Cal State Northridge product and Galaxy defender Sean Franklin as its Rookie of the Year. Franklin is scheduled to talk to reporters later today from the U.S. Men's National Team training camp in Colorado.

How big of an accomplishment is this?

Franklin played all year in the center of a bad Galaxy defense, yet according to Coach Bruce Arena he's not a central defender.

Both the Galaxy and Chivas USA may be done for the season, but there are still Southern Californians out to make a difference in MLS this year.

Foremost among them are the pair with the Columbus Crew: coach Sigi Schmid, who grew up in Torrance, and gifted young midfielder Robbie Rogers, who was raised in Rolling Hills Estates.

Great story in The Salt Lake City Tribune today about the life and death struggles Real Salt Lake striker Yura Movsisyan endured as a child growing up in war-torn Azerbaijan before his family emigrated to Pasadena. His proud parents will be watching their son from the Home Depot Center stands at Saturday's playoff decider against Chivas USA.

San Pedro native Peter Hazdovac, 22, who I first blogged about here is continuing to make his mark on the Croatian Regional Third Division.

Here's the latest message I received from him today on Facebook:

We had a game today verses Zagora, a third division team who are actually in the final eight of the Croatian Cup (their next game is verses Dinamo Zagreb and in the last two rounds they knocked out division one team NK Osijek and division two first-place team Karlovac).

While Kevin Hartman's fictitious cat wasn't called upon it was striking how many players with Southern California roots played influential roles Saturday in the MLS playoff openers.

Exhibit 1: Pasadena's amazing Yura "Boots" Movsisyan who scored a 90th minute winner for the second consecutive week for Real Salt Lake against Chivas USA.

L.A. Sol holding midfielder Shannon Boxx, a former South (Torrance) High star, was today named one of the 10 finalists for the annual FIFA honor. The U.S. Women's National Team player finished third in balloting for the award in 2005.

Also named to the list: her (hopefully) soon to be Sol teammate Marta.

Something for everyone here.

Galaxy fans can console themselves with some great strikes (Brandon McDonald's screamer is not the No. 1 goal in this video); Chivas USA fans can savor these and look forward to the playoffs; U.S. fans can relive Landon Donovan's finest season; and the Columbus Crew's Robbie Rogers today had his effort against New York last month named the team's goal of the season.

First, the nuns.

San Pedro's Peter Hazdovac, who I first blogged about
here, scored two goals Saturday as Croatian Regional Third Division team NK Gosk beat bottom of the table Gosk KG, 3-1.

The Cal Poly product has five goals in eight games. And his team leads the league.

With the U.S. wrapping up a place in the final round of World Cup qualifying in Saturday's 6-1 win over Cuba, Coach Bob Bradley released nine players from that squad - including the Galaxy's Landon Donovan - ahead of Wednesday's meaningless clash against Trinidad & Tobago.

Among those added to the roster were Chivas USA left back Jonathan Bornstein, who has struggled this year to recapture the form he showed last season, and Rolling Hills Estates' Robbie Rogers of the Columbus Crew, who looks likely to make his U.

It's not often you get interviewed by National Public Radio. But Chivas USA midfielder Jorge Flores did (and so did I).

Anaheim's Flores is one of the first of a new generation of U.S. Mexican-American soccer stars. He's not yet a regular starter, but NPR noticed.

Listen to the podcast of "It's Only A Game" here.

Assuming the role admirably usually performed by hamstring-challenged Argentine playmaker Guillermo Barros Schelotto, this year's likely MLS MVP, South Bay Boy Robbie Rogers curled home the audacious winning goal for the Columbus Crew in a 3-1 win Thursday over New York.

In a man of the match performance, Rogers could have had a second and drew a red card from frustrated Red Bulls defender Kevin Goldthwaite at game's end.

Headed out to Galaxy training today largely to see how new signing and former UCLA Bruin Eddie Lewis was doing after that ghastly looking head injury in Guatemala last week.

Turns out the 34-year-old Cerritos native was just fine - albeit with a chunk still noticeably missing from his head - and went through the entire 80-minute practice with no restrictions and no problems.

Check out the effort by the Palos Verdes Peninsula's John Thorrington (Chadwick School) and the other contenders over the weekend:

Bob Bradley named his squad today for the irrelevant return World Cup qualifying leg in Barbados Sunday (caps and goals are in parentheses): goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (out of contract: 0/0), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA: 1/1 SO), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake: 0/0); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract: 12/1), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland: 1/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC: 0/0), Drew Moor (FC Dallas: 0/0) Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 8/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 1/0); mikdfielders DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers: 15/4), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 1/1), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 0/0), Eddie Lewis (Derby County: 18/2), Danny Szetela (Brescia: 0/0), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire: 0/0; forwards Freddy Adu (SL Benfica: 1/0), Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire: 0/0), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire: 0/0).

Televised soccer. Live soccer. European soccer. Domestic soccer. Club soccer. International soccer.

There's something for everyone this weekend and the biggest challenge will be finding time to take it all in. Let's take the plunge.

Euro 2008 begins Saturday with two games: co-hosts Switzerland play the Czech Republic with coverage beginning at 8:30 a.

Coach Peter Nowak named three Galaxy players to an experimental U.S. Under-23 National Team squad for the upcoming Toulon Tournament.

"This tournament will give us an opportunity to have a look at some players we have had in previous camps, and also a look at the new faces," said Nowak.

Blogging 101 says post lists.

It stimulates debate, gets hits and prompts angry e-mails.

Let's see how I do with this.

The news last weekend of the predicament of D.C. United midfielder Ben Olsen prompted the topic.

As one reader already observed this morning via e-mail, it was good that I didn't have to consider Chicago Fire midfielder John Thorrington of Palos Verdes for inclusion given his recent unexpected career resurgence.

PDL team the San Fernando Quakes won their home opener Sunday before a crowd of about 300 at Calabasas High, beating the Southern California Seahorses 3-1.

Game details here.

Other scores from this weekend's local PDL games:
Los Angeles Legends 1 Orange County Blue Star 0
Bakersfield Brigade 2 Lancaster Rattlers 2

The standings after the first round of games.

David Beckham scored a brace and Landon Donovan nabbed an assist to pace the Galaxy to a 2-2 road tie with Real Salt Lake Saturday (who was that prescient columnist who talked about the Becks and Donovan Road Show earlier this week?).

Game details here.

Chivas USA (1-3-2), meanwhile, snapped a three-game losing streak by grinding out a scoreless draw Saturday at Houston, remaining tied with the Galaxy's opponents on the evening for fourth in the Western Conference.

Chicago Fire midfielder John Thorrington was acknowledged as one of the finest soccer products to emerge from the South Bay when he joined England's storied Manchester United out of the Palos Verdes Peninsula's Chadwick School.

His pro career hasn't quite had the expected trajectory, however, with injuries stifling his anticipated progress.

Virtually no local reporters bothered to show up for Thursday's presser advancing Saturday's Chivas USA-Galaxy derby, so we leave it to this scribe to do the job for us.

Meanwhile, the legacy of David Beckham's visit to Hawaii continues with this pathetic little tale.

On a happier note, former Galaxy coach and longtime South bay resident Sigi Schmid, currently in exile in Ohio, is nearing a milestone.

For Tuesday's column I took a look at the locals in MLS.

Read it here.

Who did I miss?

First in a series highlighting the careers of Southern Californians who play professional soccer.

Robbie Rogers, who grew up in Rolling Hills Estates, just completed his first MLS season with the Columbus Crew

Currently on tour in China with the U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team, Rogers came on strong in the latter half of the season.