SEATTLE -- Bring up all the clichés you want: David over Goliath. Substance over style. Team over individual. They all fit Real Salt Lake, which outlasted the heavily favored Los Angeles Galaxy on penalty kicks Sunday night after a 1-1 draw and 120 minutes of last-man-standing soccer (RECAP).
SEATTLE -- Still dubious David Beckham is making an impact in this country? More than 40,000 tickets have been sold for Sunday's MLS Cup final between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Real Salt Lake at Qwest Field (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Galavisión), with another 2,000 made available late in the week. That would mark the biggest crowd for MLS' season-capper in seven years and the third-biggest ever for a game not featuring the local team.
SEATTLE -- As the reborn Los Angeles Galaxy prepare to take on Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup final on Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Galavisión), I can't help but think back to a scene in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium on Sept. 13, 2008.
If you had told me before this past weekend that, of the six teams gunning for the final two MLS playoff spots, Real Salt Lake and New England would emerge as winners, I would've responded, "Yeah, and I have a date lined up with Keira Knightley on Tuesday."
A few minutes after Conor Casey bullied in the U.S.' first goal against Honduras on Saturday night, after the cheering died down at the bar where I watched the game, someone shouted out: "Well done, but we still don't rate you!" A few chuckles rang out. Obviously, we weren't in Denver.
CARSON, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Galaxy weren't celebrating Friday's big victory too much, perhaps taking a cue from their coach, Bruce Arena.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
SANDY, Utah -- So who has been the standout for U.S. Soccer this past year? That's the question I need to answer, as my ballot arrived just this past week for the Honda Player of Year, voted on annually by the American soccer media.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- It's tough to feel a sense of urgency when you're sitting in a luxury hotel overlooking the Caribbean Sea on a glorious late-summer afternoon. But it's still possible, especially if you're Tim Howard, the goalkeeper whose U.S. national team needs a victory in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago (7 p.m. ET, ESPN Classic, TeleFutura) to feel good about its chances of reaching South Africa 2010.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
SEATTLE -- Bring up all the clichés you want: David over Goliath. Substance over style. Team over individual. They all fit Real Salt Lake, which outlasted the heavily favored Los Angeles Galaxy on penalty kicks Sunday night after a 1-1 draw and 120 minutes of last-man-standing soccer (RECAP).
SEATTLE -- Still dubious David Beckham is making an impact in this country? More than 40,000 tickets have been sold for Sunday's MLS Cup final between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Real Salt Lake at Qwest Field (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Galavisión), with another 2,000 made available late in the week. That would mark the biggest crowd for MLS' season-capper in seven years and the third-biggest ever for a game not featuring the local team.
SEATTLE -- As the reborn Los Angeles Galaxy prepare to take on Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup final on Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Galavisión), I can't help but think back to a scene in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium on Sept. 13, 2008.
If you had told me before this past weekend that, of the six teams gunning for the final two MLS playoff spots, Real Salt Lake and New England would emerge as winners, I would've responded, "Yeah, and I have a date lined up with Keira Knightley on Tuesday."
A few minutes after Conor Casey bullied in the U.S.' first goal against Honduras on Saturday night, after the cheering died down at the bar where I watched the game, someone shouted out: "Well done, but we still don't rate you!" A few chuckles rang out. Obviously, we weren't in Denver.
CARSON, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Galaxy weren't celebrating Friday's big victory too much, perhaps taking a cue from their coach, Bruce Arena.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
SANDY, Utah -- So who has been the standout for U.S. Soccer this past year? That's the question I need to answer, as my ballot arrived just this past week for the Honda Player of Year, voted on annually by the American soccer media.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- It's tough to feel a sense of urgency when you're sitting in a luxury hotel overlooking the Caribbean Sea on a glorious late-summer afternoon. But it's still possible, especially if you're Tim Howard, the goalkeeper whose U.S. national team needs a victory in Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago (7 p.m. ET, ESPN Classic, TeleFutura) to feel good about its chances of reaching South Africa 2010.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati's statement at halftime of Saturday's U.S.-El Salvador game that Edgar Castillo had been cleared by FIFA to represent the United States at the senior national-team level was certainly coincidental.
"I would like to think that I can be up there with the best players [in MLS], but who knows? ... That's what I'll be hoping for: not just to be the best player in the league, but to be one of the best teams in the league." -- David Beckham, May 2007
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
MEXICO CITY -- As fate would have it, Landon Donovan scored his first international goal against Mexico, in a 2-0 friendly win in 2000. Unsurprisingly, he's been reviled down here ever since.
U.S. soccer star Landon Donovan has tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus, Donovan told SI.com on Thursday night.
I've been around the U.S.-Mexico soccer rivalry for more than a decade now, seen the passion (and, let's be honest, the sporting hatred) gather the force of a hurricane, and yet the buildup around Wednesday's World Cup qualifier (4 p.m. ET, Telemundo, Mun2) seems bigger than ever, almost like a soccer Super Bowl south of the border.
He's listed by the U.S. Soccer Federation as 5-foot-7 (that's generous), 135 pounds (probably accurate). With that wispy frame, soft-spoken José Francisco Torres doesn't look like a guy who might symbolize the future of the U.S. national team. But that has nothing to do with why the U.S. isn't ready for the future.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
Not for declaration and certainly not for vindication, here's a rundown on the status of certain MLS players as they vie for spots on the 2010 World Cup squad of 23.
The day was Oct. 23, 2008. Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan was sitting across from me as we ate lunch at Petros, a yuppified Greek restaurant in Manhattan Beach, Calif. With the cold-blooded confidence of a man who knew exactly what he was saying, Donovan was in the midst of calmly eviscerating his teammate, David Beckham, for what Donovan saw as Beckham's lack of leadership and commitment at the end of the 2008 MLS season.
The Rules of Engagement actress and her husband are separated after two years of marriage
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
CARSON, Calif. -- Depending on your criteria, this is the second or third attempt to fit David Beckham into a club and league where, for two years, success has eluded everyone involved. The puzzle has proved more complicated than anyone -- perhaps most of all, Beckham himself -- ever expected. Can it finally work?
Monday was the first day David Beckham trained with the Los Angeles Galaxy since leaving on his self-created, long-term loan deal to AC Milan, and already he's playing the victim.
This article appears in the July 6, 2009, issue of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
JOHANNESBURG -- Pedigree matters. If it didn't, we might not have witnessed what happened at Ellis Park on Sunday, an unstoppable rally that gave Brazil the Confederations Cup title in a 3-2 win over the U.S. (RECAP). Heck, when was the last time you saw a team come back from two goals down at halftime in a major final? (Apart from the 2005 Champions League final, that is.)
CHICAGO -- A U.S. team, meticulously prepared and riding a wave of confidence, marched into hostile territory and proceeded to get ambushed. The whistle had barely blown before the Americans' game plan fell to pieces and they gave up an early, back-breaking goal.
You can't blame coach Bruce Arena, Los Angeles Galaxy players and the rest of the organization if they'd rather not talk about David Beckham. No doubt they've got plenty of problems dealing with the here and now rather than what happens later. But rather soon that deal will come around.
Our weekly dose of Major League Soccer quick takes, plotlines to watch and Power Rankings.
Landon Donovan is back in Major League Soccer, and he had a message on Sunday for anyone who thinks that he failed in Germany for a third time: There will be no Euro hangover this year. He picked up where he left off last season, scoring two goals against D.C. United and making it clear that he intends to shake off any disappointment from not getting a contract offer from Bayern Munich, where he was on loan for three months.
The author has changed but the deal is the same. MLS Free Kicks are back every Wednesday, with your weekly dose of quick takes, plot lines to watch and Power Rankings. So without further ado ...
CARSON, Calif. -- It's MLS preseason here in Southern California, and there are several things to report:
Landon Donovan has gone overseas to try his luck in Germany three times over the course of his professional career. And for a third time, he may be heading back home in disappointment. Bayern Munich's recent struggles have made it almost certain that Donovan again will return to Major League Soccer rather than stay on with a Bundesliga club.
Life likes dualities: yin and yang, Democrat and Republican, Newton's Third Law of Motion (anyone remember it?). Sports does, too: Ali and Frazier, Celtics and Lakers, Lance Armstrong and the French media.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Another World Cup qualifier vs. Mexico at Crew Stadium, another 2-0 U.S. win. Here are five things we learned from a game that opened with a torrential thunderstorm, continued with gale-force winds and concluded with a near-brawl outside the locker rooms.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- To put it bluntly, Brian Ching isn't a favorite among most fans of the U.S. national team. There are Web threads in his honor entitled "Why Brian Ching Sucks" or "I Hate Brian Ching."
War. In heated rivalries, you can't get around that word when describing the competition of two archrivals battling each other. On Wednesday, the U.S. and Mexico resume their heated relationship in Columbus, Ohio, as the final round of World Cup qualifying begins.
Like his Galaxy teammate David Beckham, Landon Donovan says he wants to stay in Europe permanently after his loan deal expires. The question: Should MLS and the Galaxy fulfill his wish? The answer: Not just yet.
The men's national team embarks on a very busy 2009 with a lot of players in contention for spots on the 2010 World Cup roster. There's a full slate of games on tap, but something less than a full plate of players.
1. The U.S. will win in the Estadio Azteca for the first time. History is actually on Bob Bradley's side when the U.S. plays at Mexico in 2010 World Cup qualifying on Aug. 12. The last two times an American coach took a team down to its personal hell of a venue for the first time were the last two times the U.S. had a real shot at a result. Steve Sampson guided the team to its only point at the Azteca in 1997 with a 0-0 draw, and Bruce Arena's best and only real shot of a win there came two years later in his first trip to Mexico City, as Mexico won 1-0 in extra time of a Confederations Cup '99 semifinal. Bradley will prepare his team well, the Americans will extend their dominance over El Tri onto Mexican soil and Landon Donovan will become an even greater villain by scoring the game-winning goal.
Police have pleaded for peace, fines have been meted out and sanctions issued. Enough controversy has been generated by outspoken coaches in Europe to make any fan long for similar drama in Major League Soccer. But sadly, it's unlikely to happen.
For a few weeks, at least, Bayern Munich and MLS have been discussing what might be done with Landon Donovan: a short-term loan, a longer-term loan, an outright transfer, a transfer with a loan-back clause, etc.
When the U.S. takes on Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Ill. (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2, Galavision), all eyes will be on Eddie Johnson -- whether he takes the field or not.
HAVANA -- The most impressive performance from the U.S. after Saturday's 1-0 win over Cuba came after the game, when Landon Donovan kept a straight face as he said, "I thought we played very well."
It was pushing midnight on Saturday when U.S. forward Landon Donovan and I arrived at Cuban Revolution, a kitschy hipster hangout in downtown Providence, R.I., with huge pop-art murals on the walls -- Castro, JFK, Che -- and the lefty singer Manu Chao blasting on the stereo.
Not too long ago, the U.S. hung a big number on Guatemala, but by all indications it won't happen Wednesday in Guatemala City when the nations kick off the semifinal round of CONCACAF 2010 World Cup qualifying (10 p.m. ET, ESPN2 and Galavision). The U.S. has won only once in nine trips to the Central American nation of 13 million people, and that lone 1-0 victory came 20 years ago on a goal by Jeff Agoos, a rarity indeed. It tied 0-0 three years ago and 1-1 in 2000 on its last two qualifying visits.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- The soap opera that is the Los Angeles Galaxy just gets weirder and weirder.
The U.S. begins its quest to qualify for the 2010 World Cup on June 15 against a team ranked 117th in the world. On Wednesday, the U.S. faces No. 4-ranked Spain (live on espn360.com at 4 p.m. ET, on delay on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m.).
U.S. national-team coach Bob Bradley, in the wake of his team's 2-0 loss to England, has named a 24-man roster for the June 4 friendly in Spain that includes all 17 European-based players who were on the roster for the England game.
Three years ago, during preparations for a match against England, U.S. striker Eddie Johnson suffered an ankle injury from which he, and the national team, have yet to recover.
Turnarounds in Toronto and Columbus, optimism in Salt Lake City, (more) turmoil between Chicago and New York, confusion in Houston and a slam-bang SuperClasico at Home Depot Center marked the first month of MLS play.
MLS players salaries for the 2008 season made available by the MLS Players Union reveal that Los Angeles' David Beckham ($6.5 million guaranteed), Chicago's Cuauhtémoc Blanco ($2.67 million) and D.C. United's Marcelo Gallardo ($1.87 million) are the league's top earners.
When it comes to the world's nastiest rivalries, David Beckham could write a book. He's been front and center for two of the most extreme bad-blood derbies.
Of the 18 players named to the U.S. roster to face Poland Wednesday in Krakow (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel), perhaps the most obvious selection is the one who should have been omitted: Landon Donovan.
HOUSTON -- "All right," was the assessment of legendary Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos as he left his luxury box following Mexico's 2-2 tie with the U.S. on Wednesday. "Next time we'll win," he said, before cracking a smile and sticking his tongue out to reveal he wasn't so sure.
Five things we learned from a thoroughly entertaining 2-2 tie between the U.S. and Mexico in Houston on Wednesday night:
HOUSTON -- Both coaches agree that controlling midfield play is likely to decide Wednesday's U.S.-Mexico friendly (ESPN2, Univision, 9 p.m. ET).
Two players have left camp and at least one other is injured, so the choices for U.S. coach Bob Bradley will be limited somewhat when he names his 18 players who will face Sweden on Saturday at Home Depot Center (Fox Soccer Channel, 8:30 p.m. ET).
In case you didn't notice, the Los Angeles Beckhams -- sorry, Galaxy -- are making a last-ditch effort to crash the MLS playoff party. They've won three in a row, including two road victories last week over Kansas City and Columbus, both teams that are flailing for their own playoff lives.
CARSON, Calif. -- It was an inaugural SuperLiga final that had just about everything. A surreal last-second bicycle-kick equalizer. A goalkeeper (to say nothing of the re-injured David Beckham) fighting back post-game tears. A money penalty-taker failing to convert the trophy-winning spot kick. And, not least, a press conference carpeted by F-bombs from (who else?) a mild-mannered Canadian.
In a tournament in which Mexican clubs have struggled, it took the injection of Mexican internationals to elevate the level of play and finally pull out a result against a tricky and solid group of American sides.
CARSON, Calif. -- Phil Anschutz, the reclusive billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Galaxy, hasn't given an interview in more than 30 years. But when I asked his top lieutenant, Tim Leiweke, last month if Anschutz had said anything to him lately about his soon-to-arrive superstar, David Beckham, the three-word response came instantly:
Poor Mexico. The most soccer-crazed country in North America is blessed with a thriving league, a rich talent base and such passionate national-team fans that they turn NFL stadiums into sold-out green-and-white fiestas. But no matter how often the Mexicans claim style-point superiority, they just can't beat the U.S. north of the border. Nine times this decade the teams have squared off on Uncle Sam's soil. Not once has El Tri prevailed. "This time I thought we had them," muttered Mexican forward Jared Borgetti after his team squandered the lead and lost 2-1 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final at Chicago's Soldier Field on Sunday. "I thought we had them."
One hundred percent.
Five things we learned from the U.S.'s 2-1 Gold Cup semifinal win over Canada while confirming that The Fours in Boston is SI's Best Sports Bar in America (many thanks for your hospitality showing the game, guys):
Gillette Stadium's "Curva Sud," as I like to think of the south end in Foxborough, was reserved for Panamanian fans during Saturday's U.S.-Panama Gold Cup quarterfinal match.
OK, all you pessimistic doomsdayers out there (I'm looking at you, Jonah Freedman), you can settle down now and go back to your games of D&D. Or your oenology studies. Or whatever it is you do when you're not complaining about the U.S. national team's failure to run up the score on some CONCACAF midget.
What's ahead for Major League Soccer as the league enters a 12th season chock full of new superstars? Here are my predictions.
If Major League Soccer were to pinpoint the moment it hit its target audience, it would be around 12:45 a.m. EST on Jan. 17.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The strangest thing happened in the U.S.'s 2-0 win over Mexico: An interim coach (U.S. manager Bob Bradley) acted like he had already won the job, while a supposedly secure coach (Mexico's Hugo Sánchez) acted like ... an interim coach.
It has been almost a week since the Los Angeles Galaxy drew the biggest headlines in Major League Soccer history by signing David Beckham to a blockbuster five-year contract.
| Most Viewed | Most Emailed | Top Searches |
© 2009 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
