GALAXY regrouping, training hard for difficult home stretch
Galaxy spent much of the spring and early summer ahead of the rest of the West...
Both of the MLS Los Angeles teams - Galaxy and Chivas USA - have been in somewhat of a tailspin since they were tied with each other for first place in the West a few weeks ago. The Galaxy situation is worse, because, after leading the Conference much of the season, they have not won a game in over two months. The poor ‘goals against’ showing (highest in the entire league) is resulting in some changes at GK, as well as the already apparent front office shakeup that occurred and was announced last week…
Galaxy will be trying to get back on track with their new head coach Bruce Arena. There isn’t much point differential from the bottom to the top in this conference; they could rise as quickly as they have fallen.
The problem is that the season is now into its final two months, and time is literally running out. As it stands now, they are sitting outside of the playoffs picture, looking in…at just below the cutoff point. The team wants to avoid a third consecutive year of missing the postseason; 2006 and ‘07 were the ONLY times in their history they did miss the playoffs, and that occurred just after their second MLS Cup win in 2005…
Here are features on all three days of practice that they had this week at the Home Depot Center before departing for their away game at New England Revolution on Saturday.
There are video, audio, and photo features here in the daily updated official blog from training…
If you follow this team, subscribe to The Official LA Galaxy Blog…
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The Best of MLS — Week 22 [UPDATED]
updated August 27 -
(see Wednesday’s episode of “Extra Time” at bottom of page)
Weekend and weeknight regular-season MLS matches took place in the 22nd round, and with all of the player and coaching changes taking place and showing up in action, it’s beginning to make the final two-month stretch of the season very interesting, indeed…
Here, MLSNet features from three of the week’s best matches, and other great stuff like Goal of the Week and Player of the Week… ENJOY =)
FIRE @ GALAXY,
At the Home Depot Center, we saw the LA coaching debut of U.S. coaching legend Bruce Arena, as well as the Chicago starting XI debut of U.S. playing legend Brian McBride.
VIDEO -
Official match highlights from ESPN, (4:39 min.)
REVOLUTION @ TORONTO FC,
Chad Barrett and Taylor Twellman each scored a goal in this exciting contest at BMO Field, featured on Fox Soccer Channel’s “MLS Saturday”
VIDEO -
Official match highlights from FOX Sports, (4:50 min.)
RSL @ CREW,
Columbus Crew midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto was voted Major League Soccer’s Player of the Week for Week 22 of the 2008 season. Schelotto scored one goal and tallied two assists in the Crew’s 3-0 victory over Real Salt Lake. The win improved Columbus’ record to 11-6-4 (37 points), now in a 1st-place tie with the New England Revolution in the East…
Read the MLS Player of the Week Press Release here
The matchup featured teams with performances better than their pedigree. Columbus has not made the MLS Cup Playoffs since 2004 but started the week with the most points in the league and atop the East. Salt Lake entered play second in the West, in a bid to qualify for the postseason for the first time in its four-year history.
VIDEO -
Official match highlights from ONN Sports, (5:13 min.)
Related,
“Philly fans get MLS soccer fix in D.C.”
VIDEOS -
MLS Goal of the Week (DC United’s Joe Vide), all of the finalists,
“Extra Time” (Wednesday, August 27 episode) The latest of the weekly series’ exclusive webisodes, featuring co-hosts Shep Messing and Greg Lalas. Topics up for discussion include the coaching changes in LA and Colorado, the losing and winning streaks of numerous teams, as well as the playoff races developing entering the final two months of the season…
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Video — Paralympics Soccer News (Part One)
The Beijing Paralympic Games begin on September 6...
Many people do not know that the ’sister event’ of the Summer Olympics - the Paralympics in Beijing - begin next week, and even fewer know that soccer is as a popular in these Games as in the traditional version…
Paralympics are the officially sanctioned Games for physically challenged athletes which coincide directly with each Summer and Winter Olympiad. USA Soccer has been boosted due to one member of the team winning the national competition (and like the Olympics, on NBC), “Last Comic Standing”…more on this will be in Part Two of my report.
For now, I want to alert you to some breaking news on this Paralympics; TV coverage will be provided for the first time ever, including online live and tape-delay events. Seven days of three-hour packaged shows will also be produced for cable…
from Sports Business Daily,
“Universal Sports, the Olympic channel co-owned by NBC and InterMedia Partners, will offer the first-ever TV and digital broadcast of the Paralympic Games courtesy of an agreement with BOCOG and the International Paralympic Committee.”
“The Paralympic Games begin in Beijing on Sept. 6. They will feature 4,000 athletes from 150 countries in 20 sports.”
“Olympic play-by-play commentator Al Trautwig will host the coverage of the 2008 Paralympics.”
In general, it is actually quite common for physically-challenged individuals to participate in soccer; this is why the level of competition at the Paralympics is quite high. Here is an example in a video that’s been popular during the Summer Olympics this year, of what can be done with a soccer ball, despite limitations. It is not unheard of for soccer players to develop good skills on crutches, with only one leg, or with artificial limbs…
VIDEO - courtesy YouBeenBlinded, (1:39 min.)
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Sunday night Olympics — Beckham, front and center: London’s handover at the Beijing Closing Ceremony [UPDATED]
One of the best decisions (but one of the worst-kept secrets) of the 2008 Olympics for their Closing Ceremony was the inclusion of David Beckham in the London handoff celebration, an eight-minute extravaganza included to celebrate the passing of the torch to the Summer Games’ next host city…
Handover organizer Bill Morris described the concept of the eight-minute celebration as “simple, youthful, athletic loud and proud like London, entertaining and fun.”
A red double-decker bus slowly entered the stadium after the Olympic flag was handed over to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London. As the bus stopped, surrounded by onlookers, a young Chinese girl handed over a soccer ball to a British girl, who then entered the bus…
The vehicle then metamorphosed (’Transformers’ style), with the top section flaps folding down and revealing a nighttime cityscape of London. Then risers came up, and Jimmy Page was on a platform playing the intro to the Led Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love” as singer Leona Lewis joined in with the vocal. As the song crescendoed and climaxed, David Beckham appeared alongside the musicians. At the very end of the song, he kicked a ball into the throng below; it made a nice souvenir for a Japanese volunteer in the crowd.
It was all over in 8 minutes, but was a highlight of the night…
Here are more great images, and a Reuters news story:
PHOTOS of Beckham in the Closing Ceremony -
STORY - “Beckham sets ball rolling…”
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