Beckham News

Beckham's future in the MLS

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Rumours are abound that David Beckham is considering committing himself to the MLS longer term maybe once the World Cuup is over. There is talk of a five-year contract, and also of the option for Beckham to have a stake in an MLS club, which is intended to happen once his playing days are over - patently this is not the case right now...
What spurred me on to write about this is the way that Beckham was pacing the side-lines pointing at an imaginary watch on his wrist on Sunday, that coupled with the way in which he stepped in to calm down Chivas coach Preki points to a man acting as much like a manager as a player.
Right now I am quite sure that Beckham's focus is on winning the MLS, getting some time in at AC Milan and getting himself ready for the World Cup. After that, it is quite possible that he sees his future in the US, although from a playing point of view, I would prefer to see him run down his career in Milan.

The Galaxy progress in the play-offs

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:44:00 +0000

After yesterdays' thrilling and rather tense game, The Galaxy are due to meet Houston Dynamo on Friday at the Home Depot Centre. Excitement should be at fever pitch as the two teams battle it out to reach the play-offs final. The Galaxy secured the home draw by winning the Western Conference, and will travel to Seattle on 22nd November for the final if they are successful.
LA won their Semifinal series by 3-2 on aggregate over two games against local rivals Chivas USA, The Dynamo defeated Seattle Sounders 1-0 earlier yesterday.
The Eastern Conference has Chicago playing Salt Lake on Saturday for the right to go the the final.

LA Galaxy 1 Chivas USA 0

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:27:00 +0000

The first half began with The Galaxy looking to push forward and put immediate pressure on Chivas. The first few minutes were all Galaxy, and Chivas looked the poorer team. Chivas worked their way back into the game, but chances were few and far between. A few long-range shots had Ricketts jumping around, but the real pressure in the first half came from LA. At the half hour point, The Galaxy were raining shots into the goalmouth, even Beckham having a go, but the score remained 0-0 going into the break.
The second half resumed in much the same vein although initially Chivas seemed to show a bit more fight. The Galaxy continued to pressurise until finally in the 70th minute Beckham released Donovan with a fantastic cross-field ball, and Donovan crossed to Magee. Magee was crudely (and rather painfully) brought down in the penalty area. Donovan stepped up to slot the resulting penalty-kick straight down the middle of the goal to make it 1-0 to The Galaxy. Just seven minutes later Beckham was substituted, possibly rested for the next game, or possibly having had a knock to his ankle earlier in the game.
Ironically, only a minute later, The Galaxy earned a free-kick in Beckham territory, but nothing came of it. LA managed to run the clock down through a full 5 minutes of extra time without conceding, ensuring their place in the next round on Friday.
The action didn't quite end there though as the Chivas coach appeared to lunge at Donovan after the whistle blew for full time and an ugly melle ensued. Players stepped in to quash any trouble, but obviously tempers, frustration and disappointment were running high.

Beckham in England squad for Brazil friendly

noreply@blogger.com (jay) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:29:00 +0000

David Beckham makes the squad for the friendly pre-world cup warm up against Brazil, the full squad looks like this:
Goalkeepers
Ben Foster, Robert Green, Joe Hart.
Defenders
Wayne Bridge, Wes Brown, Gary Cahill, Glen Johnson, Joleon Lescott, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock.
Midfielders
Gareth Barry, David Beckham*, Michael Carrick, Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas, Frank Lampard, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Ashley Young.
Forwards
Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Wayne Rooney.

However, if The Galaxy progress in the play-offs, Beckham may not be available for the England game.

MLS playoffs

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:27:00 +0000

I guess the play-offs themselves merit an explanatory post seeing as those outside of the US (like myself) are probably scratching their heads at this alien method of establishing a top team.. In essence the MLS is split into two geographical 'conferences' (East and West), they are however part of a single 'league' and play against teams of both conferences. At the end of the year the top teams from each conference are pitted against each other in a play-off scenario which for 2009, started this weekend.
The teams involved are Chicago, New England and Columbus from the Eastern Conference, and LA, Chivas, Salt Lake, Seattle and Houston from the Western Conference. Although as I understand it, both Chivas and Salt Lake went through on a wildcard which means Salt Lake will play their play-off against Western conference table-toppers Columbus Crew.
As far as I can tell, the teams have been split into the following match-ups:

Los Angeles Galaxy Vs. Chivas USA (WEST)

Houston Dynamo Vs. Seattle Sounders (WEST)

Columbus Crew Vs. Real Salt Lake (EAST)

Chicago Fire Vs. New England Revolution (EAST)

I presume that the winners within each conference match-up, play each other before a final between the two champions emerging from each conference happens (22nd November). But at this stage, your guess is a good as mine... It's one more thing which goes to demonstrate that for Americans, the MLS is just soccer put onto a basketball model.

I am sure the model is tried and tested (for other sports), it's just that it doesn't fit with the rest of the world - and in the case of soccer, the rest of the world is still some way ahead of the US system. The play-off system itself doesn't harm the domestic game of course, in fact it has some merits (although whether there is any merit in a geographical divide is another matter). However, the trouble with the basketball (or baseball - I have no real idea where the model came from) model is that is also imposes the salary cap system, central contracts and all those other restrictions which prevent the US teams from competing in the real world of football (that's right Football, not soccer...). The world's best players still want to play for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona not Columbus Crew or LA Galaxy (apart from Beckham). If US supporters want to see players at the peak of their game coming to play in the US, they need to break away from the US model of restrictive practices and let the market dictate terms, salaries and contracts.

Chivas 2 The Galaxy 2

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Although The Galaxy were certainly first out of the starting blocks with intent, it was Chivas who took a chance on 3 mins to go 1-0 up. Ricketts was caught out by an unexpected early shot which ordinarily he would have gathered without too much of a problem. However it took The Galaxy only 10 minutes to level the score at 1-1, Magee taking advantage of a slip by the Chivas defence and being left one-on-one with the keeper.
The Galaxy continued to pressure Chivas and certainly were playing the better football. In particular the trio of Donovan, Beckham and Buddle showed some real class, one passage of play involving two sweet back-heel passes in succession from Beckham, as the three LA players played triangles.
On 40 minutes, a Beckham corner threw the Chivas defence into disarray, the ball was cleared up-field only to be miss-kicked back into the danger area leaving Donovan to dribble the ball into the net for 2-1. Chivas defenders were left appealing for offside, either ignoring or not being aware of the fact that an atacker can't be offside when the opposition play the ball into their own penalty box...
Thus ended the first half, a hard fought passionate half which saw some rash tackles and some truly awful defending from Chivas.

The second half started very differently, LA Galaxy seemed to come out half-asleep, and a loose Galaxy back-pass saw Chivas leveling the game after only 5 minutes. The Galaxy continued to look shaky particularly in defence, and took a while to regain their confidence. Ricketts kept them in the game despite going down with an injury and the action-packed game ended with few chances for either side to score again. After a well-fought game, which The Galaxy can think themselves lucky to tie, the score remained 2-2 for this first leg of the play-of semifinals.

Beckham clinches second stint in Milan

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:40:00 +0000

The Galaxy having clinched the Western Conference title , Beckham is free to work out his plans for his long-expected second stint in Serie A. AC Milan offer a unique atmosphere in which older players are treated with great care and consideration, prolonging their careers by years in many cases.
The ink is not yet on the contracts, but both parties seem happy and confident that the deal is done, and we will be seeing Beckham trotting out into the San Sero in January once more. Despite the boo boys in the stands of the Home Depot Center, Beckham has enjoyed an excellent year in 2009. He started the year with AC Milan, a year in which England qualified for the World Cup in emphatic style. Not only that, but when he returned to a Galaxy side which had enjoyed a shaky start to the season, the team managed to top the Western conference.
Capello for one will be particularly pleased to see Beckham back in Milan, and as long as he can stay fit, there is every chance that he will be travelling to Africa with the England squad next year.

L A Galaxy 2 San Jose Earthquakes 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:53:00 +0000

The Galaxy take the Western Conference title with a 2-0 win over San Jose at the Home Depot Centre in Los Angeles.

After a number of attempts on goal by The Galaxy, including a narrowly-missed Beckham free-kick, the first score came on 23 minutes when a San Jose defender deflected a Donovan cross beyond the keeper's reach and into the net.

It was in the 76th minute after sustained attacking from The Galaxy, that Donovan slotted a great pass from Chris Klein under the keeper and off the post for goal number two. On the few occasions when San Jose broke through the defence, Ricketts was once more unbeatable in The Galaxy's goal. The night was almost capped with another goal from Donovan when a great flowing move saw Beckham crossing and Donovan diving for what would have been the goal of the night were it not for the point-blank save from the San Jose keeper.

The Western Conference semi-finals series starts next week...

Houston Dynamo 0 LA Galaxy 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Two teams battling for top spot in the league, both having reached the play-off stages start cautiously, The Galaxy choosing to start with Landon Donovan on the bench. Beckham starts the game having played little more than 30 minutes for England last week.
The first half certainly lacked a sense of urgency though arguably Houston were found pressing more than The Galaxy. Ricketts stood up well in defence of the LA goal. Beckham had a reasonable if not exactly hectic first half, and Galaxy managed to look like a team that were just waiting for Landon Donovan to take the field.
Bruce Arena opted to keep Landon Donovan on the bench at the beginning of the second half, but it was Buddle who had a shot cleared off the line on 50 minutes. Only a few seconds later Donovan took the field with a view to changing the scoreline in The Galaxys' favour. 15 minutes later, Donovan was released into a great position, but the chance was wasted across the width of the net and beyond, eventually going out of play just before the corner flag.
On 77 minutes, Houston had a terrific chance which was saved by Ricketts at point blank range once again proving invaluable for LA this season.
Ten minutes from the end, Beckham was involved in a shoving match after a strong tackle, he conceded a foul but was caught by a retaliation. However, it was an uninvolved Houston player who ended up with a red card and dismissal for his over-physical remonstrations which saw him push Beckham in the face.
Expectations were raised by the anticipated arrival of Donovan, and the second half certainly was more heated than the first, Beckham himself slicing a shot wide in the last few minutes. At the end of the day, the teams were well-matched and a draw was a fair result - a good one for The Galaxy as the visiting team. The match finishes with no score and the battle for league leadership goes down to the wire.

Web Hosting

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:14:00 +0000

Comparison sites are already a well-established means of finding a great deal on the internet for insurance, energy and a host of other services. If like me, you spend some of your time creating (and monetising) websites, then you may well be looking for a great deal on webhosting especially in the current economic climate.
Personally I have been looking for a good deal on 'unlimited' hosting (ie. a service that allows you to host multiple sites for no additional charge) in order for me to bring all my sites under one account. Right now I have about four domain names registered with one service, three domains and hosting with another, along with several blogs hosted by 'blogger'. One advantage of being able to bring all these domains together on one account, is that many of the unlimited deals include free Wordpress hosting which means I could convert all my blogs to the far more flexible Wordpress format.
WebHostingGeeks.com is a site that does the comparisons for you and highlights the top hosting sites in any of several categories. You may be looking for the best blog hosting or best forum hosting, or even a host that offers a 'greener' solution... this comparison site can give you 'top tens' in any category.
There is even a blog that discusses topics related to web hosting, the latest articles addresses some of the green hosting issues such as power usage and cooling at data-centres.

England 3 Belarus 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:58:00 +0000

No Rooney, no Gerrard but a great chance for Beckham to make his case for the final half hour or so, taking his tally of international caps up to 115.
The game got off to a great start with Crouch sliding onto a cross to smuggle it past the keeper on just 3 minutes. As is their custom nowadays, England kept the ball well but they started to lose their way towards the latter stages of the first half - crosses were going astray and the team were not concentrating, a point which I feel sure Fabio Capello will have made forcibly at the half-time break.
The same format took the field for the second half, and still lacked a certain something. These are the occasions where England often become vunerable and can become a victim of their own defensive mistakes. Today could easily have turned into one of those games and there were a number of occasions where England's defence looked less than solid, but thanks to one fabulous reaction save by Ben Foster in the England goal, England kept a rare clean sheet.
At around the hour mark, an excited home crowd noisily greeted Beckham as he came on to replace Lennon. From that single moment, the game lit up and expectations were raised. Beckham's first touch was a corner taken short to Wright-Phillips who jinked inside the defense and shot the ball across the ground evading the keepers grasp and resting in the back of the net for 2-0. In the last 15 minutes, Carlton Cole had a strong shot at goal that the keeper parried, Crouch was once again first to the loose ball and slotted it away neatly for 3-0 and what passes for a convincing win if not quite a convincing performance. Incredibly, for his half-hour contribution Beckham was awarded 'Man of the match' by Steve Bruce, causing Capello to joke that it was a little like Obama winning the Nobel prize.
The heavily bearded Beckham took full advantage of the little time given him to show what he is about, measured passes and full commitment to the cause. He is battling for one of the few remaining places avaiable in the England World Cup squad, and will be hoping to seal a deal to return to AC Milan next year. Currently, we seem to be in the same position as last year, Beckham saying he wants to go, Milan saying they want him, which just leaves the question of cash!! Tonight, when interviewed, David said the deal was 95% done, so I am guessing that the 5% is all about the money...
For now, Beckham returns to LA to finish off a succesful season with The Galaxy and to make his plans leading up the World Cup in Africa.

Englands' disappointment

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:46:00 +0000

England fans (and no doubt the squad) will feel disappointed with the result on Saturday, not only did the team lose, but the game was not available for many fans to watch.
However, when you look at the circumstances there are some positives to be taken from the game. However disappointed we are, we are already in the World Cup, OK it is not going to be the 100% record, but before we went on a hugely successful qualifying run, we would have taken qualification at any cost, especially after failing to qualify for Europe last time out... The team of ten men played well against the Ukraine eleven, and certainly during the second half, the only clue to the fact that England were a man down was the lack of shots on goal.
Eight wins on the trot looked great, but we will have to settle for nine wins out of ten, a hiccup on Wednesday is certainly not going to be tolerated and nothing short of an emphatic win will suffice. A decent tally of goals and a clean sheet will restore confidence in Capello and the squad, a one-nil win would not bring great delight, a draw would bring no small amount of criticism and a loss would turn the tide of success completely on it's head.
Rooney is out for the game which will give Capello a chance to give Carlton Cole or Defoe a start, Defoe is the likely choice. I would expect Lennon to get another chance on Wednesday after he was forced to give way on Saturday, and naturally I would like to see Beckham play in the second half. David James will no doubt start as Green is now suspended, and Ben Foster has been drafted in as a replacement.
After this match, Capello must start thinking about the 23 players that will make up the World Cup squad, Beckham will be mindful of this as he seeks employment in Europe in January.

Ukraine 1 England 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Nothing at stake but pride for (already-qualified) England, a play-off place at stake for Ukraine. Beckham sits this one out and watches from the sidelines as England fail to make the impression that they wanted to. Within minutes the game is halted to remove flares from the pitch - this sort of action by Ukranian fans could have a serious impact on thier plans to co-host European championship football in 2012.
All the early pressure was from England as with most of their World Cup qualifying games so far. However England keeper Robert Green was sent off early on and David James was brought on with Lennon sacrificed. Remarkably Shevchenko who scored at Wembley, hit the post from the spot kick earning cries of 'who are you?' from England fans. Nonetheless the Ukraine team made the best of extra player almost immediately shooting for goal and getting a lucky deflection from Ashley Cole past David James for a 1 - 0 lead after half an hour. Both teams spurned good chances to add to the score in front of a very exitable local crowd.
England may consider themselves unlucky to go into half-time a goal down, but they have shown time and time again that they do not keep clean sheets against stronger opposition, and once again a defensive error has had more of an impact than any attacking play.
James Milner came on to give more attacking impetus for the second half and the ten men of England certainly were able to look the dominant side but without actually getting very many shots on goal. The shots they did manage to get away were innefective and there was always the danger of being hit on the break as happened several times in the second half much to the crowd's delight. However David James proved solid on those occassions he needed to be and the second half ran down with no change in the score.
On this occassion, whether it was all down to the missing player or the shape up front, there was just not enough fire power Even when Lampard earned a free-kick on the edge of the box, with no Beckham, Lampard hit the wall and the chance was lost. Sadly this means the 100% record has gone, but there will be time to make some sort of amends at least on Wednesday at Wembley against Belarus.

Pay Per View

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:46:00 +0000

The Ukraine owners of the broadcast rights for the Ukraine v England game today have decided that the game will only be shown in the UK via the internet. The game will only be shown to those paying a one-off fee ranging from £4.99 up to £11.99 depending on when they applied. Supposedly there is a limit on the number of sign-ups, but personally I can't think that there will be very many people signing up to this deal unless they are accustomed to pay-per-view.
I am inclined to leave it and try peer-to-peer instead in order to watch for free. There is some doubt over whether TV highlights will be available. Reportedly ITV have turned the deal down because under the terms of the deal, they would be precluded from advertising it until after the live game had started - there is still a possibility that the BBC will show highlights, but there remains a huge question over how they will fit it into their programming schedule. If the BBC do close a deal, unfortunately they will not be able to publicise it until the game starts at 5pm today...

Squad named for upcoming England games

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Fabio Cappello has named the following 24-man squad for the last two qualifiers for the World cup:

Rob Green, David James, Paul Robinson; Wayne Bridge, Wes Brown, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Joleon Lescott, John Terry, Matthew Upson; Gareth Barry, David Beckham, Michael Carrick, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Shaun Wright-Phillips; Gabriel Agbonlahor, Carlton Cole, Peter Crouch, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney.

Despite scoring this weekend, after his first 5 minutes on the field for Arsenal this season, Theo Walcott is not included, neither is Joe Cole who has just been declared fit after a lengthy break. The last few games are devoid of real pressure since England have already qualified, but there will be a certain amount of pressure to go through with a 100% record since they have won every game to date.

The first of the two games will be against Ukraine (away) on Saturday, followed by Belarus at Wembley on Wednesday 14th. The Ukraine football authorities have declined to sell broadcast rights to UK TV station and have opted to only allow the game to be viewed via the internet (which is how I watch most games anyhow...).

The final push..

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:14:00 +0000

The MLS enjoy a long break now until LA Galaxy play Houston in what will be the show-down of the Western Conference on Saturday 18th October. Winning this game will put The Galaxy clear at the head of the Western Conference, having already clinched a place in the play-offs.
It has been four years since LA were in this kind of position and the last couple of seasons have been heavy with expectation since the arrival of David Beckham, yet poor in terms of league position. The Galaxy have consistently been in touch with league-leaders yet have failed to make the play-offs until this year.
Maybe the Beckham experiment is starting to pay-off, but it has to be said that he has been missing for much of the season, so The Galaxy as a team can feel gratified in a team achievement.
This has been a good year all-round. Beckham had the experience he wanted playing in Europe and was part of a team that qualified for the World Cup in emphatic style. The Galaxy achieved the long-term goal of reaching the play-offs even without the help of Beckham for much of the season. Winning the MLS must be the sole remaining goal for Beckham and the MLS this year.

One Hour Loans

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:39:00 +0000

How is it that a short term loan can save you money?

Although it is not always prudent to apply for a short-term loan online, there are circumstances where you may gain a financial advantage:

Where there is a financial penalty applied for late payment – ie. Late paying taxes or fees for something where you can gain a financial advantage by paying early. I can think of two personal circumstances where this could apply:
College courses – a family member is taking a course where you can save 10% of the fee by paying a few months early.
House Insurance – many online providers charge extra for paying monthly by direct debit, there may be a considerable financial advantage to be gained by paying 'up front'.

We tend to think of short-term online loans as a way to get out of a sticky monetary situation, but with a bit of forethought, it could be a way to save a bit of money too. Obviously some calculations will be needed to work out whether the interest payable outweighs the potential saving.

If you think this type of service might be able to help you, you can apply for 1 hour loans from any amount from $100 up to $1500 (depending on your status) and as the name suggests, have funds paid into your account almost immediately...

LA Galaxy 1 Chicago fire 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:40:00 +0000

LA are now within striking distance of a place in the play-offs, and temporarily top the league (with one game extra played). It was Donovan who supplied the goal just before half-time, breaking free from his marker and lobbing the keeper making it look too easy. This after a half of good pressure on the Chicago goal without much in return apart from just a few good saves that Ricketts had to make.
Beckham was quiet in the first half, but was a bit more involved in the second, even taking a rare shot at goal forcing a save from the keeper as it dipped over his head 5 minutes from time. Right at the death, there was a crazy goalmouth scramble which could have cost The Galaxy the win, but Rickets managed to claim the ball, and The Galaxy have the vital points which take them to the top of the table at least until the rest of the games are played later today.

The Galaxy prepare...

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Training has been a serious affair this week at LA Galaxy as they look to work towards a place in the play-offs by beating their visitors the Chicago Fire later this evening.
Beckham remains a doubt with his swollen ankle, but will no doubt want to be in the thick of it and will want continue to add his contribution to The Galaxy's successes this season.
The Fire themselves are not without their own injury list, and have other similarities to LA in that they also lie second in their conference and will be looking to secure their own standings in the league coming up to the final few games of the season. After tonight, there is a break until 18th October (v Houston Dynamo) and the final game is on 24th (San Jose Earthquakes).

Columbus Crew 2 LA Galaxy 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Beckham sits out this game with a swollen ankle, and the game seems to suffer as a result. The first half gave us plenty of end-to-end action with The Crew having the best of a relatively mediochre game.
The flash point of the first half was a Columbus goal on 33 minutes which saw the ball headed across the goal and Ricketts helpless as it fell into the far corner. The Crew deserved to be ahead at the break, but neither team was playing the beautiful game as it can be played.
Despite bringing Gordon into the play, and looking more likely to have an impact, LA went down another goal before the hour mark. This prompted Bruce Arena to throw Eddie Lewis into the mix.
Despite LA's best efforts, they rarely worried the Columbus goalmouth and hardly looked like a team determined to make the play-offs. At least they had a game in hand compared to conference leaders Houston, now that potential advantage has been wasted.
Badly missing Beckham the playmaker, The Galaxy host The Chicago Fire next Friday at The Home Depot Center - one can only hope that Beckham can at least make it to the bench by Friday, another performance like this does not bear repeating.

LA Galaxy 2 FC Toronto 0

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:26:00 +0000

Beckham scores and makes a second in an emphatic win over FC Toronto, taking The Galaxy to 2nd in the Western Conference with a game in hand.
LA's first came in the 8th minute when Beckham skipped through defenders and slotted the ball away from the edge of the box. Beckham was an awesome presence for the entire game having battled and provided without taking a break. Having spurned a chance in front of goal on 80 minutes eventually he provided the second in the 83rd minute when he took the ball off Toronto on the right wing and cut back to Donovan who slipped it to Buddle. Buddle took it on the volley for a great finish to a clean and crisp move.
This was a determined performance from the player needing to prove his worth to the England manager in the run up to 2010, and puts LA back on track for a chance to get to the elusive play-offs.
Credit also goes to Ricketts in the LA goal, who recovered from the trauma of last week's game and put in the sort of performance we have come to expect.

LA Galaxy 3 DC United 6

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:15:00 +0000

The LA Galaxy's fragile hopes of reaching the play-offs have suffered a severe blow as the Galaxy defence revert to type, allowing DC United to score at will. The first DC United goal was scored after 8 minutes and they scored again 20 minutes later. The Galaxy rallied and pulled back the two goals before half time.
In the second half, DC took the lead and followed up with another three goals with no reply until Edson Buddle managed to head the ball home in the 90th minute. Beckham walks away with an assist for the Buddle goal, but not a lot else. This has to figure as a week of ups and downs for Beckham after basking in the delight of helping England to reach the World Cup on Wenesday...
Next game is at home against Toronto FC, there is some serious work to be done in the intervening week.

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:06:00 +0000

After the most impressive start to England's most successful qualifying campaign ever, this is how the Group 6 table looks...
A goal difference of 26 is higher than any other team's total goals - England are averaging nearly 4 goals a game and giving away just 0.6 goals per game, are not only undefeated, but have won every game in their group, a feat equaled by Germany and Spain alone in this campaign - good company to keep...! It is worth noting however that Germany have let in just 4 goals and Spain 2.
I reckon England have gifted at least three of the five goals, there is work to be done here before we meet stiffer opposition, but you have to say that no-one is better place to complete this task than Fabio Capello.

In the meantime, Beckham will be winging his way back stateside having only played 10 minutes of a possible 180 and will be looking forward to helping the Galaxy to reach the play-offs this year, a task they have failed to do for the last couple of years. After that, David has confidence that he will be returning to Europe, and will be hoping to be able to step back into the Milan squad at the start of 2010. Nothing is certain at this moment except his determination to play in Europe in the build up to the 2010 World Cup - and he is to some extent master of his own destiny as he proved with the Milan deal this year.

Next game up: at home to FC Dallas who they tied 1-1 against in May away from home. Beckham will be looking to add to the goal he scored last time out against Chivas.

England 5 Croatia 1

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:33:00 +0000

England Qualify in Style...

Off to a great start against top-class opposition, it only took 7 minutes for Lennon to win a penalty, somewhat more convincingly than Rooney's penalty on Saturday. In the popular vernacular, it was 'stone-wall' penalty, the defender having no choice but to block Lennon and bring him down as he skipped across the penalty box. Lampard safely put the ball in the net and England were one-up and on their way to the World Cup...
England continued to push and pressure Croatia convincingly and pressure led to a second England goal from the head of Gerrard. Whatever Capello has been doing, he has certainly been able to get great results out of England players. He started without Beckham and with Rooney and Heskey up front. As a whole the team looks fluid and dangerous playing with confidence and intent. There could still be work to do at the back in defence, but going forward England are looking like a team that could take on the world. Which is exactly what they will be doing next Summer. On first half showing, Croatia looked unsettled and made few chances in contrast to an England side who created chance after chance and could consider themselves unlucky to go in to the second half with only two goals on the scoreboard.
Croatia made two much-needed changes at the start of the second half whilst England sat back a little resting on the two-goal cushion risking allowing Croatia back into the game. Around 60 minutes into the game, England managed to get the ball out of their feet in defence and worked the ball forward out to Glen Johnson on the right who cut the ball back onto Lampard's head for goal number three. Heskey was replaced by Defoe directly after the goal and the game began to look interesting again with all eyes on the developing 'super-sub' for another England goal.
The fourth goal came on 66 minutes as England ride rampant again as they have over every team in this group. This time England winning the ball in the opposition half by applying pressure on the defence, Rooney getting to the by-line and cutting back high for Gerrard to climb and head firmly over the keeper and into the net.
True to form, England despite having all the chances still failed to keep a clean sheet and after making two good saves in quick succession, Green was finally beaten in a goal-mouth scramble as the England defence shows it's weakness.
Rooney helped made up for the gaffe by collecting a goal from a goal-keeping error on 77 minutes at the other end. The keeper sliced a clearance under pressure from Ashley Cole, it fell kindly for Rooney who slotted it away from just inside the box. A period of 'Ole' football follows as Croatia more or less resigned themselves to a severe beating. Shortly after that, Lennon and Gerrard make way for Beckham and Milner - a roar greeted Beckham as he made his way onto the pitch for the last 10 minutes of what was already a very good night for English football.
England qualify for the world cup with a 100% record and two games in hand, a feat which they have never before accomplished. Cappello has earned his money in some style sacrificing some of the defensive prowess for extra attacking power with players like Johnson and Ashley Cole getting forward, a gamble that has paid dividends and goals by the hat-ful.

Soccer News

noreply@blogger.com (LiVEWYRE) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:15:00 +0000

Where in the World Wide Web, can you find all the latest soccer news, soccer videos, and interact with the latest sports and soccer buzz?
You can do all this and more on a site I came across the other day called Sports Pundit. The sports pundit site sets out to cover all the popular sports including cricket, tennis, boxing and golf but has a lively and informative section dedicated purely to soccer. The soccer content includes news at both club and international levels, even having profiles of some clubs who are not even in the top flight in their regions.
Sports Pundit brings you competitions including fantasy football, soccer forums and the chance to voice your opinion on the hottest topics across all the leagues in Europe and beyond.

A search for the term 'Beckham' on the site gives us a profile of the player plus more than 25 links to related articles. In fact the site boasts a 'colossal' database covering every major sport and accepts contributions from members who can sign up for free and not only browse the news and views, but also take part in forums and submit and edit articles for inclusion. You can search through profiles of 591 players under the heading of ‘Premier League’. You can also search the ‘players’ database in the ‘Soccer’ section and find 239 English players, 321 Italians and even 17 Welsh players (I think that must be the entire Welsh squad!).
The search can be narrowed down to league or team or you can even define whether you only want to search goal-keepers, defenders, midfielders or forwards.
There are even statistics for thousands of individual soccer matches played and almost 1500 soccer teams across the world.
If you enjoy soccer and/or any other sports, this is a must-visit site for you to mark as one of your favourites, not only to get the latest news and views but also as a vast resource of sports information and knowledge.