(I’m still trying to process that one. What’s up with his temper in this off-season? Is he trying to prove that he’s still got the passion for the game? Or is he just losing patience with life as his career winds down?)

Didn’t find that video, but I did find this one of his sending off in the 1998 World Cup. Thought you might like to see it.

Beckham looks SO young!

I’m liking the rookies. Ely Allen and Sean Franklin especially impressed me in this match. Allen has a way of getting into the right place at the right time, as well as being creative on the ball. Although he needs works on his finishing, Allen has been seeing a lot of Beckham’s crosses and has been getting some good touches on the ball. And Franklin is showing a lot of promise as well. He is quick, which the Galaxy need on the back line. And he does well to get into the offense to create chances. Both of these guys are looking good in the pre-season. We’ll see how they progress into the regular season.

Cronin is looking more confident in goal. I am reminded of the first season Kevin Hartman was the starting keeper for the Galaxy — some scary moments when the ball was played to his feet, but overall a strong presence in front of the net.

I have to admit, I am not a big Alan Gordon fan. He seems slow. He doesn’t play as big as his size would indicate. But he does have good creativity off the ball — the result of which was the Galaxy’s first goal in the 62nd minute. We’ll see how Ruud uses him during the season, but I still see him as a possible 75th minute injection of offense. If anyone here is seeing what I don’t, please explain it to me!

Beckham was his usual self. He’s such a pleasure to watch. I can’t wait until he and Landon Donovan start to play and gel together. You’ll hear more about my love affair with Donovan’s style of play when I return to guest blog at the end of the month. You’ve been warned!

So the game ended with a Hong Kong Union win on penalty kicks. I was not thrilled with our PK shooting. Oh boy. Beck’s was good. Vanney’s went high over the crossbar. The others were struck pretty much down the middle, but without a great deal of pace. Do you think Ruud’s going to have some PK practice down the road? I hope so, because after the PK performances of this Asian tour it’s obvious they need work.

And what did you think of the starting formation of 4-3-3? It looked a little more like a 4-5-1, with Alvaro and Vagenas playing defensive midfield and Ruiz up top. With the talent we have on offense, I like the flat back defense with two defensive midfielders. It could work with Donovan in the midfield and Beckham on the right. We’ll see what Ruud decides to do once Donovan is back in the lineup.

Laurie returns tomorrow until she leaves for the France v. England game in a few weeks (b*&#$!). Thank you all for being so welcoming. I’ll see you in the comments.

I’ve been reading up on tonight’s match against Hong Kong Union.  There is, surprisingly, not much news.  So here are two tiny pregame tidbits:

*Beckham’s quad seems to be fine.

*About 80% of the seats for the match have not sold.

Ta-da!  There you have it!

So the game is on at 11:00 Pacific Time.  What with Daylight Savings Time, and perhaps a few solar flares, that translates to 4:00am Eastern Time — my time.  So I will be recording the game and watching it in the morning.  You West Coast folks, have fun without me.  I’ll return with some thoughts and reviews in the morning.

Supplemental draft picks and trialists must be treated like chickens until, and unless, they are officially signed. Giving them names and allowing oneself to get attached is just asking for a ferocious pain in one’s maternal area.

I know it’s not pretty or happy, and I don’t feel good about it. But sports is a cold, hard world.

Alas, I broke my own rule when I read the story of supplemental draft pick Charles Alamo, the goalkeeper who immediately quit his job and drove straight to LA so he could get in some practice with his college coach. This let him come into training fit and ready to play, which showed a high degree of motivation and desire to play for this team.

My first thought was, “How dedicated. How professional. The team could use that.”

And my second thought was, “Oh. Crap. Now the chicken’s got a name.”

Obviously when I heard about the injury last Friday, I expected the worst. That injury being “a torn meniscus and a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee.” Not what you want to hear when your team is looking for goalkeepers in the short term. He won’t be able to play for months, possibly not for the entire season. I wouldn’t have been at all surpised to hear that the Galaxy had said, “Bye bye, Chas! It’s been fun! Hope your enjoyed your trip to Hawaii!”

(Admit it. That’s what you expected too, right?)

Well, we were wrong. Mr. Alamo has been offered, and has accepted, a developmental contract with the team.

And my maternal area survives intact for at least one more day.

But I heard that the Gals had a closed door scrimmage with Houston today (Friday) and kicked some Dynamo butt. In a big way. 4-0. Big Soccer says it was against the Houston reserves and we played some of our big guns, like Xavier and Ruiz.

But still. It’s not like we have a lot of big guns anyway, right? And we’re not talking about just squeaking by. We’re talking Galaxy 4-0 Houston.

Even if it’s the Reserves, not bad, eh? Gives us maybe a teensy bit of hope after the other night?

We still have only one official goalkeeper on the team: Steve Cronin. But a goalkeeper did survive the Open Tryouts. Vito Higgins, (pictured) who played college ball at Gonzaga here in Washington State, now gets a chance to make the team. And all those other Open Tryout guys are out their $150.

Of course, surviving Open Tryouts is no guarantee that you’ll wear the Galaxy jersey. (Ask Laurent Merlin and Rui Fortes, last year’s winners.) But Vito now gets the chance to make the team that will travel to Hawaii for next week’s tournament games. Since he’s originally from Hawaii, that would be kind of cool.

And I’d still love to get a first-hand account from anybody who participated in the tryouts. Anybody?

Also, Soccer by Ives has this bit of news:

In other LA news, the Galaxy is also stepping up its efforts to acquire a veteran defender. Sources in Los Angeles suggest that Portuguese defender Abel Xavier is showing his age while another pending development is expected to leave the Galaxy’s defense even worse off. Stay tuned for more on that.

The Xavier news isn’t all that unexpected. I loved him last year. When he played. But he’s thirty-five now, and a lot of MLS games are played on turf, which doesn’t seem to agree with him. If he’s healthy and fit, he should stay. Otherwise? He made a fair bit of cash last year that could be spent on somebody who could play more games.

(Does that sound cold? Am I getting callous in my old age? Sorry, Abel! Love ya!)

What do think the “pending development” is? My guess would be Ante Jazic heading out the door. There’s no way they can afford to carry him on the payroll when he’s out for 4-6 months.

Ives also says we’ve got a Brazilian on trial: Alvaro Henrique Alves Pires, aka Alvaro. A twenty-two-year-old defensive midfielder, which we could certainly use. And it would be kind of cool to have a Brazilian on the team, providing he’s willing to work for peanuts.

I’m finding pretty much no news on him aside from this photo from MLSRumors, so if you know anything, leave info in the comments.

There are a bunch more rumors floating around. I’ll report back whenever something seems to have substance.

But now the off-season is over and the pre-season begins. Our guys officially started practice yesterday.

Let’s celebrate by captioning this photo of our fearless leaders.

Lance Friesz? Waived.

Steve Cronin? Traveling back from USMNT camp.

Matt Allen? Gone to Norway.

So who does that leave as the Galaxy’s only goalkeeper? How about Supplemental Draft pick Charles Alamo?

According to the official, snark-free Galaxy blog (again, as opposed to this one):

Supplemental Draft Pick and goalkeeper Charles Alamo is the only goalkeeper in camp with Steve Cronin in the USA camp and MLS SuperDraft pick Matt Allen signing overseas. Rumor has it that Alamo may have quit his job in New Orleans the day after learning that he was chosen by the club. He then spent the next two days driving straight to LA. Looks like it may pay off by getting here on time.

Talk about getting the opportunity of a lifetime.

Fortunately for the Galaxy (but slightly less fortunately for Steve Cronin,) Charles won’t be the only keeper for long. The USMNT roster for the Mexico game includes only Brad Guzan and Tim Howard as goalkeepers, so Cronin should be back in camp by today. But he’s only what, 24? An infant in goalkeeping terms. Plenty of time to get capped after he’s saved the Galaxy’s season and proven himself a worthy successor to Joe. With Charles, obviously, as his worthy backup.

In the meantime, Charles’s arrival and Steve’s return mean that the Gals can at least have a scrimmage.

And wasn’t that Joe Cannon trade a great idea?

(P.S. This is the last time I will use the phrase “Remember the Alamo” in relation to Charles. I swear.)

Anybody else feeling a nauseating sense of deja vu?

This time it’s Carlos Ruiz. At this moment it’s Guatemala’s issue, not the Galaxy’s, but with training starting next week, that will soon change. According to Billy Witz:

Recently acquired Galaxy forward Carlos Ruiz will miss Guatemala’s exhibition match next week against Argentina at the Coliseum due to the lingering effects of off-season knee surgery.

Ruiz underwent arthroscopic surgery in November to remove torn cartilage, and Galaxy team doctor, Dr. Bert Mandelbaum, determined after examining Ruiz on Friday that he was not ready to play. The Galaxy did not release Ruiz for Guatemala’s training camp, which began Monday.

No word on what the specific issue is, but he is expected to play in the Pan-Pacific tournament and the Asia friendlies.

Just like last year Beckham was going to play the entire month of August.

Wait. I didn’t just say that.

Glenn Davis gives us this little two-sentence bit of news.

*The Pan Pacific tournament at the end of February apparently will be covered on ESPN Classic. So fans will have a shot at seeing those games.

I don’t even know if I get ESPN Classic. But this is definitely better than no TV at all, right?

Thank you, David Beckham.

In case you’ve forgotten, in addition to the Galaxy the Pan-Pacific championship is

will include Japanese league cup champion Gamba Osaka, the MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo and a team from Australian A-League Final Series. Brian Ching, a Kamehameha Schools graduate from Haleiwa, plays for Houston.

The tournament will feature a pair of doubleheaders Feb. 20 and Feb. 23, with the first day’s winners playing for the title and the losers for third place. Gamba Osaka will open the tournament against the Galaxy, with Houston facing the Australian team.

There are worse ways to spend the preseason.