Our Galaxy, however, doesn’t play until Sunday. Zzzzzzz. I hate being amidst the hype of the season start and then not playing until Sunday, almost as if the game were an afterthought. The Galaxy will host DC United with a match time of 12pm. The game will air on FS-PT and Telefutura. I will return later to write up a game preview, including line ups, injuries, and match expectations. Nathan will actually be attending the game and will give us his “in person” perspective.

Until then, I’ll leave you with a blog post by Paul Oberjuerge, an expert (if there is one) on Landon Donovan. He discusses when, if ever, Donovan can expect to head back to Europe.

Enjoy your first look at the Sounders tonight, and I’ll be back in a bit with your Galaxy preview.

If you are like me you are a futbol fan, an MLS fan, and a Los Angeles Galaxy fan. And possibly a bit off-kilter, but really that’s between me, my wife, and my pharmacist. Oh joyous pharmacist, how I love the little colored bottles you hand out to me. They really help with the ADD – hey! Shiny!

Where was I?

Right. March 22nd, the first Sunday of the 2009 MLS season. If you are reading this, I certainly hope you have read the Galaxy season preview that Jen labored over for hours, so that you could casually swing by and read it in 10 minutes. That’s how much she loves you. However, she doesn’t love you enough to stop me from posting, so I guess you win some, you lose some.

I read it, because that’s how much I love Jen. She got me thinking about returning players to watch and new impact players. I’ve got two. Bryan Jordan and Mike Magee.

I saw Mike Magee play in the “championship” match of the PanPacific Championship. He came off the bench and had an immediate impact on the game. Of course he was replacing Ely Allen who is no longer with the club, although Laurie at the Seattle Sounders blog says he’s trying to catch on there. Frankly, they can have him. We don’t need another project and its nice to see someone calling the Galaxy personnel shots who can see the same thing.

But Magee, who has started intermittently in New York, is an MLS veteran even though he’s, like, 12, and that experience showed immediately on the field. He was aggressive, he was confident, he made the smart plays, and he showed good vision. He’s also fast and for a preseason game his finishing was pretty sharp. He did score twice, after all. The Galaxy’s recently weak left side can get a tremendous boost with him in the line-up and the thought of him combining with Eddie Lewis is simply glorious. Not that I know how that would work in a 4-4-2 with a healthy Todd Dunivant, but that’s why someone like Bruce Arena gets paid the big bucks while I write this blog.

Speaking of getting people on the field, what about Bryan Jordan? Yes, he’s injured, too. Just like Duni, Lewis, Buddle, and David Beckham (chuckle). But when he was on the field at the end of last year he brought bite, speed and aggressiveness. He didn’t burn up the back of the net, but I got the feeling that if he could get his finishing on track he’d have a breakout 2009. If that happened you could see a Galaxy squad with depth at striker, something I haven’t seen in years. Arena would have to wrestle with getting Landon, Buddle, and Jordan on the field at the same time. If he can adjust to the MLS game.

So what might a starting lineup look like with healthy players but no underwear model? Bearing in mind I have no idea what’s going on regarding the backline it could look like this:

Donovan – Buddle
Lewis – Kirovski/Miglioranzi – Kovalenko – Klein
Dunivant – Valentin/Sanneh – Gonzalez – Franklin

But what about a 3-5-2? Not that we really have the centerback for this, but getting all those midfielders in the game makes me salivate.

Magee – Buddle
Lewis – Donovan – Jordan
Kovalenko – Klein
Dunivant – Gonzalez – Franklin

Going through this is kinda crazy, actually. I’m not used to having so many viable options to plug into so many different positions. I’m sure that those of you who have actually had the chance to see the team train will have ideas about what a viable starting lineup would look like, so you should put those ideas into the comments.

In fact you should feel free to add whatever thoughts you have at this point, 10 days before the Galaxy’s season starts. Add your comments below.

For a round-up of this story from the LA metroplex you can read the Grahame Jones story I linked to above, or check in with Nick Green at his 100 Percent Soccer blog (complete with snarky commentary). For some reason (sanity?) Luis Bueno is concentrating on some other team that plays futbol at the HDC. Some team named after a nationalistic herb or something – Chives USA? But I digress.

Everyone is reporting what we already knew: Becks stays with Milan until June, comes back the G’s in July, and then splits for good to the Rossoneri in November (though AEG continues to say “if” not “when” on this point). But there are two interesting pieces for the fans here.

(1) July 17th 19th friendly between the Galaxy and AC Milan at the HDC.
(2) 10% across-the-board reduction in ticket prices with refunds to be given to people who have already purchased tickets.

In this entire saga, these two things are the most fan-respectful things that the Galaxy have done. Besides canning Alexi Lalas, that is. It’s almost as if AEG is trying to get beyond the recent years of fan abuse and try to reconcile with us.

To which I say, “It’s a good start, but its just a start.” I fully expect that the AC Milan game will be a bonus game for season ticket holders. I except that the Galaxy will use the cap and roster space this deal creates to shore up the weak points in the team (take your pick here, but I’m hoping for a solid holding midfielder or a Michael Parkhurst-type centerback).

And I expect that they will stop this ridiculous “Superclub” self-promotion and remember that we play in a young league with a salary cap that is the equivalent of the minimum salary of the lowliest benchwarmer on real Superclubs. Let’s just win some games in MLS, maybe make the CCL and beat some Mexican teams, and maybe win the domestic treble before we get all knicker-twised about the possibility of playing a dinar-dripping friendly in Dubai or whereever. I’m just sayin’.

So. That’s all done. Good.

Let’s play some futbol.

David Beckham $6.5 million
Landon Donovan $900,000
Edson Buddle $179,950
Chris Klein $175,000
Eddie Lewis $165,722.29
Donovan Ricketts $150,000
Omar Gonzalez $142,000
Dema Kovalenko $137,618.75
Todd Dunivant $109,974.38
Israel Sesay $102,083.33
Tristan Bowen $96,363.63
Jovan Kirovski $80,000
Alan Gordon $79,754.40
Stefani Miglioranzi $79,499.96
Sean Franklin $76,850
Mike Magee $72,500
Josh Saunders $44,473.75
Josh Wicks $42,000
Leonard Griffin $39,500
A.J. DeLaGarza $36,000
Julian Valentin $34,000
Bryan Jordan $34,000
Josh Tudela $34,000

EDIT: Reader Frank has posted a link describing the salary breakdown in the comments. You can also look at 2007’s and 2008’s league salaries. Thanks Frank!

What stands out the most to me is Sesay’s salary. Does anyone know why it is so high? It seems he has yet to fulfill his potential, which is what his salary seems to be based on.

Kirovski’s salary seems a bit low to me as well. I’d want to take about $20,000 off of Buddle’s salary and give it to Jovan.

My caretaking maternal area notes that Josh Tudela’s salary has finally been raised. For the past two years he has made $17,500 — this year he is up to $34,000.

Klein’s salary may be high, but he’s worth it not only on, but off the field.

Donovan’s salary is the same as last year.

Beckham? Whatever.

After three years (including the 2009 season) David Beckham leaves the Galaxy and MLS for the greener pastures of AC Milan and Serie A. As numerous sources are reporting (but my favorite is the crusty reportage coming from LA Times futbol guru Grahame Jones – see today’s story here, which has lots of details, along with these stories from earlier in the transfer saga here and here ) Becks will complete the Serie A season with Milan on May 31, presumably get call-ups for two England internnational matches in June, return to train with the Galaxy and rejoin the club when the international transfer window opens on July 15. He will complete the MLS season, then end his contract with MLS and permanently join AC Milan.

During his loan, his salary will not count against the cap and his roster spot will be available for someone else to fill. Plus MLS and AEG get all the cash they were looking for and then some. From the perspective of the teams, the player, and the league, even the sponsors, it is win-win-win-win.

Which leaves us. The fans.

Personally, I’m just happy to get this thing over and done with. As a season ticket holder I don’t mind seeing Becks a few more times before he heads back to big-time Euro futbol. Honestly, his play wasn’t that amazing down the stretch last year, though he had little help from a mostly mediocre collection of role players. Becks shines when he is surrounded by talents players who read the game as well as he does and can handle his passes. He is not the player to carry a team on his shoulders, which is pretty much what the Galaxy needed last year. And the year before.

I’m happy, as an MLS fan, to get the cap space and roster spot for other players. I’m happy to be free of the drama. I’m happy to be free of the focal point for world media, since as an example of MLS futbol, the Galaxy was not who I would have chosen to make the poster child.

I’m less happy about how AEG used Becks to jack up ticket prices, attempt to position the Galaxy as a global brand, and blew up the team just as he was arriving on the scene. I’m less happy about the fact that he missed most of 2007, checked out about halfway through 2008 and has halved his 2009 commitment.

At this point, the issue is settled and the Galaxy have another roster spot and $400K to spend on players. I’m more interested in how we use these new resources than in anything involving Brand Beckham.

What about ya’ll? I know some of you guys are very very angry about how this played out and are not very happy about where this leaves us, the fans. So let’s hear from you in the comments.

If I were someone with the access and skill of say an Ives Galarcep or Nick Green or Luis Bueno or Andrea Canales, then I’d make a prediction of who stays and who goes based on an in-depth study of progress made during the preseason, how a player stacks up against the salary cap, and gut instinct.

But I’m not. What I’m going to do instead is list those players who I’d be happy if they found work with other clubs. Based on one Pan-Pacific Championship game. Cuz that’s how I roll.

Current Roster (not including trialists like Tony Sanneh):

GK: Donovan Ricketts, Josh Saunders, Josh Wicks

Forwards: Josh Boateng, Tristan Bowen, Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan, Alan Gordon, Bryan Jordan, Jovan Kirovski, Dema Kovalenko, Mike Magee, Israel Sesay

That’s 25. But there are at least two trialists spending extended time with the club: Sanneh and the Central American defender who’s name escapes me. I’m sure there are others (feel free to add them in the comments).

(Here’s another aside: beyond the fact that the official LA Galaxy roster still lists players who were cut last week, it has bits of lingering weirdness such as listing Dema Kovalenko as a foward, a position I’ve never seen him play in all his years in MLS.)

Okay here’s my cut list:

Keeper: Take all three. If there’s anyone position where it pays to have an excess of caution, this is it. See: USA, Chivas, 2008.

Defenders: If the Central American trialist works out, then I think you have to consider cutting Sanneh. He’s not any faster now than he was two years ago, though his veteran savvy is considerable and he is more maneuverable than Greg Vanney was. If the CA trialist doesn’t work , then you keep him. Take everyone else.

Midfielders: I think there’s a reason Leonard Griffin was out of MLS before Bruce brought him back.

Forwards: I have to say that if Bryan Jordan is progressing well from his injury, then you cut Alan Gordon. I know that Gordon does score 4-5 goals a year and he has a high workrate, but can you imagine him getting substantial playing time on any other MLS team? He’s had five years in MLS to live up to his USL scoring championship and I’m certain that day isn’t coming.

That would get me down to 24, based on the players I listed.

What about ya’ll? Who stays and who goes? Consider this the thread for roster compliance over the next few days.

UPDATE – March 2, 9:02 AM - Charlesj put a roster in the comments that included Yohance Marshall, whom I left off, and the name of the CA player: Osman Chavez.

UPDATE – March 2, 4:24 PM – Several sources, including the Galaxy’s official blog and Nick Green’s 100 Percent Soccer, are reporting that Josh Boateng has been cut. That site also says that the roster has 26 players but some are not under contract so the team is roster and cap compliant. Which I guess means that there will be a couple more cuts to come by opening day.

Also, this story by Grahame Jones in the Los Angeles Times says that David Beckham has been loaned to AC Milan for the rest of the season and will therefore miss at least the first 17 games of the MLS season (and most likely more depending on World Cup qualifying). Hat tip to George and Justin for bringing those to our attention.

So we get a lot of hype, complete with a tournament theme song, a trophy, and a television contract for what is essentially a couple of pre-season friendlies with teams few MLS fans know anything about. Hype without substance. That’s what my experience with the Galaxy has been since Lalas was installed by the “brain”trust at AEG. In a lot of ways I feel like AEG has been doing to the Galaxy what Bush did to the country. (Oh wait, I just violated a cardinal rule of sports blogging – don’t bring politics or religion into it. Right. My apologies to the conservatives reading this post – feel free to rag on your liberal politician of choice in the comments. Great weather we’ve been having! How ’bout those Mets?)

Last night I didn’t know whether it was great that 9,000 people came to a pre-season game or embarrassing that 9,000 people came to a championship final.

Either way I can say that for me personally it was fun to be at the game and take a look at where the team is a month before the season starts. Below I’ve listed some of the observations I had while I was watching the game.

– It’s a good thing Sean Franklin has another month to recover from hernia surgery. He was rusty rusty rusty last night and had he not been shown red for his second-half studs-up tackle he could have easily earned his second yellow and been gone regardless.

– Are we really going to start the season with Eddie Lewis at left back, if he recovers from his left hamstring pull in time? Commentors on this blog have noted that Todd Dunivant is injured, so that would explain part of it, but that seems like a waste of his talents given our lack of a true left wing.

– Gonzalez could be good. He didn’t stand out to my eyes last night, but for defenders that’s often a good thing. If I don’t notice you, you are probably doing your job.

– Kirovski might have experience, futbol IQ, and vision, but he can’t win balls, waits to long to make passes, and get bumped off the ball pretty easily. He’s got a month to toughen up.

– As of last night Mike Magee is about 1000x more ready to play at this level than Ely Allen. Maybe Eddie Lewis at left back and Magee at left wing wouldn’t be so bad. Where does that put Duni?

– The best part about having Dema Kovalenko on our side is the LA Riot Squad cheer of “Dema, Dema, Dema – Kill, Kill, Kill”.

– Stefani Migliorianzi. Well, he didn’t suck.

– Edson Buddle should stick to open-field shots on goal. He was an immediate improvement up front when he came on, but its unlikely he will supplant Landon as the regular penalty-taker anytime soon. I understand that NASA was worried for an instant about an unauthorized rocket launch in the seconds following his blast.

– The starting midfield last night was long on grit and heart and short on flair and smart passing.

– As much as I love Alan Gordon’s workrate and commitment, I just think his feet of stone and his not-quite-sharp-enough passing aren’t enough to make him anything but a big banging body who is decent on set plays in the box. If this were basketball I’d put him in a center to bang around, take some charges, and maybe slam down a couple of alley oops. But that’s a game with unlimited substitutions. In futbol we only get the three…

– Tony Sanneh had veteran presence, but also veteran speed.

– For a tiny guy AJ DeLaGarza can clog up the middle when he needs to. I worry about his pace, though.

What about you guys? What did you see? What seemed promising? Who needs works? Who impressed? Who embarrassed? How much do you agree with my observations? Where was I obviously watching a different game from the one you saw? Fire away in the comments.

So I thought I’d give us something to have fun with. Let’s predict opening day lineups for our clash with DC United. I’m going to do this a few times between now and the 22nd of March so that we can assess progress by new acquisitions and make modifications, since it is folly to think that what we say now will still be in play at the end of pre-season.

Case in point: Will Golden Balls still be with us come March 9? The Galaxy and AEG say “Yes”. AC Milan says, “What? We’re not yet begun to negotiate.”

So let’s incorporate that into our little game. Here’s the challenge. Come up with at least two lineups. One with Becks and one without him. For those of you wishing an advanced challenge, throw in Landon for your with-and-without prediction.

Here is the current roster of players (I’m using the position in which they are listed on the official LA Galaxy website, not the ones they are likely to play in order to group them below. But there is one headscratcher here. Dema Kovalenko listed as a forward? Really?):

GK: Steve Cronin, Donovan Ricketts, Josh Wicks

Defenders: A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant, Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, Brandon McDonald, Mike Randolph, Troy Roberts, Julian Valentin

Midfielders: David Beckham, Leonard Griffin, Chris Klein, Eddie Lewis, Josh Tudela, Kyle Patterson, Stefani Miglioranzi

Forwards: Ely Allen, Josh Boateng, Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan, Alan Gordon, Bryan Jordan, Jovan Kirovski, Dema Kovalenko, Mike Magee, Israel Sesay

In looking at this amalgam of players, things don’t really look all that much better than last year. The midfield is better, but the back line is still full of question marks. And, frankly, if Donovan does stay in Europe, I don’t see a lot of sparks up top.

What I see is a lot of talent concentrated in attacking midfield/forward positions, so I’m tempted to roll out a 3-5-2 instead of the traditional Galaxy 4-4-2. In fact, that’s what I’m going to do.

My Beckham-Donovan lineup:

GK: Ricketts
Defenders: Dunivant – Valentin – Franklin
D-mids: Kovalenko – Miglioranzi
A-Mids: Lewis – Donovan – Beckham
Forwards: Buddle – Jordan

My No Becks Line-up:

GK: Ricketts
Defenders: Dunivant – Valentin – Franklin
D-mids: Kovalenko – Miglioranzi
A-Mids: Lewis – Donovan – Klein
Forwards: Buddle – Jordan

My No-Becks-No Donovan Line-up:

GK: Ricketts
Defenders: Dunivant – Valentin – Franklin
D-mids: Kovalenko – Miglioranzi
A-Mids: Magee – Lewis – Klein
Forwards: Buddle – Jordan

My reasoning is thus. Ricketts is obvious. Backline has good, seasoned vets in Todd Dunivant and Sean Franklin (Rookie of the Year!), but the middle is a mystery. Some say Gonzalez could be MLS-ready. I don’t know. But I put him there anyway because I’ve seen Troy Roberts play. I don’t have Brandon McDonald in the back because last year he played midfield and seemed to be making progress there. But I could be persuaded to put him in as a center back. But because there are so many questions about the back line, I went with three instead of four, hoping that the center back could step-up and that the two d-mids could protect and distribute. This is probably not the best reason to change formations, but no one ever accused me of getting coaching decisions right.

Midfield: Crowded with middling talent, which is a step up from last year, but still needs defensive bite. Kovalenko is a superior choice here and it will be interesting to cheer for him instead of against him. But after that, I’m at a loss. I went with Miglioranzi because he has d-mid experience, but I guess I could have included Griffin or Tudela there as well. Attackers were a bit easier. If there were a 3-5-2, then the attack would go through Donovan because of his vision and soccer IQ, with Lewis and Becks as wingers.

Forwards. The wings would feed Buddle and Someone Else. I chose Jordan because he was playing very hard nosed soccer at the end of last year, though his finishing and footwork still need work. But I like him better than anyone else except maybe Magee, but Magee needs to step up and show something. He was no where on a Red Bulls team that desperately needed a second forward last year.

Those are my choices. What are yours? And why? Let us know and we can get on with something more satisfying than watching giant corporations to a legal dance for the services of a right midfielder.

UPDATE: I just realized I didn’t follow formation convention in this posting. So. Read each line left-to-right (eg Dunivant – Valentin – Franklin means Duni at leaft back, Valentin in the middle, Franklin on the right).

Well, kids, it looks like we are going from rumor to reality in the Becks-to-AC Milan sweepstakes. David Beckham has now said publicly that he wants to stay at AC Milan and has directed his lawyers to work out a deal between MLS and Milan. The good folks at MLS Rumors have the video.

The press coverage has been building (I did my part two days ago, though I’m sure no one would mistake these modest postings for “press”) on this story for a little while now and over the last two days many of the soccer journalists in the US have weighed in.

Here at ground zero, Grahame Jones did a surprisingly snark-free piece for the Los Angeles Times and Nick Green did a straight-forward news report for The Daily News, (which I found posted at his blog 100 Percent Soccer). The real gem from Nick, though, was his next post called The Failures of David Beckham. And, sad to say, I really couldn’t find a way to disagree with his thesis.

And now Beckham has failed in MLS, playing no small role in transforming what was the league’s flagship franchise into its worst. A player who was supposed to bring star power and credibility to MLS instead merely exposed the inherent weaknesses of a league with a relatively low salary cap and small squads.

In the end, Beckham proved he’s no Pele or even a Juan Pablo Angel.

Sadly, yes.

But at least I enjoyed him when he actually played well for us. And I’m not saying that SoCal’s resident thrower of brick-bats and channeler of Groucho Marx mixed with WC Fields and Will Rogers, Galaxy season ticket holder Dan Loney, thought he couldn’t make a fine pass now and again, but he sure isn’t sucking down cans of happy juice.

David Beckham was on “Sesame Street” this morning. My daughter saw him, and started crying.

What a bright, perceptive, intelligent little girl I have. Me and Tim Leiweke should listen to her more often. Turns out Ben Olsen was right to beat the crap out of Dawson for wearing that douchebag’s jersey.

Now, let’s get one thing straight. If you think I’m just going to go off on some poisonous, semi-literate rant calling into question Beckham’s desire, class, integrity and honor – boy, have you come to the right place. My only mission right now is to make Nick Green look like Simon Fuller.

For my part, I’m kinda glad this David Beckham thing is winding down, both on the field of the Home Depot Center and in the never-ending soap opera of his next move. Just leave already, though we’d better make Milan pay a pretty penny. Sell it while it’s hot, son, to phrase some paras.

Buuuuut, that’s just some people with some media platforms talking (though, just so you know, that does, in fact, make us better people than you). What do you guys think? Are you ready for this things to just be done? I know that Charles and Diane and Justin and Trent and George and Rusty and Eugene and David and Steve were all going on about this a couple of days ago. (And all while I was at work – what is it with you people, don’t you have jobs?) Oh I kid, I kid.

Actually you all had way more insights into this than I do and you make some pretty compelling arguments as to why this was just fine. And some about why this wasn’t so fine. So now I’m confused. And since I’m confused and you know more than I do, I’m just going to turn this locomotive back over to you. Becks to Milan. Good or bad for Becks, the Galaxy, AC Milan, MLS, and Posh and the kids?

Let’s see…Grahame Jones at the Los Angeles Times gives us “David Beckham plays well again, adding to ’stay or leave’ drama”. ESPN’s SoccerNet gives us “Beckham wants to stay says Milan chief”. The sometimes-right but always entertaining folks at MLS Rumors give us “OUTGOING: David Beckham To AC Milan From LA Galaxy?“, followed hard on the heels by Goal.com’s “Beckham Brings In The Lawyers To Help With Milan Stay – Reports“. And that, in turn, led to yet another MLS Rumors post, “OUTGOING: 19.2 Million Dollars For Beckham to Milan?”

In other words, the rumor-fest has now come home. As if the speculation wasn’t here already.

So. What do you think? Is he coming back or staying at AC Milan?

My own two cents is that both he and the team would be better off with him at Milan. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching him play in person. But the fact is that his talent was wasted on a team like the Galaxy, mismanaged to within an inch of its life, and he would have been hard-pressed to really shine on most MLS teams. His going would clear up cap space, which could be used to shore up what is looking like a workmanlike but uninspiring offense, now that we’ve invested in some actual defenders (and at this point I’m leaning towards thinking Landon will be staying in Germany).

But am I on the right track? What do you think? Tell me I’m an idiot in the comments or let me know I’m the most insightful bastard since H.L. Mencken.