Soccer by Ives is saying Joey Franchino may be heading back our way.

According to a source within Major League Soccer, the Galaxy and New England Revolution are discussing a trade that would send Revs defender Joe Franchino to the Galaxy. There are no details on what the Galaxy would give up but it is believed that the package would likely consist of a draft pick.

Franchino has played just one minute for the Revs this season after sitting out most of last season following foot surgery. Here is a recent profile on Franchino in the Boston Globe.

Franchino’s professional career began with the Galaxy, which drafted him in 1998. He spent two and a half seasons with the Galaxy before Los Angeles was forced to give him up in a dispersal draft to make room for the acquisition of Luis Hernandez in 2000. Franchino went to the Revolution in that draft.

So… We’d do this why, exactly? First off, he’s thirty-one. Thirty-two before the end of the season. He took a leave of absence last year for “unspecified reasons.” He has not played much for the Revs recently. He’s spent a fair bit of time injured. And there was apparently a pretty major incident in the past week or so where he was kicked out of a Red Sox-Yankees game for being drunk and disorderly. (But the blogosphere tells us that reports of peeing in public were greatly exaggerated. Isn’t that a relief.)

On the other hand, to be balanced, this comes from the above-linked Boston Globe article:

Franchino’s presence often seems to increase the intensity level of practice sessions and helps the focus of other players. Franchino took an interest in the battle for the starting position on the left side of midfield between Mauricio Castro and Khano Smith.

“I try to lift players up in training,” Franchino said. “With Khano being challenged by Castro, I told him he should take it personally, he should come out here and compete for the position.”

I’m thinking there’s no way to tell exactly what we’d be getting here.

Sounds like exactly what we need right now.

Or…wait. No it doesn’t.

– I am SO glad that it was this game available for viewing and not the Colorado game. Now I can continue to view the season through happy little rose-colored glasses. At least till the next game.

– I’m thinking this could easily be the starting lineup for the season. Unless, of course, they completely fall apart against stronger opposition.

– That said, I’m not 100% convinced by our central midfield. They didn’t stand out for me as bad, but they didn’t stand out for me as great, either.

– Mike Randolph is back! This was the player I expected to see in the preseason.

– Chris Klein. I love the man. (As a player only, understand.) He plays with such heart and integrity, all of the time. And he and Becks up the right? Beautiful.

– So this is what it looks like when Landon shows up for the full ninety!!

– Alan Gordon can’t finish. The end. He’s got a great work rate. He’s pretty speedy. And he doesn’t know what to do with the ball when he’s in front of the goal I’ve kept hoping, but I think this is what it comes down to.

– It makes so much more sense to pair Greg Vanney with Sean Franklin rather than Abel Xavier. One older guy with experience and wisdom (not two), paired with a younger guy with speed. I think Abel and Franklin would probably work equally well.

– And that said, what’s up with Franklin’s mohawk? It looks like the mane on a pony. Stick the man on central defense and suddenly he’s channeling William Gallas.

– Ely Allen is a little raw, but he gives 100%. I think Ruud can do things here.

– Beckham fit into the team in this game. Meaning he played exceptionally but didn’t necessasrily stand out as a superstar. And I mean that in the best possible way.

– Steve Cronin seemed to play pretty well, but he wasn’t really tested. The jury’s still out here.

– Was I hallucinating, or did I keep hearing, “BOOM goes the Cannon”?

– All in all, a pretty game. And I’m so happy I finally got to see it. I feel like I can participate in the Galaxy discussion now.

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.

I think we all knew Kyle Martino and Kelly Gray wouldn’t be back, right? When you don’t even go on the preseason tour, or get sent home in the middle, it’s not a good sign. Martino in particular breaks my heart, but what can you do?

Who saw the Celestine Babayaro waiver coming, though? Not me. I thought Ruud picked him specifically to come in and fill a niche. Guess it didn’t happen. Granted, he didn’t light the field on fire when he played the other night, but neither did anybody else, really. (I blame jet lag.) It would have been nice to give him a chance to settle in and see what he was capable of. Now we’ll never get the opportunity.

So what does this mean for our left side? Martino used to play left mid, although I don’t think he was a natural lefty. Now we’ve got Mike Randolph. With Ante Jazic out, that’s it for veterans, isn’t it? (And does it strike anybody else funny to be calling a guy who made his MLS debut less than a year ago a “veteran”? That’s what second year players are, though. On this team at least.) And there’s at least a fair chance that we’ll be missing Mike for Olympic qualifiers and possibly the Olympics as well.

Besides Randolph and Jazic, we have rookies Michael Gavin on defense and Ely Allen, who I’m guessing we’ll see at midfield. Anybody else? If you’re a rookie and want the chance to sink or swim, I guess the Galaxy is the team to be on.

The waiver draft is today also, but if we couldn’t afford to keep the mid-salary players we have, I’m not sure we’d be doing well to pick up any new ones. But I could be wrong.

At least they didn’t waive Ante Jazic while he was injured. That would be cold.

They’ll probably pull a Chris Albright and wait till he’s healthy to dump him. Am I right?

As we’ve said before, this is no easy matter. The cap, at least according to unofficial sources, is $2.3 million this year. Of that, Beckham takes up $400,000, and Landon and Ruiz take up $325,000 apiece. That’s $1,050,000 for three players. The rest of the cap has to be spread across everybody who’s not developmental or Generation Adidas. (Which is why trading Quavas Kirk was such an odd move — he was Generation Adidas and didn’t count against the cap.)

Of course, there is the super-secret allocation money to consider, plus a few other shell games that can be played, so we’ll probably never know exactly how much room we have. But I think it’s safe to say it’s not enough to cover all of the players currently on our roster.

From Billy Witz*, via Sideline Views:

What the Galaxy’ve been up to – they’d been trying to trade Jazic to Columbus for Tim Ward, but when they kept vacillating, Columbus sent Ward to Colorado. They’ve been shopping Kelly Gray and Harmse around to several teams — found a taker in Harmse — and were trying to get a draft choice from Utah for Martino. Any interest in Martino is tempered because of concerns about whether he’s really healthy. And since everyone knows the Galaxy is having to dump guys, most teams are just waiting until they’re put on the waiver wire Monday. . .

Why am I getting visions of vultures hovering over not-quite-roadkill, waiting for the poor suffering creature to draw its last breath so they can swoop in and rip the flesh from its still-warm bones…

Whoa. Just made myself shudder with that visual.

I’ll provide updates if and when I find them.

*Billy Witz has been laid off by the LA Daily News. If you’re a fan of accurate and non-predigested Galaxy news, this is a tragedy. In my opinion he was the best reporter on the team out there and could always be counted on to get the unexpected and interesting quote..

The fact that he’s leaving is no big surprise. He was a Frank Yallop guy, and a Canadian. Thherefore he was more valuable to Toronto than to a US team.

But there’s more to it than that. As I said last night:

And then there’s Kevin Harmse. I know a lot of people hate him. I always kind of liked him myself. He’s a scrappy player, and I like scrappy. Always ready to mix it up and show some passion. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

But I think he cooked his own goose in the Sydney game in November. He might have been able to get away with the (I think pretty much accidental) leg breaking. OR the (not so accidental) arm-stomping. But both? Not so much. Seriously, for the past three months every news item I got for the name “Kevin Harmse” said something about, “and Sydney FC will be without Juninho, who had his leg broken by Galaxy player Kevin Harmse.”

Somehow I don’t think this is what Ruud and Alexi mean when they say “global brand” and “worldwide recognition.”

What arm stomping was that, you ask?

This arm stomping.

Kevin? Sweetie? You just can’t DO these kinds of things. Especially not in the YouTube era.

Hopefully he’s learned his lessons and will apply them in Toronto.

P.S. Yes, I have heard the rumors that Kyle Martino and Kelly Gray have been traded as well. I don’t have details or confirmation, but you’ll get it as soon as I do.

Monday’s the day the team needs to be in salary cap compliance, so if it’s going to happen it will be today.

LA GALAXY ASIA TOUR 2008 ROSTER

GOALKEEPERS (2): Steve Cronin, Josh Wicks
DEFENDERS (9): Celestine Babayaro, Sean Franklin, Michael Gavin, Ante Jazic, Mike Randolph, Troy Roberts, Julian Valentin, Greg Vanney, Abel Xavier.
MIDFIELDERS (7): Ely Allen, Alvaro, David Beckham, Chris Klein, Brandon McDonald, Josh Tudela, Peter Vagenas
FORWARDS (3): Alan Gordon, Bryan Jordan, Carlos Ruiz

While those 21 have traveled to Asia, six players have returned to Los Angeles from Hawaii ahead of the team’s trip to Seoul, South Korea. Goalkeeper Charles Alamo, forwards Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan and Israel Sesay and midfielders Kelly Gray and Kevin Harmse all returned to Los Angeles prior to the remainder of the team traveling to Korea on Monday.

Donovan’s being treated for tendinitis in the knee, Buddle for a dislocated collarbone, Alamo, as we said yesterday, for torn and sprained knee ligameents.

That leaves Israel Sesay, Kelly Gray and Kevin Harmse, coming back to join Kyle Martino.

In case you’ve forgotten, we won Israel Sesay in the Generation Adidas “weighted lottery” last summer. (Weighted lottery = the more your team sucks, the better your chances.) He’s seventeen years old, born in Sierra Leone, moved to the US when he was eleven. He’s also a former Bradenton boy — a former member of the US soccer residency program. He came to the Galaxy when he was sixteen.

Is it just me, or does MLS have no idea what to do with talented young players? (Exhibit A: Freddy Adu, the highest paid player in MLS in 2004, who is still struggling with the after-effects of the hype. Or Santino Quaranta, now on trial with DC and by all accounts desperate for another chance. Which he may or may not be able to take advantage of.) We seem to throw them in to sink or swim on their own. Or to just stick them in the occasional reserve game and expect them to reach their potential all by themselves.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s all kinds of development going on behind the scenes that we don’t see. You think?

I’m hoping Sesay is just heading back for a breather and is not going to be used as trade bait to get somebody “better.” Especially since we really need forwards right now. That’s got to be what’s going to happen, right? Since he’s Generation Adidas, his salary doesn’t count against the cap, so we’d be stupid to trade him. Which means we won’t. Right?

I’m a lot less sure about our other guys: Kyle Martino, Kelly Gray and Kavin Harmse. (Note to Galaxy boys: Your chances are probably better if your first name doesn’t start with K.)

Kyle didn’t even go to Hawaii, no explanation, so I’m guessing he’s out as soon as they can work a trade. Yes, this breaks my heart. But what can you do?

Poor Kelly Gray never seemed to click in LA. Not sure why. I hate to say this, but he really never registered for me at all, one way or another. I know he inspired passion in a lot of people who either thought he was great or horrible, but not for me. He’s one of those where the team would finish a game and I’d invariably think, “Oh. Was Kelly Gray playing?”

Jeff over at Center Holds It talks about him a little bit today, and the commenters seem to think it’s because we insisted on playing him mostly in a defensive midfield role, which apparentlly isn’t his best spot. A fan from his Chicago days said he did a lot better at right mid or rightback. Unfortunately we don’t have vacancies there. And Kelly made $85,000 last year. Which is high for a non-click player.

My guess is that he’ll head out and be one of the many to explode for another team.

And then there’s Kevin Harmse. I know a lot of people hate him. I always kind of liked him myself. He’s a scrappy player, and I like scrappy. Always ready to mix it up and show some passion. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

But I think he cooked his own goose in the Sydney game in November. He might have been able to get away with the (I think pretty much accidental) leg breaking. OR the (not so accidental) arm-stomping. But both? Not so much. Seriously, for the past three months every news item I get for the name “Kevin Harmse” said something about, “and Sydney FC will be without Juninho, who had his leg broken by Galaxy player Kevin Harmse.”

Somehow I don’t think this is what Ruud and Alexi mean when they say “global brand” and “worldwide recognition.”

But of course I could be wrong, about Kevin and all of these guys.

The worst thing about the preseason is losing the players you’ve come to consider your own. But with luck any who leave will end up in an environment where they can thrive.

If that happens? They will, of course, be joining a very long list of successful former Galaxy players.

(Thanks to Nicole for the link.)

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.

Included in the commentary were a few goalkeeper updates and rumors.

First, supplemental draft pick Charles Alamo was the one in goal for the Houston shutout. That’s good. But he ended the game with a major, serious knee injury. That’s bad.

Curious how you think the Galaxy will handle this one.

Second, in the game last night they mentioned that the rumor is that the Galaxy have been in talks with RSL about bringing in keeper Chris Seitz.

Not sure how I’d feel about this. I became a big Seitz fan during the U-20 World Cup last summer. Kid has some talent. I think his total compensation was about $90,000 last year, but he’s former Generation Adidas. So I’m assuming that wouldn’t count against the cap. That would be a good thing.

But what would we have to deal to get him? What/who do we have of value? And the kid is just 20 years old. Is that what the team needs right now?

I think I’d be more comfortable signing a USL veteran like Wicks. (Sorry, Portland Timbers fans. And it’s really not just because it would be best for the Seattle Sounders. No, really.)

I just hope we don’t do another panic trade. Hate those.