Shortlived

Not to turn this into a soccer blog but...

The U-20 team was sent home by an obviously superior German team. The US played well but were simply outmatched. Since they were lucky to escape group play with their poor performances in the first two games, I simply can't criticize their result in the second round.

Beckham. He is out 6-8 weeks, which is most if not all of the remaining season, with a sprained knee. LA was a long short before the playoffs before Beckham showed up, and I have to said I'd be pretty surprised to see them in the post season now. I do know there will be a lot of disappointed ticket holders for the remaining LA games this season, home and away.

There are a lot of other new players in the league under the 'Beckham rule'. Unfortunately for the Chicago Fire, New York's Angel scored the only goal in a victory over Blanco and the Fire. Both Angel and Blanco are new to the league and delivering a lot of new fans and exciting plays for both teams. There are a lot of interesting players to watch in the, with or without Becham.