Just as promised, even if it is a day behind normal schedule here. Plenty of solid goals this past week in Major League Soccer. I particularly love some of the combinations in plays like the Columbus game between Jason Garey and Steven Lenhart.

By the way, what was with Rob Stone’s Max Bretos call on the DeRo goal? That was just plain annoying.

Order of video: Kheli Dube, Steve Ralston, Steven Lenhart, Jason Garey, Patrick Nyarko, Blanco, Bryan Namoff, Dwayne De Rosario, Alecko Eskandarian, Landon Donovan, and Eddie Lewis.

Only a few goals to really mention this week. Some were game-tying goals so they were important and others were just pretty nice to look at. Feel free as always to add a goal that you think I missed here. My favorite had to be Santino Quaranta’s deep strike on Chivas to tie the game at two. Something a few may have missed was Chris Wondalowski’s goal, which happens to be the league’s 7,000th goal.

Order of video: Eddie Lewis (LA), Josh Wolff (KC), Andre Rocha (Dallas), Maykel Galindo (Chivas), Luciano Emilio (DC), Santino Quaranta (DC),Conor Casey (Colorado), Chris Wondalowski (Houston), John Wolyniec (NY).

The Cauldron will be loud tonight with DC in town. (Brian Stevens, WVH Photo Correspondent)

Two midweek games for week eight. A big night in general if you count Toronto FC’s game in the Canadian Champion tonight against future MLS side Vancouver. But I’ll just stick with the MLS games for the evening to preview.

RSL returns home to host the Galaxy who just scored their first win of the year. And in Kansas City, DC comes to the CAB for a big time clash of two up and coming eastern clubs.

DC United – at – Kansas City Wizards:

1. First place on the line, who steps up for DC on the road?

No Ben Olsen, Marc Burch, or Fred tonight for the boys in black. Guess the need to lead will come on Jamie Moreno who easily stepped into that role last week against Dallas. As long as the offense is rolling fine for DC they could be fine on the road here. Just remember DC only has a single loss on the season here so far and it was at Salt Lake (a place DC and no one else wins at). Also KC is a play DC typically sees success in as well. As long as guys like Moreno step up on the road they should be fine. Continue Reading…

Eddie Lewis will be called on a lot this year for the Galaxy. (Getty Images)

Back for another week of 2009 season previews here. Today we head out to Hollywood to preview the LA Galaxy. The Gals missed the playoffs again last year due to a horrible defense that allowed a MLS best 62 goals.

The offseason has been spent with loads of chaos surrounding loan deals with David Beckham. But in the process Bruce Arena has redone the roster with plenty of grit in hopes of getting back to the playoffs. Continue Reading…

We finally got some confirmation that two deals went down today that we’ve been talking about for a couple days now.

• LA Galaxy ships striker Carlos Ruiz to Toronto FC for a first and second round pick in the 2009 MLS Supplemental Draft and salary budget considerations.

• The Galaxy also sign veteran midfielder/defender Eddie Lewis.

First off, Ruiz gets dealt for TWO supplemental picks and “budget considerations.” Good lord have the mighty fallen hard. That is just laughable at this point. Toronto gets an absolute steal of a deal really. If anyone comes out on top it has to be Toronto. Even if Ruiz doesn’t produce well while he is there its still a cheaper deal for them considering the lack of talent that comes out of the Supplemental Draft anymore.

LA doesn’t come up short handed though either, I love the addition of Lewis.

So for the last time, who comes out on top here now that we see it all laid out?

Usually a high profile match at this point in the season should get the hype it deserves. On paper Chicago and LA have some major star power for ESPN to get all giddy about but when MLS made their schedule they forgot one thing, that FIFA would be doing their dates in the midweek for World Cup qualifiers.

Yup, take a look at those Fire and Galaxy rosters because you won’t see most of those players on the field tonight in MLS Primetime action.

David Beckham? No, he’s doing the soccer version of being the Pope in China at the Olympics this week. Blanco? Probably a no as well, at least starting wise since Mexico played last night in Mexico against Honduras. Landon Donovan? He’ll probably come off the bench at best if he gets back from Guetamala in time. Carlos Ruiz? Haha, nope he got traded to Toronto but he is probably still home in Guetamala. Eddie Lewis? No word on if his deal has even come through officially for LA, so no. Gonzalo Segares? Nope, he was in Costa Rica last night. Marco Poppa? No Poppa in this one since he was too in Guetamala for last night’s qualifier.

You get the point right. The only two left are Edson Buddle and Brian McBride. While those two certainly have the chance to make things happen for their clubs, it just doesn’t pack the same luster as it would have if all the parties were good to go here.

I’m not upset over the scheduling error on the league’s part but not seeing the full A-team for each club will definitely hurt tonight on the week’s showcase game. And I have sympathy for the schedule-maker, probably one of the hardest jobs in American soccer.

So speaking of the game. Continue Reading…

Well crap, no more than two second after I hit save on the last post about Toronto FC releasing Laurent Robert to possibly make room for Carlos Ruiz, I get an update saying that Ruiz has been shipped off to Toronto.

Yep, the LA Galaxy have traded Carlos Ruiz to Toronto FC, according to SBI. Details of the deal were not available yet, my assumptions are that LA will be getting a draft pick and allocation money in return.

The Galaxy’s dealing of Ruiz now clears the way for LA to sign U.S. national team midfielder/defender Eddie Lewis.

The more I think about this deal for Ruiz and Toronto, the more I like it. He will be paired with a young attack and a quality attacking midfielder in Amado Guevara, who is apparently good buddies with Ruiz. The Reds now appear to have a forward stable that includes Ruiz, Danny Dichio, Chad Barrett and teen standout Abdus Ibrahim. So there’s some depth to this team that could come in handy down the road. Continue Reading…