The Michael Phelps sweepstakes have begun. Phelps broke his own world record in the 400 meter individual medley to take his first gold medal. Coming into the games, this race was considered the trickiest for Phelps in his quest to break Mark Spitz's record. But he just demolished the rest of the pack and looked like he spent no energy by the end of the race. Chivas USA worked hard to come back, but......

It was a night of familiar storylines at last night's Galaxy game. Weather -- warm, but nice L.A. summer night. Attendance -- 4th sellout of the year. Galaxy offense -- flowing and scoring. Galaxy defense -- erratic. MLS officiating - subpar. The Galaxy jumped out to an early lead when forward Landon Donovan pounced on a loose ball in front of the Columbus Crew goal after Crew goalie William Hesmer bobbled a cross from......

Galaxy midfielder Alvaro Pires scored his first MLS goal in the early minutes as the Galaxy battled the Colorado Rapids for the Western Conference lead in front of a near sellout crowd of 25,129 at the Home Depot Center last night. At the 32nd minute, the blue-and-gold added a second goal when forward Edson Buddle blasted home a shot from the right side of the Colorado penalty box and going into the locker room......

The Galaxy put on a rare show on the road in a warm and windy Frisco, Texas this afternoon. Coming off a loss to New York last Saturday, the blue-and-gold quickly attempted to assert themselves against FC Dallas. In the 5th minute, midfielders Alvaro Pires and David Beckham combined to find forward Edson Buddle in the Dallas penalty area, but Buddle's shot only served as a warning shot for what would come later and......

The Galaxy pay a visit to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas to face FC Dallas this Sunday afternoon. The blue-and-gold are trying to rebound from a disappointing loss last Saturday night against New York, and a mid-week encore in Edmonton on Tuesday. On the other side of the field, FC Dallas, or "Hoops", sit one point above LA in the Western Conference standings, but are also coming off a loss last Saturday. The......

Article written by reader Alex Gutierrez Nothing can excite a city like a Derby. A sense of pride, a feeling of place and plenty of passion. The Honda SuperClasico is a feud that has been four years in the making and has become one of the most exciting games to watch in MLS. All the ingredients have been added including competitive clubs, world class stars and passionate fans. The Chivas USA were introduced to......

Fear not, fans of Posh and Becks, the high-profile pair are not going to be packing up and heading out of our fair city, as rumors have been circulating. While Los Angeles Galaxy's star midfielder has been passing the ball as part of some MLS off-season training of late, he has not been in talks with the Newcastle United team about a possible signing. The UK's SkySports reports that Beckham "played under [Newcastle's new manager......

Fire 1, Galaxy 0 - We happened to be at Chicago-area hotspot Krem last night and saw players from both teams drinking, but for different reasons. The Fire scored in extra time to clinch the final MLS playoff spot and send the Galaxy back to Los Angeles for the year. We think we ran into Chicago mega-star Cuauhtemoc Blanco in line for the bathroom, but it's a little fuzzy. We did see LA's Cobi Jones,......

Chivas USA 0, FC Dallas 0 - LA's top team hasn't lost since July, earning a draw last night with Dallas. Brad Guzan had his MLS-leading 12th save to increase Chivas' lead in the Western Conference to four points with two games left to play. Unfortunately, Chivas was unable to capitalize on a one man advantage for the last ten minutes of the match. Warriors 119, Lakers 106 - Ahhh, preseason. 14 of 15 Lakers......

Rockies 10, Dodgers 4 - Los Angeles was swept by Colorado. Again. At home. Where's the heart? Where's the effort? When we looked at the schedule before the season, it looked like LA would be able to propel itself into the playoffs with a bunch of late games against the lowly Rockies. Instead, the Rockies have made a wild card charge on the shoulders of the Boys in Blue. They've won 11 in a row,......

Cubs 8, Dodgers 2 - There goes that winning streak. The Blew Crew committed three errors, but only allowed one unearned run. That left an average of one earned for each of the seven pitchers used by Los Angeles. Juan Pierre was responsible for one of the errors, but also picked up his 55th stolen base of the year. A's 6, Angels 2 - Garret Anderson has been en fuego. He extended his RBI streak......

#15 Chivas Midfielder Jesse Marsch threw out a hard kick at Beckham's lower regions in response to a slight shove at the 45:00 minute mark of the LA Galaxy Chivas USA rivalry game tonight at the Home Depot Center. The kick came almost from behind Beckham, sending him crashing to the field in what would have been a Galaxy scoring opportunity. Beckham immediately gets up on his feet and exclaims "What the fuck, man?!" Withholding......

Angels 18, Yankees 9 - Garret Anderson had such a good night that he hit a grand slam -- and it wasn't even his biggest accomplishment. That honor would belong to his 10 RBIs, a new Angel record and only the 12th time anybody has been that productive in MLB history. The Angles are 6-2 against New York this year, and remain the only team with a winning record in the Joe Torre era (since......

Dodgers 5, Rockies 4 - Los Angeles must feel like they dodged a bullet after Thursday night -- not because of Colorado's attempted comeback, but because of all the pitching injuries. Brad Penny earned his 13th win, but was pulled out of the game in the seventh after an all-out sprint to earn a single. Turns out he only had a bad cramp. Takashi Saito returned after missing seven games with shoulder trouble, taking the......

David Beckham’s historic first game as a Major League Soccer (MLS) player is now over. At a loss for words, I have decided to take a cue from the Chelsea Soccer Club fans that often relate soccer to sex and am going to do doing the same here. Having paid for a $120 ticket to see Beckham play for 12 minutes was sort of like visiting a sex worker and being charged a whole......

I'm not impressed by Beckhamania. Sure, I'm excited about David Beckham's arrival. He's a world class icon coming to compete in our backyard. I planned my Saturday around his first match in a Galaxy uniform, despite the fact that it's just a friendly in an obscure tournament during the MLS All Star break. I embedded a semi-regular "Beckham Watch" in our "LAst Night's Action" segments and I've posted highlight videos of his greatest plays. Beckham......

Alexi Lalas President and General Manager Los Angeles Galaxy Dear Alexi: I've gotta hand it to you. You are indeed the man. Landing David Beckham is a much bigger deal than any of your fellow MLS owners will ever acknowledge, because they're all steamed that they couldn't pull it off first. The man is the biggest brand in international sports, without a doubt, and his made-for-the-highlight-reel penalty and free kicks are just what the......

Yesterday marked David Beckham’s last day as a respectable European footballer before he makes his move to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Given the high caliber of the European soccer teams as compared to the naïve American Major League Soccer (MLS), this last game is surely the beginning of the end for the legendary Beckham. He is now doomed to a life of over-done, over-rated, Hollywood middle-brow trashiness. The poor man has already begun to......

Before tomorrow night's MLS match pitting the LA Galaxy against DC United, Mexican rock band Kinky will play a special pre-game set for soccer and music fans. Kinky is five-member band from Monterrey, Mexico. Their song "Solo un Paso" from is the theme for Fox Sports en Español's 2007 MLS broadcasts, with the video featured n the channel's pre-game montage. Here's the video for "Sister Twisted," which features a gaucho with some amazingly rubber-limbed dance......

- 3.0 quake in The Valley this afternoon - Major League Soccer: New England 3, Los Angeles 2. - Environmentally friendly and affordable bras and panties guides by GreenLAGirl. - 2 die at Mother's Day Flower Stand when car plows through. - Why do the La Brea Tar Pits bubble? - California man on FBI's Top Ten List arrested in Canada - 60 to 80 acres burned in Pacoima off Osborne Street. - American......

D.C. United 2, Chivas USA 1 - The MLS gets no respect. ESPN and SI.com lump it in with their general soccer coverage. Yahoo! Sports has them listed just below the WNBA. They might not party like their Euro counterparts, but LAist.com is willing to give Chivas USA top billing tonight. So here it goes ... after a scoreless first half, winless D.C. United found the net twice (the second on a penalty kick) and......

Giants 6, Dodgers 4 - He's not looking like A-Rod, but Barry Bonds is starting to look like, well, Barry Bonds. A little trimmer than the past couple years and a lot faster on the basepath, he's also plunking four-baggers out of the park as if he was just 40 years old. His three run shot in the first put the Giants ahead early. Los Angeles tied the game, but fell short in their comeback......

Continuing a recent trend, Chivas USA has pledged over a quarter of a billion dollars to attract a major British talent to play soccer in Los Angeles. After the Galaxy signed David Beckham, many thought the city could only manage one wealthy international sex symbol with morphing hair and little domestic appeal. Unbenounced to most people, the Home Depot Center can accommodate this blockbuster opportunity because they host two MLS franchises. Williams isn't known to......

David Beckham $250,000,000, Hollywood 2 - There had been rumblings for awhile, but nobody expected it to happen like this. International mega-ultra-super-ginorma star David Beckham has agreed to a five year deal to play soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He will get paid over a quarter of a billion dollars, most of which will come from advertising and merchandising. Beckham currently has a soccer academy at the Home Depot Center in Carson (where the......

LiLo, Brit, and Paris, move over. There's a new game in town. In a stunning announcement, soccer star David Beckham has agreed to a 5 year, reportedly $250 million deal to sign with the LA Galaxy, effective once his contract with Real Madrid expires at the end of the Primera Liga season in June. The move is not entirely unexpected, given Beckham's loss of standing with both the English national team and with Real.......

Heat 101, Lakers 85 - Dwane Wade filled the Laker's stockings with 40 pieces of coal, errrr, points, and Kobe was about as useful as Rudolph on a sunny afternoon. In a game hyped by the NBA as a new Christmas tradition and hyped by commentators as a matchup of two top scorers, Miami took control early and never faltered. The Heat have now won three in a row against the Lakers on Christmas day.......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

Looking for real estate by neighboorhood can be tricky; it's easiest to search by zip code, but 90039 is tony Silverlake, the still-sketchy Frogtown flats and spotty Glassel Park all at once. Trulia is trying to make it easier, combining Google Maps and local real estate listings. Want to live downtown? Look for a little green icon and click: yipes, $893,000. Forgot to hit the "less than $500,000" filter. The idea is great, but......

The hottest thing in SoCal tonight is at the Home Depot Center in Carson, as the Los Angeles Galaxy will take on Real Madrid. Yes, that Real Madrid. Yesterday, a training session between in Carson attracted more than 8,000 fans, and tonight's games is sold out. Real Madrid is the world's most star-studded soccer team, which includes big names such as David Beckham, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Michael Owen, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, and Raul......

Soccer star David Beckham was in LA yesterday to open up his new soccer academy at the Home Depot Center, and rumors were flying that he could one day play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. "I never thought that I would ever be playing anywhere apart from Manchester United, and then I make the move to the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid," Beckham said. "… Things happen. Playing in America does interest......