An incredible game took place in Los Angeles last night, and it had nothing to do with the Staples Center, USC, or Kobe Bryant. In fact, the two teams facing off had nothing to do with LA or even the United States, really. The Coliseum played host to the national soccer teams of bordering nations Mexico and Guatemala, and true to past instances when Central American squads play in the States, heads rolled in......

Hope Solo might be the best thing to happen to women's soccer since the 91ers (if you don't know who they are, read my DVD review from earlier today). She's grabbing intriguing headlines for the US women's soccer team -- a squad that otherwise embarrassed itself this month and would be wallowing in anonymity at the moment. In case you missed it, Solo, the starting goalkeeper, was benched just before the team's loss to Brazil......

Heading into their World Cup semifinal match, there were questions about whether the US women's soccer team could handle their formidable international competition. At the end of the match, Brianna Scurry's netminding wasn't enough -- and the hopes of Americans were kicked to the curb. The year was 2007. And 2003. And 1995. It's easy to forget how many times this story has played out unless you watch Dare to Dream (77 mins, unrated), a......

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,......

Rangers 8, Angels 7 - Call it an emotional let-down. Call it a hangover. Call it whatever you want. The Angels lost when they should have been pushing even harder for home field advantage in the playoffs. Ervin Santana had a lousy start, giving up 6 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings. The loss left the Halos tied with Boston and Cleveland for best record in the AL. Beckham Watch - Paging Dr. Beckham.......

With a major project concluded, I'm back to regular writing. Hockey is back, too. You can watch a free game downtown tonight. Angels 10, Devil Rays 7 - The last time the Halos played small ball this well, they won a World Series. They could be headed back, with their magic number down to five. The Angels piled up double digits against the Devils without a home run on Monday, the 11th time they've reached......

What a waste of a quarter billion dollars. For the same amount that the Galaxy promised David Beckham to come to Los Angeles, they could have paid the salaries of all 26 New York Yankees in 2007 -- plus the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In the NFL, they could have covered an entire team operating at the salary cap for almost two and a half seasons. Granted, it's a five year......

Angels 13, Tigers 4 - The Angels got back on track this weekend, hammering NL Central leader Detroit for 34 runs in a three game sweep. Anaheim reached double-digits in each game and had 12 runs by the end of the third inning on Sunday. Chone Figgins had three runs in the finale and every starter scored at least once. Rockies 9, Dodgers 6 - Los Angeles couldn't sustain a 9th inning rally and dropped......

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......

Angels 3, Royals 1 - The West's best faced the league's worst in the first of a four game series. Anaheim prevailed thanks to a solid 6 and 1/3 inning performance by John Lackey. In the hard-luck story of the day, Kansas City first baseman Ryan Shealy finally reached base with a 2 RBI double after going hitless in his last nine at-bats. He had been averaging .096 for the season. A couple plays later,......

Clippers 96, Sonics 91 - One game after Shaun Livingston ruined his knee -- and possibly career -- the ailing Clippers pulled off their third consecutive victory. They spread the ball around with six players in double digits. Cory Maggette and Elton Brand led the way with 18 each, and Brand added a season high 7 assists. The line of the night went to an anonymous AP reporter who observed that "Chris Wilcox, a former......

Trailblazers 112, Lakers 108 - When your best player wins the All Star MVP award and a guy from the bench scores 23, things should be clicking. Instead, the Lakers lost their sixth in a row. This is the longest loosing streak in Phil Jackson's career. When he joined the Lakers in 1999 there was a distant memory of a five game loosing streak with the Bulls. He added another five game streak last season.......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

You may not know this, Miss Universe, but LAist loves you. We welcome you to our fair city and we are here for your every need. When we found out that you were going to be here in LA we nearly fell over. We ordered this beautiful weather that you are experiencing, we arranged for a beautiful full moon tomorrow, we even filled out all the credentials needed to hype your historic pageant --......

If the theatrics of this summer's Copa Mundial have you hooked, three movies playing this week serve up enough passion, pique and soccer-inspired drama to put the fake-foul antics of today's players to shame. On Tuesday July 4th, the enthusiasts at the Hollywood Football Association put on a special InterFootball Day at the Egyptian Theatre. They'll screen Goal! World Cup 1966, which tells of the glorious — if you're a English football fan —......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bids Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

How do we get an LA Mermaid Parade happening in Venice or somewhere? The one they've got rockin in Coney Island sure looks fun. Gothamist tells us that we can see more pictures at the Mermaid Parade Flickr Group and MermaidParade Flickr Tag. Warning, you might see some mermaids in their natural state if you know what i mean. Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only......

Last time Iran was in the World Cup, their appearance sparked pro-democracy riots in Tehran and a throng of protesters showed up at the Federal Building in Westwood (yes, we know it seems like that happens every week). This year, Iran not only made it to the World Cup, but their first game was against Mexico -- another country not unfamiliar with the soccer-sparked riot. In the end, Iran lost. By a lot. But......

In news of the strange off Reuters this morning comes a story out of Cambodia where Phnom Penh leader Non Nget has granted Buddhist monks the ability to watch the World Cup soccer games on TV but only in private and in total silence. Come again? Taking vows as a monk require them to abstain from seeking out any kind of pleasure and normally this includes TV. This time around they are allowed to......

We're flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with our new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are Scientists......

In case you haven't noticed, the World Cup championship started Friday. This LAist plans to watch the Footballers Wives marathon on BBC America this weekend in preparation (did you know that Tanya has a blog?). A reader asks where Angelenos rooting for teams from countries outside of the Americas and the Caribbean can watch the games. Here's a list for starters. Where will you watch? 1. Hollywood Football hosts the World Cup Breakfast series......

It's after Memorial Day. It's sunny. And living in Los Angeles finally pays off. While theatres in the rest of the country are showing HORRIFIC movies, mostly in sequel form. Those sweet, air-conditioned, stadium seats are focused directly on filth. Hundred-million dollar filth. But in the evenings of our movie-obsessed city, we can find the indy, artsy theatres and alternative venues (Hollywood Forever Cemetery, anyone?) that show something better. Scrape the gum off the......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

We didn't make it to the debate between Al Franken and Ann Coulter last night at The Gibson (and sponsored by the University of Judaism) but Franken talked on his show (live from San Francisco) this morning about the remarks they each made during the sponsors dinner before hand. The dinner was for about 75 of the largest supporters of UJ-LA and Al and Ann were each asked to speak for about three minutes.......

NOVEMBER 17 The 22nd annual "Beaujolais & Beyond Wine & Food Festival" proposes a toast tonight and raises its glass to honor the arrival of the 2005 Beaujolais Nouveau in Los Angeles. The even is put on by the French-American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles and will be held at the Millennnium Biltmore Hotel from 6:30 -10 PM. Wine connoiseeeurs will gather to taste the first crop of Beaujolais, along with other products......

Larry Stewart suggests in his column this week that the Lakers should consider hiring Bob Miller for the soon-to-be vacant TV announcer spot. He must have been reading LAist, which brought up Miller's name last week. But the more we think about it, the more we realize that Miller is the perfect person to become the Lakers' play-by-play announcer. It's almost impossible to follow Chick Hearn in Los Angeles. Our standards for broadcasting are......

The Los Angeles Galaxy pulled off a coup last week by acquiring Landon Donovan from Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. This is a superstar signing of epic proportions. Donovan coming to the Galaxy is akin to the Lakers signing Shaq or the Angels signing Vlad Guerrero. Donovan might the best American soccer player, having led Team USA to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, and single-handedly led the San Jose Earthquakes to two MLS......

Who cares about the Olympic Games or the Dodgers pennant race, when we can talk LA Galaxy soccer! Well, that has to be the talk of LA today, as the Galaxy made a controversial move to fire head coach Sigi Schmid. Guess being in first place wasn't good enough. We here at LAist cannot fathom why the Galaxy would ever fire Schmid. Sure the Galaxy were on a five game winless streak, and lost......

The August 2004 issue of "The California Bar Journal" profiles Los Angeles sports marketing attorney Maidie Oliveau, who will serve as an arbitrator at the Athens Olympics. Oliveau is one of 12 attorneys-and one of only two Americans-selected to sit on the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The division is the final arbiter of disputes that arise at the games, from doping to eligibility to game rules. This......