Oly, oly, question's free

It's been a while since I've posted a trivia question.

In honor of the Olympics, here's this one: The U.S. men have participated in a dozen editions of soccer at the Games, beginning with Paris in 1924. In all that time, who has scored the most goals for the U.S. men's team?

Pierre is tough sub

The Galaxy's fitness coach Chris Neville has moved on to other ventures and the team has yet to fill his position. In the meantime, Pierre Barrieu, long-time U.S. national team fitness guru, has stepped in to help.



Or hurt, rather, if the tough drill the Galaxy ran to finish training was any indication.

With a series of poles stuck in a star shape, the running exercise went on and on. Back and forth the players went, racing in short groups out to the pole, coming back in and then doing it again with a ball at their feet. Since there were multiple groups and poles, the whole squad was moving nearly non-stop. The strain showed on their faces. I was sticking to my little patch of shade on the sidelines, drinking ice water and watching their hard work.

"I didn't like that one," Mike Randolph said after the drill finally ended.

Mike is probably hoping someone besides Pierre gets the job soon.

Anyway, can anyone name all the players pictured?

LD and Preki

All right, they're rivals now, but in six different cases, Preki and LD have been teammates.
Who can name when and where? Guess away, folks.

Who said it - SuperClasico

Lots of people are going to be talking about the upcoming match - and this person was no exception. Guess who?

It’s funny. You try to write guys off – like Ante Razov, say, 'I don’t know if he still has it.' Then he’ll score a bunch of goals. That’s why they pay him the big bucks.

We gave him like a whole minute to assess what he was going to do with that kick. Maybe he was working on some mental visualization or whatever.

But give credit to Chivas – they could have put their heads down and figured it wasn’t their night. They didn’t. This makes Thursday’s SuperClasico a lot more interesting. I might even watch.

What he said dos. . .

"We're still first in the West."

Warning! Swear word ahead.

"Fucking miracle."

Guess who?

Smarter than your average soccer nut

Are you? Haven't done any Major League Soccer trivia for a bit, so here goes. Don't look it up - just try to answer off the top of your head.
1 - Landon Donovan, who leads MLS with 11 goals, has how many game-winning goals?
2 - Which two coaches have the best win percentages in MLS history?
3 - Is this really a picture of Cesar Alvarado? It's from the MLS Fact and Record Book, by the way.

Birthright

There are only two American-born head coaches in MLS right now.

Can you guess who they are? Hint: Their teams aren't at the top of the table.

The others were born in various countries - Costa Rica, Germany, Brazil, Scotland, England, Uruaguy, and Holland. Can anyone correctly match all the MLS head coaches to their country of birth?

American Idol Soccer

Guess who?

It's been a while

This video shows something that Galaxy fans have not seen for quite some time.

Guess who?

Of course, that's Sean Franklin, Ruud's Player of the Game last match, on the left. Who he is laughing with after practice is a bit more difficult.

Galaxy guess again

Who said it?

"To be honest, and that’s the reality of it, David Beckham is who he is. We all know that there’s going to be some considerations for everything that comes with that and who he is."

"It’s a little bit odd, I must say [two teams sharing a stadium]. It’s odd – same training pitch and everything. We don’t see each other much, but it is a little strange."

"I look forward to building on the second half of the last game, especially with the competitive game coming up."

"It’s got nothing to do with the last game. We’ve talked and joked, because we work at the same place. There’s no anger towards each other, but you never know. You could clash on the same play, you could clash with any of the other players. That’s the way it is."

Houston hopeful

After the first game this season, I compared the Dynamo and the Galaxy, pointing out that although both teams lost big, Houston wouldn't panic. They're still not panicking, though they haven't won yet. They're definitely motivated to change that around tonight and get their season on track. These guys will be key players in that campaign. The pic is from far away - can any Houston fans still name them?

Caption Quiz

I was going to caption the Galaxy practice pictures from today, but then I thought, "Hey, a quiz!" This is when having a camera with no zoom is almost a good thing - it's more challenging to win.

Passport, please

Jeopardy-style

A: The player who could not travel to the Galaxy's preseason overseas games because he doesn't have a U.S. passport.

Who said it?

Yesterday, at the Galaxy practice, I only got to talk to one player after I finished my interview with the Cubans.
Here's what he had to say about facing Toronto in the heat of the noontime Southern California sun.

"Yeah, for sure (I’m ready), especially since the season has started and I’m feeling more comfortable. We’ve been building every week, though we had a tough first week. We’re getting together a good starting unit and we'll try to keep adding up the numbers in the win column."

"Both teams have to play in the heat. We’re used to about seventy-degree weather and they’re used to forty-degree weather, so I think they have to deal with it a little bit more. I think we have a good fitness base, so I think we’re really prepared to play in anything."

Random trivia

Two of the original nine MLS clubs still in existence have never had a head coach born in the United States, not even an interim coach who was around for just a game or two.

Can you name the clubs?

(I actually noticed this a couple of weeks ago but the difficulty rating is not very high considering there are only nine clubs to choose from...)

English weekly

David Beckham was named MLS Player of the Week but he is not the first Englishman to have picked up the award. Can you name the first England native in league history to win Player of the Week honors?

Under-10 XI

With the help of the MLS Fact and Record book, I'm putting together a unique team that includes a World Cup player and Andre Nunley.

Before I post the squad, can anyone guess the criteria for this U-10 club?

OK, then, I'll start posting the team, and first to place in the comments the common thread wins.

Nunley was an MLS defender for Colorado in 1998.
I'm putting him in my backline along with Dustin Branan. He played for Kansas City in 2005.
Next defender would be Don Gramenz, who played for Tampa Bay in 2001.
Last defender would be Randy Merkel, who played for Miami in 2001.
Paul Marcoullier would be the goalkeeper. He had a stint with DC United in 2000.
John O'Brien starts off the midfield corps. He's the one with World Cup experience.
Amir Lowery, a Colorado 2005 alum, would also be in the midfield.
So would Stan Lembryk, who played for the 1996 MetroStars.
Ricci Greenwood, who played the same year for Columbus, would also qualify.
Up top I'd put Ryan Edwards. He played for San Jose in 2000.
His strike partner would be Narcisco Fernandes, of the 2001 Kansas City Wizards.
Bench:
Fernando Fernandes - 1999 MetroStars
Christian Jimenez - 2006 Real Salt Lake
Brian Piesner - 2002 MetroStars
Chad Prince - 2001 Chicago Fire
Michael Richardson 1998 Chicago Fire
Kyle Singer - 2003 New England
McKinley Tennyson - 2002 Los Angeles
Scott Thompson - 2004 Los Angeles
Lyle Yorks - 1998 D.C. United
I realize the bench is a bit longer than normally allowed, but I had to fit everybody in.

Riddle me this

Who said all of this - but didn't really say a word of it? Guess speaker and context.

There are very good teams in this league. If we don’t play with a lot of desire to win, like what happened in Colorado, we could lose by one, two, or three goals. But if we play like we did tonight, we can always win.

It’s a lot better, this league. It gets better every year. It’s my eighth year and it’s gotten better every year. Everybody needs to know that.

It’s a good level, but there are still some games here that aren’t good and don't have enough pressure. In Europe, every game, every training, is difficult and important and has a lot of pressure. We’re not there yet.

The Bruce is loose

The legendary Brucio of DuNord fame traveled out from his lair in Minnesota to attend a game on Opening Day of MLS. Where did he go? Which team colors is he displaying on his flag? Who is depicted?