I was watching FC Barcelona's match yesterday against Recreativo Huelva. Barca was dominating the match, but not scoring due to Huelva's remarkable defense. It took this genius free kick to open up the game:

That reminded me of Argentina's second goal against England in the memorable 1998 World Cup match, fourth goal in this clip.

The best free kick of the weekend came from Italy, where Catania players dropped their shorts in front of the goalkeeper to block his view and distract him. Unbelievable!

June 14 - LA was in first place, we had the league's leading scorer, and we had just beaten San Jose away, 3-0, without Landon Donovan. Everyone was happy.

Today - LA is in 13th place out of 14 teams. We still have the league's leading scorer, but we've also given up 60 goals in 29 matches. Pathetic. Everyone is sad.

What are the problems with this team that has accumulated the fewest points of all clubs in the last 4 seasons?

Talent - We seriously lack it. We have some good consistent players, but only 3 (Landon, Becks, Buddle) that are actually capable of taking control on the field. I'm not talking about taking control of a game and changing it. I'm just talking about their spot on the field. I'd suggest that most of the Galaxy starters this year are barely capable of playing in the lower division USL.

Goalkeeping - I don't think and Galaxy fan has felt confident in any of our 3 goalkeepers this season. Cronin is a pretty boy who lacks the basic skills and craziness a goalkeeper should have. Wicks showed some promise but isn't ready at this level. Saunders has only played 3 matches, and is in the same boat as Wicks. In the last 3 seasons, we've let go of two brilliant goalkeepers, Kevin Hartman and Joe Cannon. We went from top shelf to back row.

Defense - I really know this team and I'm having a hard time figuring out when the defense got so bad. We weren't pathetic last year so I'm placing the blame on this year's backline. Our typical defenders include Chris Klien a natural midfielder, Troy Roberts a waste of space, Sean Franklin who was a great rookie but lost without good teammates, Abel Xavier who was a head case, and Greg Vanney who had an awful season. Roberts has to go. He has spent about 4 seasons now of doing nothing but suck. We need a good veteran to come in and take charge of the back. I'm pretty sure this is the first move Bruce Arena will make in the off-season.

Midfield - We still have Pete Vagenas running things. It's sad. He's so out of his league in MLS it's pathetic. Other MLS teams lick their chops when they see him lineup. They know his mistakes are good for a goal a game. I guess Pires, Francino, and some rookies weren't very good options in the center. Neither was our supposed defensive savior Edwardo Dominguez. I don't even think I saw him play at home this year. Eddie Lewis was a nice grab, but he's old. David Beckham was always a professional but eventually the lack of good players around him made him ineffective.

Forwards - We have David Beckham, arguably the best crosser of the ball in the world. We have Alan Gordon a really tall forward who is good with his head. How many times did Gordon score with his head off a cross this year? ZERO. OK, so maybe he was good with his feet...NO. If we didn't have Landon or Buddle in the lineup, we'd have nothing up top.

Coaching - Ruud wasn't really the problem. He actually incorporated some strategy and tactics into the team that Galaxy fans hadn't seen in about five seasons. Unfortunately his players weren't good enough to do what he wanted and as a result we sucked. I still respect him but he's a great example of why foreign coaches have difficulties in MLS.

Management The biggest problem of all is the President of the team, Tim Liewieke. He knows absolutely nothing about soccer and team sports. He is strictly a businessman. His threats to the team in mid-season about performance were absolutely out of line. His willingness to spend money on a couple big players to individualize the sport is a huge mistake. He's the poorest performer of all at the Galaxy.

.....but I will.

LA hasn't won in 11 matches. The last time we tasted victory was a couple of weeks before I left for Spain! We were in first place at that moment. Now we're tied for last. Our coach Ruud Gullit quit the team because the American system was too restrictive for the way he wanted to coach. Our GM Alexi Lalas was rightfully fired too. He may be able to play, but he can't manage. Acquisitions not named Beckham during his tenure have been pretty shoddy. He even let a talented rookie defender, Ty Harden, who we sorely miss this season get away. Not to another team mind you, but to another career. Somehow the Galaxy couldn't figure out how to pay this guy more than $11,000 a season.

We have many players that continue to stink up the field, and somehow stay around on the team. Alan Gordon, Steve Cronin, Mike Randolph, Pete Vagenas, Troy Roberts, Alvaro Pires, and Joe Francino are some of the culprits. Some of my teammates on my recreational mens team could easily beat out those guys for a position with the Galaxy. It's sickening to think I pay to watch some of these guys who have less talent that park players.

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Soccer soccer soccer.

Camp Nou - We visited the five star soccer stadium which is home to FC Barcelona. Soccer was in the off-season during my visit, but there are self-guided stadium tours, a massive store, and a huge museum to lure thousands of fans.

I made my family wake up early so we could be first in line for the tour, which we were. From the outside, the stadium is massive. It seats about 100,000 people, but it has held as many as 120,000 when there were terraces back in the day. The best part of the tour by far is walking out of the players tunnel and up onto the pitch. The club's slogan "Mes que un club" is written across the seats. The upper decks tower over the field. You feel really small on the field. The tour leads you through press rooms, locker rooms, the stadium chapel, the presidential areas, and to the press boxes before guiding you to the museum.

I was expecting a small rinky-dink museum with a few artifacts from the club. Instead, I got a massive lesson on the history of the team that really was more than club. FC Barcelona really stands for the Catalan people and their pride. The club and all it's sporting success in soccer, basketball, hockey, handball, and many other sports shows a lot of resilience and honor that their little corner of Spain is capable of.

The team shop was nuts too. There was everything from FC Barcelona doggy beds to refrigerators. If there was an item that could have an FC Barcelona logo on it, it was for sale. I now regret not buying an FC Barcelona toaster.

My family thought the stadium was cool too. I think they were more impressed by the museum than I was. Camp Nou wasn't just about sport, it was a symbol of Catalonia and Barcelona. I definitely recommend a trip there even if you don't like soccer. It's a history, cultural, and sports lesson all in one.

Estadio Olimpico - This was of course the Olympic Stadium from the 1992 Olympics. It's currently home to Barcelona's second soccer team, RCD Espanyol, but that team has a new stadium on the outskirts of town and won't remain their for very long. We were there for about 10 minutes as we were hiking around Parc Montjuic. It was neat to see and in a beautiful location on the Montjuic mountain.

Soccer in general in Barcelona - Many people in Barcelona had FC Barcelona gear on. It was by far the most popular article of clothing I saw. I only saw one person wearing an RCD Espanyol jersey during the entire trip. I didn't see too many Spanish national team jereseys, despite Spain's triumph in the European championships a week before I arrived.

On TV, soccer was was always the lead sport despite the off-season. Two major events captured most of the news while I was there. First, FC Barcelona's president won re-election, but only narrowly. Eight of the board members quit in protest of his re-election. Second, Ronaldinho, the world's best player from 04-06, was sold to AC Milan in Italy. After this happened, the only sports news on Spanish TV was Ronaldinho highlights.

Yesterday, Euro 2008 concluded with Spain's deserved win over Germany. The match was very technical and tactical and I really enjoyed it. Any soccer player would have loved how precise and skillful the game was, and any sports fan could have appreciated the action.

The opening five matches of the tournament were boring, including some snoozers with Austria, Switzerland, and France vs. Romania. The 6th match with Holland and Italy was when the tournament came alive. Amazingly over 20 goals were scored in the last 15 minutes of matches. No match was over until it was over. Some of the sides like Holland, Russia, Turkey and Spain really opened up their style to play some beautiful soccer, and I almost never use "beautiful" to describe the European game. It was good to see the teams playing anti-football losing.

Another aspect I found interesting was that not one player dominated the tournament. A few had stellar matches (Villa, Podolski, Arshavin, Pepe, Altintop, Sneijder) but overall all the teams had team efforts that dictated their success or failure. Xavi from Spain was voted player of the tournament which exemplifies the team mentality of the cup. He didn't stand out in any match, but he worked all over the field and was generally brilliant.

The tournament downsides were the hosts countries exiting in the first round and UEFA's decision to block all video of the matches on the internet. It was hard to catch up on highlights every day, and as of right now, I can't even find a "greatest goals" video.

My beloved LA Galaxy had to make their way to the slums of Oakland this weekend for a match against the San Jose Earthquakes. Normally San Jose plays in their own slums but they decided since Beckham was coming, they'd play their match in a bigger stadium. I suppose that paid off for them because 40,000 people showed up.

Being a supporter of the team, I joined 300 of my friends on a booze fueled bus trip up north. It was incredibly fun, especially since we won. It would have been fun if we hadn't. For me, there's nothing like spending 15 hours on a bus with soccer enthusiasts like myself. My pictures from the first half of the trip are here. I'll explain why I don't have more pictures later this week.

LA's two main supporters groups (The LA Riot Squad, which I'm a member of, and the Angel City Brigade) really rocked the stadium. We were heard throughout the arena and it sounded like an LA home match. I'd like to think we inspired our team to a 3-0 win thanks to the hat trick hero Edson Buddle. I got a lot texts during the match saying that I was on TV many times throughout the broadcast. My parents who watched the game said they didn't see me at all.

It was a great time and a unique experience in American sports fandom. I can't wait for the next one.

Go to channelsurfing.net. It's genius! Scroll down to the match you want to watch, and click the link. Wait about 2 minutes for the stream to buffer, and you can enjoy some fine European Soccer in lieu of boring old work!

The second most popular national tournament in the world kicked off on Saturday. Euro 2008 is the three week competition to determine the best European national team. This year, Switzerland and Austria are co-hosting. If you missed the matches this weekend, don't feel bad. They weren't very good from a neutral perspective. Today should be interesting though, as the group of Death starts. Definitely watch Italy x Netherlands at 11:45AM PST today.

Here are some useful links to follow the tournament.

Standings, stats, fixtures, and brackets from the official site.

All the matches will be on ESPN, ESPN2, ABC and ESPN Classic. Here's the guide from ESPN.

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