Soccer

With the Major League Soccer playoffs quickly hurtling toward their climax and with David Beckham, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and several key Americans still involved, the U.S. national team will have to take a rare spin in the back seat as it prepares for upcoming friendlies in Slovakia (Nov. 14) and Denmark (Nov. 18).

It's always interesting to see how the national team fares on foreign soil, and while the opponents may not be household names, they are bound for South Africa. But with the World Cup still seven months away and with the spotlight on the MLS Cup pursuit of BFFs Becks and Landon Donovan, what makes the upcoming friendlies worth following? Two words and 17 goals: Jeff Cunningham.

He didn't net the game-winner, and he didn't even manage to play all 90 minutes, but global icon David Beckham still played a starring role in the Los Angeles Galaxy's 1-0 win over crosstown rivals Chivas USA on Sunday. With the victory, the Galaxy is now through to the Western Conference finals of the MLS Playoffs, keeping the team's championship hopes alive.

Beckham played with an assertive edge on offense for much of the match, showing his usual gift for fluid distribution and deft passing. The 34-year-old English national even came close to scoring in the first half on a solid strike from the top of the box that skipped just high of the crossbar.

It's safe to say that hyperbole and armchair psychologists aren't solely the domain of American sportscasters.

Seemingly seconds after Chelsea captain John Terry headed home the eventual game-winner late in the second half Sunday vs. Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, the talking heads were speculating that the goal made up for his famous penalty kick miss in the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow.

Let's say, agree to disagree, though the 1-0 victory certainly was a strong statement for Chelsea, as it tries to end Manchester United's three-year stranglehold on the Premier League.

Carlos Queiroz has always been an interesting character. Heck, anyone that coached the New York/New Jersey Metrostars and lived to tell about it deserves a special place in the history of world soccer.

Saturday, the now coach of the Portugal national team, made a move that will certainly make headlines one way or the other as he plans to call in injured superstar Cristiano Ronaldo for the upcoming two-leg UEFA World Cup playoffs against Bosnia-Herzegovina. (Portugal will announce its full lineup on Sunday.)

David Beckham will spend the spring in Milan and Tom Soehn preemptively dumped Kevin Payne and D.C. United. The timing on each announcement may have been a bit surprising, but the end result certainly was not. So with those issues out of the way, it's time to focus on the second legs of the MLS Cup quarterfinals, and what we learned last week that may have been a little less inevitable.

The most intriguing developments certainly occurred in Utah, where Real Salt Lake's 1-0 defeat of Columbus left the champion Crew with 90 minutes to save their season and raised serious questions about coach Robert Warzycha's sanity.

The official U.S. roster hasn't been released yet for the U.S. National Team's upcoming European friendlies against World Cup qualifiers Slovakia and Denmark, but Goal.com is reporting that Edgar Castillo will be selected for the squad by coach Bob Bradley.

Castillo, who has played his entire career in Mexico, originally declared his intentions to play for El Tri despite the fact he was born in New Mexico. A new tweak in the FIFA rules allowed Castillo to switch allegiances since he never appeared for Mexico in an "official match."

The Hollywood paparazzi are going to have a little less fodder on the sidelines at Los Angeles Lakers games come January. Italian giants AC Milan have officially confirmed the long-rumored second loan of English midfielder David Beckham from the Los Angeles Galaxy.

While the official details of the loan haven't been released, this much seems to be known. Beckham will join Milan in January and finish out the 2009-10 Serie A season, before he hopes to join England's team at next June's World Cup. This means, as he did this season, Beckham would parachute back to the Galaxy in either late June, or more likely, early July.

Leave it to deceptive diva Cuauhtemoc Blanco (right) to steal a bit of the spotlight from the Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo, who opened the MLS Cup playoffs Thursday night in an ill-tempered 0-0 game that, unfortunately, did not feature finishing worthy of the atmosphere or occasion.

As Seattle and Houston were battling at Qwest Field, news broke that the Fire's playmaker had abandoned his "hope" of another season in Chicago and opted instead to spend next spring with Veracruz, the third-placed club in Mexico's second division. The episode marks yet another hurdle for a Fire team that was the league's preseason favorite and will serve an additional subplot in its annual postseason confrontation with the New England Revolution. In the other Eastern Conference semi, the Columbus Crew will begin their title defense against hard-to-read Real Salt Lake. Here is a short preview:

Four clubs separated by just three points in the standings, Seattle's raucous crowd, Houston's thirst for redemption, the league's only genuine derby and the first postseason appearance by David Beckham: They add up to produce the most compelling quarterfinal quartet in MLS history. The Western Conference playoffs begin Thursday night as Houston visits Seattle (10PM ET, ESPN2) in the first game of their two-game, total goals series. The Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA kick off their Southern California Superclasico on Sunday. Here is a short preview:

Watching MLS Commissioner Don Garber try to answer questions about the league's competition format on Monday night's Fox Football Fone-in felt like watching an art teacher give painting lessons to the color blind.

To his credit, Garber maintained his composure as hosts Nick Webster and Eric Wynalda and a few inarticulate callers threw out terms like "single table" and "European calendar" without ever explaining what it was they were after. Every year at this time, MLS faces cliched criticism from "hard core" fans who insist "our" league should be just like those in Europe, without ever explaining how or why. The truth, however, is this (and Garber knows it): Playoffs are the fairest and most exciting way to determine a champion, and this year's MLS Cup tournament promises to be one of the most balanced in some time.