Soccer Mls

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 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.

Maurice Edu made news not for playing, but for running across a couple of racist idiots in Glasgow. The Houston Dynamo lost to previously winless and goalless Isidro Metapan on Wednesday night and was eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League. Oguchi Onyewu had surgery on his torn left patella tendon and will be out an estimated six months--50 percent longer than originally thought.

Thankfully, a lousy week for American soccer is about to get better. On Thursday night, the Chicago Fire will host Chivas USA (8PM ET, ESPN2) in the first of a half-dozen games that will impact the MLS playoff picture. The competition for postseason spots is unprecedented, with seven clubs vying for three berths on the final weekend. We'll save the criticism of the league's ridiculous playoff format for another time, and instead will enjoy the fact that with 14 relatively even-matched teams (and New York), MLS at last has produced a meaningful regular season.

The U.S. national team's stirring comeback against Costa Rica last week will be remembered for Bornstein's header, Davies' tragedy, Bradley's hustle and Onyewu's injury. But it also should be remembered for the contribution of Columbus Crew midfielder Robbie Rogers, whose entry in the 69th minute changed the match.

Playing in his first World Cup qualifier, the nimble winger added an obvious spark to a team trailing by two goals. He hit the cross that led to Michael Bradley's 72nd-minute goal, came close twice to tying the game himself, then delivered the corner kick that Bornstein finished in stoppage time. A key member of this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup squad and a regular camp participant, Rogers certainly made his case for South Africa when presented with the opportunity.

This weekend, Rogers sat down with FanHouse and offered some interesting insight into a young player's path to the national team, his famous mentor, the Davies accident and the curfew culture that likely played a role.

In a very unsurprising development, AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani declared that the club is "95 percent" finished on bringing back David Beckham to the club in January on loan. Galliani went as far as to call it a "done deal."

Unlike last year when there was a lot of alarm and acrimony when Beckham announced his intentions to play somewhere else during the break in the MLS season, this time there doesn't seem to be too much problem that he'll be away from the Los Angeles Galaxy for a period of time after the 2009 season wraps in November.

Even though we've had a first division league for nearly 14 years and a national team that's on the verge of qualifying for its sixth straight World Cup, soccer still occupies a pretty peripheral spot on the American sports landscape.

For that reason, every bit of good news matters. Even if they're not headline worthy and don't 't get the mainstream sports media and fanbase talking, small steps forward are a sign of bigger steps to come. And this week has included several, giving US soccer supporters reason to be optimistic as crucial qualifiers approach and as the MLS regular season reaches its climax.

The Columbus Crew tamed the Purple Monster on Wednesday night, adding yet another impressive chapter to the quiet but compelling claim that the humble side from Ohio is American soccer's best team.

"Honestly, flying under the radar hasn't been a bad thing. Whether people want to respect us or not, we're back at the top," veteran midfielder Brian Carroll told FanHouse. "Obviously playing in this market is a little different from a marketing and pressure standpoint, but the fans here are extremely passionate. They want the best from us, and we're trying to work hard to give that to them."

For the past year and a half they have, and it's time that supporters and media in the rest of the country take notice.