Soccer Mls

SEATTLE -- David Beckham continues to claim he's committed to both the Los Angeles Galaxy and Major League Soccer, and on Friday afternoon seemed to back that up with a promise to play in Sunday's MLS Cup final despite pain in his foot that will require pre-game injections, to return to the team following next summer's World Cup and even to involve himself in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the players and MLS owners.

SEATTLE - Remember Clint Mathis? He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2002 behind the headline "America's Best." He played in the World Cup that year sporting an awesome mohawk, and scored that critical (and technically impressive) goal against South Korea that kept the U.S. national team alive for a second round berth. He also scored five goals in one game for New York, conjured this Maradona-esque effort against Dallas and for a couple of years, thanks to his skill and ability to produce the spectacular, was considered a huge part of American soccer's future.

Then it all just unraveled. A knee injury, a row with his coach at Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga and a less-than-disciplined lifestyle reduced Mathis to an afterthought. He returned to MLS in 2005, played for four clubs in four anonymous years then went to Greece. Real Salt Lake brought him aboard 15 months ago and now, 10 years after playing in an MLS Cup final as a rising star for Los Angeles, his odyssey has returned him to American soccer's biggest stage.

It seemed to be a long shot that he would actually miss the match, but L.A. Galaxy star David Beckham has confirmed that, despite lingering injuries, he will play in Sunday's MLS Cup against Real Salt Lake.

Beckham was recently photographed wearing a protective boot while playing American football in the park with his children. The images sparked a bit of concern over whether he'd be healthy enough to play Sunday, but upon arriving in Seattle (seen above) for the MLS Cup, Beckham spoke to the Telegraph UK and said that he was going to play through some lingering injuries.

SEATTLE -- Surely Landon Donovan is now just 90 minutes away from tying up just about every loose end remaining in his Major League Soccer career. He is the player of the decade, but before Thursday never had been named player of the year. Perhaps a victim of his own consistency, Donovan raised the bar in 2009. He brought his fractured team together and captained the club to first place in the Western Conference, tallying 12 goals and six assists.

It is slightly ironic, however, that Donovan was not here in Seattle to accept the award. The Galaxy were not scheduled to arrive until later in the day, meaning the player who has been the real face of American soccer for the past nine years was unavailable to smile for the cameras. It is something the league may have to get used to. Rumors of a winter transfer have been circulating for months, and if Los Angeles completes its climb from the basement to the MLS Cup penthouse on Sunday, Donovan certainly has nothing left to prove.

Days before David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy are scheduled to take the pitch against Real Salt Lake in MLS Cup 2009, it appears the British star is taking precautions to address a foot injury.

As seen above, TMZ snapped some photos of Beckham while playing football with his kids on Wednesday. In the photos he is wearing a protective boot.

Yet although he's wearing the boot, it appears that Beckham will play in Sunday's championship.

For those who think the MLS Cup playoffs are too brief, the four teams involved in this weekend's semifinals (along with Southern California Edison) did their best to draw them out as long as possible.

CARSON, Calif. -- Gregg Berhalter and Landon Donovan scored in overtime to put the Los Angeles Galaxy into MLS Cup final with a 2-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Friday night.

The Galaxy will play in its first MLS Cup final since 2005 on Nov. 22 in Seattle against the winner of Saturday's Eastern Conference final match between Chicago and Real Salt Lake.

Los Angeles will make its sixth MLS Cup final appearance since the league began in 1996. The Galaxy won championships in 2002 and 2005.

David Beckham's free kick set up Berhalter's goal in the 102nd minute. The Dynamo's Eddie Robinson tried to clear Omar Gonzalez's header off Beckham's free kick but Berhalter poked the ball into the net from 7 yards.

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.

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.