It's that time of year again when the LA Galaxy take on their housemates Chivas USA to determine who's tops in Los Angeles. The tarps will still be up, so the atmosphere will be unlike any previous renditions of the Clasico. Still, it's always a hotly contested match, with even the mayor weighing in.

villaraigosa With all the great LA sports this weekend, don't forget Sat. night's SuperClasico between @LAGalaxy & @CDChivasUSA! #LAFutbol 5/16/12 6:41 PM

As you can see from the lead photo, clearly the mayor is a Galaxy fa...

To shed some light on the mayor's favorite team, we're talking today with Alicia Ratterree of The Goat Parade. If afterward you still want to hear more thoughts from Alicia on Chivas, she was interviewed for this article in The Guardian. Now, onto THE INFORMANT!

LAG Conf: If Chivas has had a problem to begin this year, it's been scoring goals. How has the return of Juan Pablo Angel and the recent addition of Paolo Cardozo helped the offense?

TGP: Angel broke the albatross that was Chivas' streak without a penalty attempt, as well as the home scoreless streak, a couple weeks back when he scored a penalty against Chicago. But he's only played in four matches this season and he's been dealing with a head injury that has slowed him down. I'm not sure if he'll feature Saturday, but once he gets playing a consistent run of matches, I expect he will start scoring again. Perhaps more importantly, JPA has been mentoring the young striker corps at the club, with new signing Jose Correa discussing how much he looks up to Angel. Obviously, JPA's first priority is to score goals, but beyond that, I think he's supposed to help the younger players adjust to the professional game, to MLS, and to Chivas.

Cardozo has featured in two matches since he came to Chivas. Since Galaxy folks are well aware of his game, I'll say this: Cardozo shows a lot of potential, but like too many of his current teammates, he's still working on how to make that final pass or get the best shot. Still, he's shown moments of promise, and I think he'll get more time in the lineup as he gets more used to playing with this team.

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Good afternoon Galaxy fans! The Galaxy visiting the President of the United States was the big story yesterday. David Beckham even got the roast treatment from President Obama, poking fun at his age and Beckham's underwear line. It was really quite the event.

Barack Obama Ribs David Beckham About Age, Underwear Line As Galaxy Visit White House (PHOTOS)
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is ribbing soccer star David Beckham over his age and his outside interests, saying it's a "rare man who can be that tough on the field and also have his own line of underwear." Obama welcomed Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy to the White House Tuesday to celebrate their third Major League Soccer Cup.

Speaking of Beckham, he's going to be involved in the Olympic torch being handed over to the UK in Athens on Friday. The official word is Beckham will be available for selection on Saturday.

Beckham to Help Bring Olympic Flame to Britain - NYTimes.com
David Beckham will help bring the Olympic flame back to Britain on a golden plane on Friday after he takes part in a formal handover ceremony in Athens, London 2012 organizers said.

The other bit of news yesterday was the announcement of the roster for US Men's National team camp before the summer FIFA World Cup Qualifying events. Landon Donovan wasn't listed on the initial roster, but Jurgen Klinsmann is releasing it in waves and Donovan is sure to be announced by Sunday.

The players in Europe like Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard are obviously free for the summer, but for Donovan it will mean missing both matches next week (against San Jose Wed. and at Houston Sat) and one US Open Cup match.

GALAXY: No Donovan for U.S.? Well ... - Soccer Blog - ESPN Los Angeles
Jurgen Klinsmann has started unveiling the names of those with whom he's ready to head into his first World Cup qualifying campaign, and Landon Donovan...

The LA Galaxy met with President of the United States Barack Obama this afternoon inside the White House, then participated in a kick around with youth soccer players at First Lady Michelle Obama. The Galaxy presented the President with a silver MLS ball signed by the team, and a jersey with his name and the number 1. The MLS Cup was also on hand; the whole ceremony lasted about ten minutes.

President Obama was in a jovial mode, beginning with praise for Robbie Keane. He mentioned that Keane scored within twenty minutes of his first Galaxy game, and is the all time leading scorer for the Irish National Team. He then spoke of David Beckham, admiring his ability to play through injuries. He also took the mickey out of Beckham a bit, saying "It's a rare man who can be that tough on the field, and have his own line of underwear".

He then spoke on Landon Donovan, saying he's done more for American soccer than just about anyone. He described the game winning goal in MLS Cup; Beckham to Keane to Donovan in the rain. He also congratulated Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza, who kept 17 shutouts and played their college ball not too far from the capitol at Maryland. He also spoke well of Bruce Arena and his ability as coach.

After the photo op with the gifts for the President, the Galaxy joined the First LAdy for a less formal event. David Beckham and Landon Donovan spoke, and Galaxy players mixed it up with youth soccer players. The team now flies back to Los Angeles to begin preparations for the weekend's match against Chivas USA.

Good morning Galaxy fans! This morn we've got two big things to talk about. First being the LA Galaxy paying President of the United States of America Barack Obama a visit at the White House. They'll meet him at an indoor ceremony, then they meet the First Lady out on the lawn. Sounds like a fun day, and the players are giddy about their special visit:

GALAXY: Presidential visit is 'special' - Soccer Blog - ESPN Los Angeles
The Galaxy are giddy over what awaits them Tuesday, even those who've experienced this sort of thing before. Like A.J. DeLaGarza. The fourth-year defender...

With the Galaxy in Washington DC, Steven Goff of the Washinton Post sat down with Bruce Arena to talk about his legacy, how much longer he thinks he'll be coaching, and this season's slow start. Some interesting tidbits in there, like Arena admitting the team was well over budget, and so many of the offseason decisions were done to save money; like trading Donovan Ricketts

Bruce Arena discusses Galaxy, MLS, player development, his future, his son the coach and White House visit - Soccer Insider - The Washington Post
Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena discusses White House visit, Galaxy’s problems, MLS and his future

Good afternoon, Galaxy fans! Today we're taking a look behind the scenes at ESPN's production team. I talked generally about the nature of ESPN soccer production a few weeks ago, but I've been one upped by Jonathan Tannenwald who got to see inside the truck as they produced the weekend's MLS game of the week:

Behind the scenes of ESPN's production of Major League Soccer
Every time I've ever taken in a Union game in person, it's been from the press box. This past weekend, though, I got an opportunity to watch the team from a different perspective...

Our other stop this afternoon is over in merry old England. While LA may have seen David Beckham's goal in the lens of righting the ship, and Montreal saw it as "Yay! Beckham! Money!" over in the UK it was seen through the lens of Beckham's potential for the Great Britain Olympic squad.

London 2012 Olympics: David Beckham scores trademark free kick for LA Galaxy against Montreal Impact - Telegraph

Robbie Keane is set to leave the Galaxy for the Euro tournament after this weekend's match against Chivas. Do you think the Galaxy will lose Beckham for the Olympics as well?

As you all know, I spent my afternoon last Saturday testing out adidas' new Predator Lethal Zones and then haven't shut up about them all the last week. My hope has been not just to shill for an MLS partner, but to give some insight into the most important piece of equipment for a soccer player. I also find the shoe sponsorships fascinating. David Beckham and Landon Donovan are teammates on the Galaxy, but have been with their respective shoe companies even longer. While athletes may jump from club to club, their outfitter and their agent typically stay the same.

So this is another in my series of stories about the story behind the match. The focus today is again on the adidas Predator Lethal Zones. After launching in Manchester, UK and Los Angeles, US last week, the Predators factored in on important goals for both sides. You can see in the lead photo that after sticking with the 2011 adipower Predator for last week's match at The Home Depot Center, David Beckham broke out the Predator LZ's with his own custom color way for the match on Montreal's turf.

They're more pink than I expected. When I was told they were pink and white, I imagined a pinkish white cleat with pink accents. I didn't realize they meant pink as the main color. I'm still learning shoe talk, but the standard Predator LZ is Bright Blue/Navy/White/Infared. So Beckham's would be something like Pink/White/Black. A closeup of the boot during the Galaxy match last night showed that once again it's engraved with his children's names on the inside

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