This Weekend.

 A busy weekend came to a close yesterday and saw Manchester United finally open up a gap between the other Manchester club, Scudetto favorites A.C Milan fall in Naples, Jose Mourinho led Real Madrid fail to score against Barcelona impostors Levante for a second year running, and the Galaxy get that much closer to the MLS Supporters Shield.

In England the big talking point was the big Manchester United vs. Chelsea clash. It lived up to the hype, fans were treated to an extremely open match with tons of goal scoring opportunities for both sides. In the end Chelsea failed to take their chances and United ran out 3-1 winners with goals from Chris Smalling, Luis Nani, and Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney missed from the spot but it will be overlooked as he continues his scorching start to the season. He is on 9 goals and 1 assist after 5 games this season, his influence on this new younger United team cannot be overlooked. It's early days, but if he can maintain this form he will be the one challenging Messi at the end of the season for the Balon D'or and not former United player Cristiano Ronaldo. Elsewhere in England the promoted teams all won, the highlight was new look Q.P.R putting 3 past Wolves at  Molineux. New signings Joey Barton and Sean Wright-Phillips looked sharp in the thrashing, with Barton getting on the score sheet in the process. They look the most likely of the promoted sides to stay up after their  spending spree at the end of the transfer window.

In Italy current Scudetto holders A.C Milan were humbled by a rampant Napoli side who won 3-1. Edinson Cavani was the man of the match, the matador scored a hat trick to help his side roll past a Milan side that looked tired and devoid of any creativity without star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Inter and Roma continue to struggle with new managers at the helm, as the sides played to a 0-0 draw at the San Siro. Roma looked the more likely to score but never manged to get one past Julio Cesar. Juventus continue to set the pace though after a tidy 1-0 win against promoted side Siena. Alessandro, Matri got the only goal of the game.

Barcelona made up for their two draws last week by thrashing Osasuna 8-0. Messi does what Messi does, putting 3 in for Barcelona. Real Madrid stumbled against a gutsy Levante side, losing 1-0. The talking point of the match came just before half time. Angel Di Maria was his usual theatrical self, and it cost his team in the end as Sammy Khedira pushed a Levante player in an attempt to come to Di Maria's aid despite the player not being in any pain or harm. He was already on a yellow, the push got him his second and Madrid were down to 10 men for the rest of the game. Madrid still managed to control the game but struggled to create clear cut chances against a resilient Levante side and the breakthrough came on a counterattack where Marcelo was caught out of position. On loan forward Arouna Kone scored the only goal which saw Madrid fall behind Barcelona for the first time this season. Is it already the end for Jose Mourinho and co.? It's too early to tell but with Barcelona having the upper hand in the Clasico's in recent times dropping points outside of those matches is really going to hurt Madrid's chances at dethroning Barcelona.

In MLS the playoff race heated up and LA got that much closer to its second consecutive Supporters Shield. Robbie Keane was on form against Vancouver and scored a goal and assisted one of Mike Magee's two goals as the Galaxy ran out 3-0 victors at the Home Depot Center. Questions will be raised about the referee denying Vancouver a penalty just before the Galaxies first goal though. This Galaxy team has been head and shoulders above everyone else for a second year running now, but it will all be for nothing unless the Galaxy can make a deep postseason run and make it to the MLS Cup Final which will be at their house this year. Anything less than an MLS Cup will be a failure for Bruce Arena's men.

David Beckham: Should he stay, or should he go?

According to this link, the Los Angeles Galaxy have offered designated player David Beckham a one year extension on his current deal which would see him earn 8.9 million dollars should he choose to continue plying his trade in the white and gold of the LA Galaxy. However there is speculation that Beckham might be tempted at a return to the Premier League for one last swan song. Reports suggest both Tottenham Hotspur and premier league new boys Queens Park Rangers are interested in acquiring his services once his current deal expires with the Galaxy at the end of this year. So the question is, should he stay or should he go? As a Galaxy fan I would love him to stay but I will try and outline the pros and cons of both.

If Beckham decides to stay in LA it should surprise no one, as he has many reasons to stay here. The most obvious being his massive salary he earns in LA, which minnows QPR and financially astute Spurs will struggle to match or even come close to. The level of play here isn't nearly as demanding here as it would be in the premier league, it would be interesting to see if his body could hold up at the top level of the English game. Tugay played into his late 30's for Blackburn so no one should rule out Beckham as of yet. But he regularly misses away games with the Galaxy in order to rest his aging body, like last night against Monarcas where his services would have been a massive benefit to a Galaxy side the struggled to hold onto the ball. He would probably play a bit part role for any premier league club should he leave the Galaxy but those teams likely wouldn't be willing to put up with him missing a lot of games every season like the Galaxy do every year.  He also has to take into account his wife and families needs, both his kids and his wife love LA according to reports and would probably object to a move to England.

However, England isn't such a horrible option either. He would have the chance to link up with Harry Redknapp who is the favorite to be the next England manager. Which could lead to another chance in the national team that Beckham craves so much, and which caused him to miss out on many games for the Galaxy in previous years. He would also be back where he grew up, closer to old friends and family. I have no idea how that would effect someone like Beckham but you have to take that into account regardless. He would get to play at a higher level with better players, something frustrates him when he plays in LA when you look at his body language.

I see him staying in LA though, they have offered him big money once again and have brought in Robbie Keane to appease him. I have a hard time seeing him jetting off to England after such a fantastic season in a league that he can excel in with very little energy expended.

USA vs. Costa Rica, thoughts.

• Robbie Rogers was useless, no gusto or "oomph" in his performance, just meh. Impact sub at best. Jurgen is trying his best to call in a variety of players and really give everyone a fair chance. But he has shown from his last two call ups that he is not a national team caliber player yet.

• Castillo looked no better than Johnny B out there, excluding his ability to constantly draw fouls. For the love of god just call in Bobby Convey or Todd Dunivant. They'll do the job just fine in these friendlies until Lichaj gets back to full health and gets his club situation sorted.

• Shea looked good again, European move is right around the corner for him surely. Also keep in mind that he has played in 400 plus minutes since last Wednesday according to Grant Wahl, pretty mind blowing. He was the only constant threat for the states and created the best chance of the game which Donovan spurned.

• Goodson should have been brought on at half time, Orozco Fiscal was having a hard time dealing with Alvaro Saborio's physicality throughout the game. It's quite clear that Fiscal is not the answer at center back, so the search will go on. Oguchi Onyewu's shocking regression has hit this team hard, and it looks like he might never get back to his old self.

• For all the hype around Agudelo he is a very 50/50 player, for every mesmerizing run (there was one of this game that almost led to a goal, his best moment in the game) there is a run where he will run himself into a wall and either give away possession or try some audacious flick or shot that will never work. 

• Donovan was on and off at times as well and is still getting used to his new role, he was often to close to the striker and was not adequately linking up the play, especially in the second half. There wasn't enough of his dangerous and pacy runs through the heart of the defense and when he did they were very timid.

• I am really liking way were playing under Jurgen, the constant switching of the play and little link ups just before the final third is very attractive and a far cry from the lackluster stuff we saw under Bob Bradley, just lacked the cutting edge tonight, the kind of edge players like Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley will bring. Under Jurgen the taem is actually trying to take the game to teams that we should be beating handily, like Costa Rica. 

• The drop off in the second was shocking too, only after we went down and they parked the bus did the team wake up and take the game to the Costa Ricans again. But it was too little too late and the late goal that often defines this US team never came.