Well, at least the Galaxy salvaged a third place finish from the Pan-Pacific Championship.

The Galaxy got first-half goals from Ely Allen and Josh Tudela to edge Sydney of Australia’s A-League.[…] Sydney FC lost 3-0 Wednesday to the Houston Dynamo, the two-time defending MLS champion. L.A. rebounded from a 1-0 loss to Gamba Osaka.

Not everybody has been impressed with the new tournament.

NY Times Goal Blog: “Soccer Fever Fails to Grip Hawaii”

I would love to be able to tell you that the state of Hawaii is gripped by soccer fever this week. Unfortunately, the first two games of the Pan-Pacific Championship Wednesday night drew few fans to Aloha Stadium.

The organizers of the tournament claim there were over 15,000 fans in attendance. However, it looked like less than half that many to me. This is the first Pan-Pacific Championship, and unless attendance improves for Saturday’s matches, it may be the last.

We shall see.

Update: The LA Times weighs in,

“Pan-Pacific problems go beyond surface”

The future of the just-concluded Pan-Pacific Championship in Hawaii was up in the air Monday after officials from Major League Soccer, Japan’s J-League and Australia’s A-League met in Honolulu.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to figure out the future of Pan-Pacific,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber told the Honolulu Advertiser. “We want to see it continue. For now we’ll take a deep breath and think about what would happen if we had more time to plan.”

Poor attendance and an awful playing surface. Not a good combo.

Next time somebody claims soccer is not a contact sport, point them this way.

“Arsenal’s Eduardo suffers devastating injury”

The Brazilian-born Croatian international suffers a broken leg and the possible ending of his career when Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor delivers a studs-up tackle.

I haven’t seen a replay yet, but it sounds awful.

It occurred when Birmingham defender Martin Taylor made a crude, studs-up lunge of a tackle that shattered the 24-year-old forward’s left leg and ankle.

Eduardo was treated on the field for 10 minutes, while players who saw the extent of the damage turned away at the sight. The injury will sideline him for the rest of the season, will almost certainly cost him his place at the European Championship in June, and could end his career.

From Fletcher Penny: “Using MultiMarkdown with Scrivener”

This document assumes a basic familiarity with Scrivener, and with MultiMarkdown. It is designed to help you combine the two programs into a system to help you with the writing process, as well as the printing and publishing process.

It will guide you through the process of setting up a document that will be compatible with exporting to MultiMarkdown.

I’ve been taking a look at Scrivener again of late — I waver back and forth about using it for my next book, but I’m leaning toward it at the moment.

(In case you don’t know, Fletcher is the one who expanded on John Gruber’s Markdown by creating the spiffy MultiMarkdown. Thanks Fletcher!)

It’s not just Mexico, as this LA Times article points out — women’s soccer is surpassing traditional sports at the college level here in the States as well.

“Mexican women’s soccer team gets its footing”

Soccer moms aren’t common yet in Mexico, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a force to be reckoned with.

In fact, in a country that’s slowly becoming a force on the international sports scene, few teams have risen higher and faster than Mexico’s women’s soccer team. And to get there, they’ve had to beat more than just their opponents on the field. They’ve also had to overcome insufficient funding, a lack of infrastructure, little support and centuries of ingrained social teaching.

Caught the second half of the Gamba Osaka vs LA Galaxy game from Honolulu tonight, the first game in the inaugural Pan-Pacific Championship tourney. Not the most inspired soccer I’ve ever watched, however it’s really a preseason friendly, so fine to watch with that caveat. Becks played all 90 minutes, but the Galaxy fell 1-0.

The four-team tournament will feature a pair of doubleheaders Wednesday and Saturday, with the first day’s winners playing for the title and the losers for third place. Gamba Osaka of Japan will open the tournament against the Galaxy, with Houston Dynamo facing Sydney FC.

After the tournament, the Galaxy will play in South Korea and China before starting the regular season at the end of March.