From the AP comes a curious item about the potential of Belize having its World Cup qualifier in LA or Houston:

Belize is working to stage its home World Cup qualifier in June against Mexico in either Los Angeles or Houston, the head of the country’s soccer federation said Wednesday.[…]

Belize doesn’t have a stadium that meets FIFA standards for the first leg of the two-match series on June 15, Mexico’s opener in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

I imagine getting tickets if it’s here in LA would be a smidgen difficult.

It seemed like every time I switched over to the Galaxy opening game (during commercials in the Dodger Coliseum game) the Colorado Rapids had scored another goal. Not the best start to the season, but maybe it was just the altitude.

Just showing up in my feeds from Yahoo Sports World Soccer coverage:

Spain upset world champions Italy (AFP)

Yahoo! Sports - World Soccer News 3/26/08 16:56
David Villa scored a stunning left-foot volley to give perennial under-achievers Spain a morale-boosting 1-0 victory over Spain here on Wednesday.

They got the headline right, but I think somebody was so shocked about the result, they gave Spain the victory and the loss. ;)

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.