Our First Look at Giants Stadium for the Last Time

As we told you yesterday, the team held what will likely be their final training session ever at Giants Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. The Red Bulls move into their new home, Red Bull Arena, next year and then following the 2010 NFL stadium, the current Giants Stadium will be demolished with the Jets and Giants moving to a new venue located a few hundred feet from the current one.

With that said, and the team enjoying a quiet day with the game just a few hours away, we thought we'd look back at yesterday's practice.

Also, we hope to be able to get you video of a rather funny interaction between Alecko and Mike Magee whose paths have crossed here in New Jersey a time or two before.

The session opened with some 7v2 possession games with both Cobi and Dave jumping in to fill out the numbers.
The team then worked on some shadow play and full field work on what they expect from the Red Bulls and how they plan to attack them. During this run of play, both goalkeepers spent some time working with the first team. The players then ended training, as usual, with some crossing and finishing drills that left Gordo celebrating at the end.

Locals Ready for the Red Bulls

Tomorrow night against the Red Bulls, the Galaxy will likely take the field with four players who were raised in the shadows of Giants Stadium in the New York Metro area.

Gregg Berhalter, Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian and Stefani Miglioranzi were all raised in either New York or New Jersey so we caught up with them after today's training to see what they think about coming home.

Take a look...



And for those who don't already know, Berhalter was raised in Tenafly, N.J., Buddle in New Rochelle, N.Y., Alecko in Montvale N.J. (and as a bonus, his father Andranik used to call Giants Stadium home, playing for the NASL's New York Cosmos) and Miglioranzi moved to Port Chester N.Y., from Brazil at the age of 12.

Meet the Press

As we told you earlier today, Bruce and David spoke to the media here in New Jersey this afternoon ahead of the team's practice at Giants Stadium this afternoon.

Take a listen to what they had to say...

New York, New York

It's so close but we're just across the river in New Jersey, getting ready for Thursday night's game against the Red Bulls.

The team will have a training session tonight at Giants Stadium, giving all the players a chance to get used to the surface. Having had only one session so far this week, the players all expect to go a little harder than they usually do the day before a game, without over-doing anything.

All fans will be glad to know that a familiar face met us at the hotel when we arrived as Donovan Ricketts had flown up on Monday from Miami, where he played on Friday with Jamaica. The Reggae Boyz weren't knocked out of the Gold Cup officially until Sunday afternoon, so rather than fly to LA on Monday, just to fly back to the East Coast on Tuesday, Bruce and the rest of the coaching staff gave Donovan the day off on Monday and let him fly directly to the Garden State.

We'll be back later on today with notes and photos from practice as well as some video from this afternoon's press conference with Bruce Arena, David Beckham and Juan Carlos Osorio.

Becks on Today Show

Today Show's Matt Lauer sat down with David Beckham to discuss his return to the club.

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Afterward, David gave his suit to Matt. (NBC Today Show Blog)

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Galaxy Youth Named To Academy Starting XI

Riley Wolfe, a midfielder on the LA Galaxy's U-16 playoff squad, has been named to the US Soccer Development Academy Starting XI. Wolfe was the only Galaxy Academy player included on the squad.

Wolfe has been on quite a streak. After participating in a match between USSDA select team and U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team in may, Wolfe was invited to take part in the USMNT U-17 camp last month. A huge get as he was one of four not in the team's Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla. to be invited.

He obviously impressed Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera and his staff. Tomorrow, Wolfe will travel to Brazil with the USMNT U-17 Team to take part in a Pre-2009 U-17 World Cup tournament.

As if that weren't, earlier this week, Wolfe and teammate Eric Gonzalez were named to the West Conference Starting XI.

Inside Today's Training - With Three New Faces

The media was out in full force this afternoon as the Galaxy went through their training session at The Home Depot Center. David Beckham trained with the club for the first time while Chris Birchall was also out on the field, going full speed through the 90 minute session.

This is the Galaxy's only session here in the Southland before they travel to New York tomorrow ahead of Thursday's game. So enjoy this look inside a Galaxy practice as we look at the three newest members of the club; Alecko, Becks and Birchall.
The two new B's in the Galaxy midfield, Beckham and Birchall, were on the field together for the first time today.
Birchall has trained with the club on numerous occasions, but this was his first full session after agreeing to terms with the club.
Beckham did not miss a beat on the field today, getting involved straight away in all the drills.
He's been with the team for about 10 days, Alecko is still a new face to us.
The Galaxy midfield gets together for a chat.
Becks and Omar begin to get acquainted.
Alecko and others worked on some finishing...
...while these guys looked on.
Veteran midfielder Chris Klein was a popular interview...
...as of course was David.

Now we're off to New York.