Morning Reading

A little light reading to go along with your morning coffee and TV.

The Los Angeles Times has a quick breakdown of Sunday's game, while from Seattle, Grahame Jones looks at the state of MLS heading into the league's 14th championship game.

Phil Collin from the Daily Breeze is also on the ground in Seattle and he caught up with Donovan Ricketts after Friday's practice and gave the Galaxy shotstopper a chance to take a friendly jab at Gregg Berhalter in the process. Phil's partner in crime over at the Daily Breeze is Nick Green, who may not be in Seattle, but keeps the news coming over at 100 Percent Soccer.

For an east coast perspective on the Galaxy, specifically the club's two rookie defenders, read Steve Goff's feature of A.J. and Omar.

Over at MLSnet.com, Jeff Carlisle has more with the Galaxy's Jamaican goalkeeper, Larry Morgan speaks with a few of the 11 Galaxy players and coaches that have won an MLS Cup, Steve Davis talks about the sizzle factor of David and Landon, Morgan and Carlisle team up to put together an in depth notebook featuring a number of interesting items, Michael Lewis looks at Dave Sarchan, the yin to Bruce Arena's yang. And MLSnet.com has the game guide with all the numbers and stats heading into tomorrow's game.

If you want to read more article's like these, be sure to visit the MLS Newsstand for all the latest.

And if just listening to Dan Patrick with David Beckham yesterday was not enough, now you can see two minutes of the show from The 101 on DirecTV.

Finally, don't forget that if you cannot be in attendance at today's Supporter's Summit here in Seattle, you can follow all of the action live on MLSnet.com starting at 1 p.m.

Something Fishy

We teased this a bit yesterday, but now you can see all the action from Alan Gordon's trip down to Pike Place to throw some fish. One of the many locally themed events that go on surrounding MLS Cup, helping to build up the game's hype locally, Gordo and RSL's Chris Seitz took a lesson and quickly perfected the art of fish throwing and catching. A large crowd, including the ESPN broadcast crew of J.P. Dellacamera and John Harkes, was on hand to cheer Gordo on, but amongst the sea of fans, it was four familiar faces that made Gordo the most nervous. Leo, Stefani, Josh and Julian all made their way down to the market to watch all of the action live. Here is what Gordo and Seitz had to say about the event. But we wanted to get a bit more from Gordo, so we stopped him at the hotel this morning to get his thoughts on what had just gone down.

Meet Up with Fellow Galaxy Fans

Galaxy fans that have made the trip to Seattle are invited on Sunday to make their way to the HawksNest Bar and Grill, which will be the official LA Galaxy bar for the weekend. All of the club's supporters and much of the front office (maybe even the blog staff!) will be in attendance starting at 11 a.m. as fans count down the hours until the kick off of MLS Cup 2009 from Qwest Field.

The HawksNest is located at 1028 1st Avenue in Seattle and will be offering a number of deals all day long for Galaxy fans, including some $3 beers.

Click here to visit the official website of the HawksNest and we hope to see you there on Sunday.

Additionally, if you're stuck in LA for the game, be sure to make it to one of the Galaxy's seven official viewing parties throughout the Southland. Click here for a full list of locations.

Gone Fishin'

We'll have much more on this tomorrow morning. But for now, use your imagination.

Meeting the Media

After training today, the Galaxy met en masse with the media, with nearly every player stopping to answer at least some questions from some reporter from some outlet from some corner of the globe. Bruce Arena was the most popular quote, while veterans like Chris Klein, goalscoring hero Gregg Berhalter and the soft-spoken Donovan Ricketts all drew a big crowd as well.
Of course the two people that everyone wanted to speak with were David Beckham and Landon Donovan, who were the featured speakers at the prematch press conference, following Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando. You can see the full video of the press conference here, or read the transcript here.

In addition to the press conference, those two popped up on a number of local and national radio shows today, in addition to meeting with the host broadcasters ESPN and Galavision.

David popped up on the Colin Cowherd Show on ESPN Radio, as well as the Dan Patrick Show. Speaking of the Dan Patrick Show, if you can't make it out to Seattle for Sunday's game and you're watching at home, be sure to join the show's producer Paul Pabst, a great friend of and supporter of the Galaxy for a live chat in the Dan Patrick Show Locker Room.

Landon also popped up on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, taking live with the Mason and Ireland Show. He will also be a guest on the Tony Bruno Show on Fox Sports Radio, which airs on AM 570 tonight at 8:30 p.m.

Heating Up

A blast of cold and rain greeted the Galaxy as they made their way over to Qwest Field this afternoon for their first training session on site here in Seattle. The rain seemed to dissipate a bit when the guys hit the field, but as soon the guys got onto the bus, the weather kicked back up, making for a slow ride back to the hotel.

Be sure to head over to mlsnet.com to check out the archived footage of today's press conferences for both sides, featuring Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando from Real Salt Lake and David and Landon from our side. You can also read all the latest news about Sunday's game there and some amazing fresh video, as well as at lagalaxy.com and lagalaxyfutbol.com. Larry Morgan and Armando Varela are on the ground and embedded with the club here in Seattle, while Mark Rogondino chimes in with his final View from the Booth of the season.

As we type this, the sun is trying to fight its way through the clouds, meaning that we could have some nice weather for this afternoon's special event featuring Alan Gordon and SoCal native Chris Seitz from Real Salt Lake, who will be making their way down to Pike's Place Market to take part in a traditional "fish toss". The event will happen at 4 p.m. (PT) if you're in Seattle already, but if you're not, be sure to come back here later in the day to see what it was all about.

If you don't know what the fish toss is, check it out below.

Wheels Up, Wheels Down; Ready to Roll in Seattle

After today's training session the guys all made their way over to LAX for this afternoon's flight to Seattle. The rash of delays caused by an FAA computer glitch had no effect on the team's charter flight up here to Seattle, with the guys all boarding the plane in good spirits under sunny skies.

A variety of snacks, sandwiches, water and Gatorade awaited the guys on board, but most were content to read a book or catch a few hours of sleep on the way up to the Emerald City.

Three hours later, we were on the ground and straight from the plane to the bus which would take us over to the team's hotel.

Raul Vargas and Igor Pierra from the club's equipment staff made sure that all the bags made it from one mode of transportation to the other, while many of the guys did what they do on all bus trips, play cards.

Once at the hotel, all the guys received their room keys and signed a number of items for the league while also picking up a gift bag that included and MLS Cup scarf, beanie, rain jacket and pin. That was it for the guys who all headed off to dinner and then back into their rooms and out of the wet, cold Seattle night.

The work continues tomorrow with the club's first practice in Seattle and won;t stop until late in the Washington night on Sunday.

One final note, Alecko might be up here in Seattle with us now, but you can catch him join Sounders owner Drew Carey on The Price is Right on Friday morning. In an episode that was taped a few weeks ago, Eskandarian helps to give one lucky Showcase winner an unbelievable trip to MLS Cup. Be sure to tune in to CBS tomorrow morning (10 a.m. in LA) to see who the lucky winner will be.