Greetings from Manchester

While the first team is off this Easter weekend, the Galaxy's Youth Academy teams are taking part in a once in a lifetime experience. The Academy teams arrived in England today, beginning a 10-day training stay for the club, during which the academy teams will playing four games and attend two others. Needless to say, they will get a complete taste of footballing culture in this nation.

The boys, as well as the coaches and staff (including yours truly), flew from LAX to London Heathrow over night on Friday, landing in the capital city around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. But London was not calling quite yet as we jumped straight onto the team bus for the multi-hour drive north to Manchester, a journey that was made nearly an hour longer when maintenance was required on one of the side view mirrors.

On the bus, the entire traveling party got a small taste of just how soccer-crazy this country is as we were able to listen to the live radio broadcast (and nearly hour-long pregame show) of the all-important Chelsea-Manchester United battle at Old Trafford.

The real work kicks off on Sunday morning when the teams make their way to Everton's training ground at Finch Farm for a training session that will be run by some of the Everton academy coaches. After training, lunch and a tour of the complex, the teams will jump back onto the bus and head over to Goodison Park for Everton's Premier League encounter with West Ham United.

Games against the Academy teams from Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Ipswich Town and West Ham will follow over the coming days, as will a trip to Wembley for the FA Cup semifinal between Chelsea and Aston Villa.

It will be a trip that the kids, and those of us who are lucky enough to tag along will never forget. And we will bring you all of the inside stories throughout the trip.

We'll have video and audio interviews, photos of everywhere we go and of course a series of written articles, all of which will be found here and on the all new lagalaxy.com.