Real Madrid now off to conquer Asia

Real Madrid is now off to Beijing, Tokyo and Bangkok, to conquer new teams in new lands by two-goal margins without really trying as they continue to prepare for the real soccer that matters, the Spanish League regular season.

As glorified scrimmages go, Real's 2-0 exhibition victory over the Galaxy at the Home Depot Center on Monday night got a lot of local people excited - mainly those who work behind a mike for FSN West - but in the grand scheme, the best that can be said about the 90-minute workout was that it was an educational experience.

Real Madrid Coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo at last learned the name of at least one Galaxy player. That would have to be Kevin Hartman, the Galaxy's harried yet resolute goalkeeper, the team's last line of credibility against Real. Or as Luxemburgo might have used it in a sentence, "We'd have defeated them by five or six goals, at least, if not for that Kevin Hartman."

The Galaxy learned, a little too late, not to awaken a sleeping giant, as it did by hacking Real midfielder Zinedine Zidane with a yellow-card foul in the fifth minute. In the sixth minute, a riled Zidane tiptoed through a woozy Galaxy defense and dished to Michael Owen for a 1-0 lead, simple as that, enabling Real to take its foot off the gas and send in the subs in waves before scoring again, for appearance's sake, in the 75th minute.

Real Madrid, with no trophies to show for the first two years of its David Beckham experiment, learned a sure-fire way to win a bevy of championships immediately: Join MLS.

Was that a matchup of the world's no.1 club and MLS' no. 1 team? Right away, there are three things wrong with this statement.

One, this was merely an early preseason tuneup for Real and a mid-summer exhibition for the Galaxy. Yes, it can get much, much bigger than this. If the match were so important, why did the Galaxy rest its best player, Landon Donovan? Answer: In fact, Donovan has bigger games with the U.S. national team and the Galaxy later this week.

Two, Manchester United might have something to say about that "world's most famous sports team" thing.

Three, if championships are the ultimate measure of success (and they are), the Galaxy, with one MLS title, is only the third-most successful team in MLS history. D.C. United has won four league championships. San Jose has won two.

Real Madrid "the No. 1 team in the world." You want the truth? Real finished second in the Spanish League last season, didn't get out of the round of 16 in the European Champions League and finished the 2004-2005 season rated 10th in a prominent European soccer "power rankings" poll. Which poll? That we don't know.

Sports Betting Game Odds from: Sportingbet

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup Semifinal Matchup:

USA 2/5

vs Honduras 13/2

DRAW 3/1

Prediction: They're playing in US territory so expect the US National Team to beat Honduras and advance to the championship. US to win 3-1 behind Landon Donovan's twin goals.

for more 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup Betting Tips, Odds, Picks, Lines and Predictions, click here: European Soccer Betting

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