Carson code enforcement officer Glenn Miller confiscates the food - but not the cart - of a bacon-wrapped hot dog vendor outside last weekend's Chivas USA SuperLiga game. Authorities plan to crack down again tonight.

Daily Breeze photos by Sean Hiller

The tentacles of Los Angeles-based Anshutz Entertainment Group extend throughout not only Southern California pop culture and civic life, but around the globe to include such figures as dead pop icon Michael Jackson and nominal Galaxy midfielder David Beckham.

But AEG, always it seems unnecessarily heavy-handed given their increasingly powerful and visible corporate profile, are now going after bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors at tonight's Gold Cup doubleheader at Home Depot Center.

It's always more about money than astute public relations for AEG who should think about improving the quality of the food and service inside the stadium.

Even better: AEG should try legitimizing some of these carts by providing the required access to running water and restrooms and slapping on an extra 75 cent charge rather than give their (over) paying customers another reason to gripe about bad sports teams, price gouging and plastic public realms like L.A. Live.

Soccer fan Oscar Rodriguez is a bacon-wrapped hot dog devotee.

And so is former Daily Breeze food critic Chris Cognac:

Look, the Gold Cup is just another crap tournament (see SuperLiga) clogging up the soccer calendar designed to extract cash from fans' pockets.

It's played too often (let's see it only every four years, please). Some teams, like the U.S., are fielding their B teams. And some players, such as Canadian international Dwayne DeRosario of Toronto FC, have opted to stay with their club teams instead.

If the participants aren't taking it seriously, why should I? It will be marginally interesting to see if any players emerge as potential World Cup squad members when it comes to the U.S., but that's about it.

The U.S. is allowed to add seven players to its roster because of the rigors of the Confederations Cup (not sure I get this since there are only four U.S. players named to the squads for both tournaments) and potentially those could be announced today ahead of a scheduled Bob Bradley teleconference with the media.

(Updated 9:15 a.m. And the players are (from the U.S. Soccer press release): Forwards Jozy Altidore and Conor Casey, midfielders Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber and Sacha Kljestan, defender Jonathan Bornstein and goalkeeper Brad Guzan will be eligible for selection during the tournament; however, the U.S. will not have all seven players present for each Gold Cup match. The exact schedule for these players will be announced as it becomes available. Only 18 players will be eligible to dress for any given game.).

Locally, we get all of two Gold Cup games on Friday when Canada plays Jamaica at 5 p.m. followed by El Salvador-Costa Rica at Home Depot Center. Tickets range from $20-$75 in advance and go up another $5 the day of the game.

Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, who has 72 caps, was belatedly called in Wednesday by Jamaica. It's possible he could play Friday for his country and Saturday for the Galaxy in their Independence Day game against the New England Revolution.

For more, read about:
* The doping scandal to hit Costa Rica.

The Canadian hopes.

El Salvador's chances.

And Grenada, the U.S. opponents Saturday in Seattle.

The Galaxy are desperate for goals.

Oft-injured Chivas USA forward Alecko Eskandarian, who has scored just six goals in 18 games since joining the club from Real Salt Lake in January 2008, was traded today to intrastadium rivals the Galaxy.

To make room for the 26-year-old forward, the Galaxy waived midfielder Josh Tudela who has played 23 games for the club since being selected in the 2007 SuperDraft. Chivas USA received allocation money and a conditional pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft.

"This move allows us greater flexibility in terms of our roster and salary budget," said Chivas USA Coach Preki.

Eskandarian, the 2004 MLS Cup MVP when with DC United, has 28 goals and 12 assists in 122 games during his seven-year MLS career. He has two starts in seven appearances this year and is eligible to make his Galaxy debut on Saturday against New England.

Here he is in a Galaxy uniform today.

It could happen, although it will take a combination of results from other games this weekend.

Perhaps more interesting is the Sol gamble about the timing of its final regular season game: essentially the club is betting it will draw more kids looking for something to do now school is out at noon on a summer Wednesday after a holiday weekend than fans at a midweek evening game.

What's being promoted as McDonald's Kids Day boasts a festival that includes soccer games, a banner making station, a tattoo station, the soccer collies, a juggling contest and something called the Sesame Street Toddler Play Area.

Naturally, there's a ticket special: tickets start at $15 and include a Marta bobblehead. Visit Ticketmaster for the deal and enter the password "KIDS."

BTW, the Sol have already become the first WPS to clinch a playoff spot, although that's not particularly surprising given their league-dominating 10-1-4 record. That's good for 34 points, almost double the number achieved by the second-place team, the Boston Breakers.

More importantly, the Sol will win the WPS regular season title Wednesday if, well, we'll let the league explain it:

The magic number for the league title for Los Angeles now sits at nine points over the Boston Breakers, who won Wednesday against Washington, 1-0. Any combination of points earned by Los Angeles and Boston not collecting maximum points in a game would lower that number. A victory by Los Angeles on Sunday against Washington, combined with a loss by Boston at New Jersey would mean that the Sol could wrap up the WPS regular season crown at home on Wednesday against Saint Louis with over a month left in the regular season.

Mathematically, Washington, Saint Louis and Boston could still individually overtake Los Angeles but to do so, Washington would have to defeat Los Angeles in Sunday's match-up and Saint Louis would need to win at Home Depot Center next week. Boston plays Los Angeles in the final game of the regular season.

The rest of the playoff picture and positions 2, 3 and 4 are still completely up for grabs.

Got it? Whatever. Keep it simple and circle this date on your calendar: Aug. 22. That's the date of the WPS title game, the Sol are odds-on favorites to be there if/when they win the regular season title and if so it will be in Carson.

In other WPS news:
*I'm guessing this is from the "oops" department - Sol defender Martina Franko is pregnant and unable to finish the season.That forced the Sol Tuesday to acquire defender Christie Shaner from Sky Blue FC as cover. In return, the Sol sent Sky Blue a third round pick in the 2010 WPS draft. Franko, 33, started 10 games for the Sol's miserly defense; in contrast the 24-year-old Shaner, a Notre Dame product, has appeared in just two games over 40 minutes for Sky Blue FC.

*The Sol's Marta was named WPS Player of the Week for a second time this season after scoring three goals to lead the Sol to victories over Saint Louis Athletica and Chicago Red Stars; she shares the league lead in goals with eight.

*Sunday's Sol-Freedom game is live at 3 p.m. Fox Soccer Channel.

*Marta's former club team, Sweden's Umea IK, will play against as team of WPS All-Stars in the inaugural all-star game taking place a week after the title game live Aug. 30 on FSC from St. Louis.

Charleston Battery 3 Chivas USA 1

Notable:
*Jesse Marsch scored in the 28th minute for Chivas USA to tie the game at one apiece, but it wasn't enough to see the club win a U.S. Open Cup game for the first time in four years.

*Chivas USA goalkeeper Lance Parker made his second start of year after playing last Saturday in SuperLiga against San Luis. Defender Bobby Burling saw his first minutes in 2009 after recovering from sports hernia surgery.

Quotable:

"Overall, I thought we were the better team the whole game," said Chivas USA Coach Preki. "They got lucky breaks. ... I thought we played really well. ... We made them chase the game. ... They just defended the second half and they didn't want to play."

Chivas USA XI: Lance Parker, Sasha Victorine, Jim Curtin, Carey Talley, Jorge Flores, Chukwudi Chijindu (Bobby Burling, 70'), Paulo Nagamura, Jesse Marsch, Bojan Stepanovic, Atiba Harris (Michael Lahoud 84), Eduardo Lillingston (Maykel Galindo, 58').

Sports Illustrated has a sneak peek at the forthcoming book by writer Grant Wahl.

Looks like Galaxy fans aren't the only ones unconvinced of David Beckham's supposed commitment to the Galaxy.

Landon Donovan:

"He's not. He's not shown that. I can't think of another guy where I'd say he wasn't a good teammate, he didn't give everything through all this, he didn't still care. But with [Beckham] I'd say no, he wasn't committed."

Sounds like the Galaxy are going to have a splendid time when/if Beckham returns doesn't it?

Read more here.

Almost as instructive as the U.S. loss to Brazil Sunday in the final of the Confederations Cup if we are looking forward to gauge the national team's chances of future success on the world stage, was the Mexican scoreless draw with Guatemala in San Diego.

The U.S. goes down blazing against the world's best; Mexico struggles to get anything out of a game with a modest soccer nation.

It's all about attitude.

Sadly it will take more than cookies:

Briefly:

*The Battery, second in the USL First Division with a 7-2-6 record, lost in last year's U.S. Open Cup final to D.C. United. They advanced to the third round with wins over Atlanta FC and Miami FC Blues. Charleston is unbeaten at Blackbaud Stadium in 2009 with five wins and three ties.

*Chivas USA haven't won a U.S. Open Cup game in four years. Chivas USA has one win in the last nine games in all competitions. This is the first-ever meeting between the clubs.

*The game will be streamed live at 4:30 p.m. on USLlive.com.

Get caught up on the weekend's soccer in 60 seconds or less:
*The Galaxy had three shots on goal, scored on one of them and beat the MLS-leading Dynamo Sunday at Home Depot Center.

*Highlights:

*Heartbreak for the Americans in South Africa.

*Reaction:

*Mexico and Guatemala drew Sunday in San Diego in Gold Cup warmup.

*SuperLiga is over for Chivas USA.

*The Sol shine on.

It's over: U.S. 2 Brazil 3

Coach Bob Bradley: "It feels pretty lousy to let this one get away."

The Galaxy's Landon Donovan: "We're at the point where we don't want respect. We want to win."

Half time: U.S. 2 Brazil 0

From the "if you thought that win over Spain was massive" department comes the final of the Confederations Cup.

I scarcely dare write this post.

The game is on ESPN.

Perhaps the most important 45 minutes of American soccer coming up since the 1950 World Cup.

Four links for Sunday:
*Chivas USA were dumped out of SuperLiga Saturday.

*Spain beat South Africa in the Confederations Cup today.

*U.S.-Brazil coverage begins at 11 a.m. Sunday live on ESPN. Freddy Adu tweeted at 9 a.m.: "bumping some eminem to get ready for this game. we are hyped right now."

(Updated 11 a.m.: U.S. lineup.)

The Dynamo visit Home Depot Center at 7 p.m. riding a club-record 11 game winning streak against a Galaxy team that is tied for the fewest wins (with NYRB) in MLS - two. Yikes.

I plan to blog from the game.

Sol 4 Chicago Red Stars 0

Torrance's Shannon Boxx opened the scoring in the 14th minute, Camile Abily scored the second five minutes later and Marta added the third and fourth goals in the second half.

The 10-1-4 league-leading Sol are undefeated in 10 games; the Red Stars are winless in nine games.

Notable: Marta and Abily are tied for the WPS lead with eight goals apiece.

Quotable:

"It was a big challenge today as it was our third game in seven days, but I thought we played very well," said Coach Abner Rogers. "Obviously, the result speaks for itself. The number of opportunities that we created was very satisfying."

Announced attendance: 4,653

Sol Lineup: Karina LeBlanc; Stephanie Cox, Allison Falk, Marina Franko, Katie Larkin, McCall Zerboni (72: Aly Wagner), Shannon Boxx ©, Camille Abily (80: Maya Makoski), Aya Miyama, Han Duan, Marta.

Next: Sol hosts Saint Louis Athletica at noon Wednesday, July 8.

Worst meets first in the WPS Bagel Bowl at the HDC at 10 a.m. (!) today as the visiting Chicago Red Stars (2-5-5), without a win in eight, meet the league-leading Sol (9-1-4), who are without a loss in nine games.

Motivation for going: every fan gets a free Sol T-shirt.

Motivation for heading to the free Wi-Fi at your local coffee shop: a live Webcast here. Los Angeles Sol Director of Media Relations Nick Ammazzalorso has the call with color commentary provided by Aaron Heifetz, press officer for the United States Women's National Team.

Meanwhile, if Chicago don't beat Tigres in a game that kicks off at 5 p.m. it may not be worth going to the Chivas USA-San Luis SuperLiga game that kicks off at 7 p.m. at the HDC (assuming you're a Chivas fan).

Details here.

Lastly, it appears many of you believe the U.S. has already made a point to the world regardless of the Confederations Cup finale's outcome Sunday against Brazil. Agree? Disagree? Vote here.