Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena and midfielder David Beckham each picked up Major League Soccer honors Monday. Arena won coach of the year for the third time and Beckham was named the league's comeback player of the year. Arena led the Galaxy to a 19-5-10 regular-season mark, giving it the league's best record for the second consecutive season. The Galaxy also won all three of its playoff matches and is unbeaten this season at the Home Depot Center, which is where the team will play Sunday's MLS Cup against the Houston Dynamo.

Here's one indication how far the Galaxy has fallen since winning the Major League Soccer Cup six months ago: Last year it led the league with 17 shutouts en route to the title. Wednesday it couldn't protect a two-goal lead for 18 minutes, losing to the San Jose Earthquakes, 3-2, at the Home Depot Center. The game-winner came four minutes into stoppage time when second-half substitute Alan Gordon cut in front of Galaxy defenders A.J. DeLaGarza and Sean Franklin and headed a bouncing pass over keeper Brian Perk.

The Major League Soccer schedule stretches into December for the first time this year, making the season more of a marathon than it's been in the past. For the defending champion Galaxy, however, it's starting off with a sprint. When the Galaxy opens its league season Saturday night at the Home Depot Center against Real Salt Lake, it will be playing the second of four games in a 12-day stretch, a test of stamina brought on by the overlapping schedules of the CONCACAF Champions League and MLS. "It is what it is," Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said after Friday's hourlong practice.

Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who left the team a month ago to enroll in Major League Soccer's substance abuse and behavioral health program, was back on the training field Tuesday. But it's unclear how long it will be before he can play again. Saunders, who held the Houston Dynamo scoreless in last November's MLS Cup final, said he was not being treated for drug or alcohol abuse, attributing his absence to personal issues. "I was under some stress," said Saunders, 31, who started this season as a starting keeper for the first time in his eight-year MLS career.

Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who left the team a month ago to enroll in Major League Soccer's substance abuse and behavioral health program, was back on the training field Tuesday. But it's unclear how long it will be before he can play again. Saunders, who held the Houston Dynamo scoreless in last November's MLS Cup final, said he was not being treated for drug or alcohol abuse, attributing his absence to personal issues. "I was under some stress," said Saunders, 31, who started this season as a starting keeper for the first time in his eight-year MLS career.

GALAXY TONIGHT VS. COLUMBUS When: 7:30. Where: Home Depot Center. On the air: TV: FSW (delayed, 9:30 p.m.); Radio: 1150, 1220. Records: Galaxy 13-5-5, Crew 13-5-5. Record vs. Crew: 1-0. Update: Saturday's game pits the two best teams in MLS, according to Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena. "Over the past two years, L.A. and Columbus have been a step above everyone else in the league," Arena said, "so we're facing the best team in the league.

Galaxy Tonight VS. SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES When: 7:30. Where: Home Depot Center. On the air: TV: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes. Radio: 1330 AM. Records: Galaxy 12-2-3, Earthquakes 6-4-4. Update: Fresh off a 2-1 win against D.C. United, the Galaxy face the San Jose Earthquakes, an old MLS rival. The Galaxy has a nine-point lead atop the Western Conference standings. The Galaxy will send four players to the Major League Soccer All-Star game in Houston on July 28 against Manchester United: Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, forward Edson Buddle, defender Omar Gonzalez and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.

AT CHICAGO Time: 6 PDT. On the air: TV: ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes; Radio: 570 and 1330. Where: Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Ill. Records: Galaxy 7-4-10, Fire 9-4-8. Record vs. Fire (2008): 0-2. Update: Saturday night's 2-0 loss to Seattle dropped the Galaxy to third place in the Western Conference and the red cards issued to David Beckham and Eddie Lewis mean they will miss tonight's match. The shutout loss was the first for the Galaxy since June 13. Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena minced no words in the aftermath.

The Galaxy goes before a national television audience again Saturday when it plays host to the battered New York Red Bulls on ESPN. But are Major League Soccer's defending champions ready for their latest close-up? "We need to start showing people why we were champions last season," midfielder David Beckham said after training Friday. "At the moment it's not right at all. All the way through the team. " In fact the not-ready-for prime time players, at 3-4-1 after two months, have lost just one fewer game then they did all of last season.

Last season the Galaxy bludgeoned teams on their way to a Major League Soccer title. This year, however, many of their victories have been of the moral variety. But hey, a win's a win, right? Take Saturday, for example, when the Galaxy scored two minutes into stoppage time to escape with a 1-1 tie with FC Dallas. And they did it behind a backup goalkeeper playing his first MLS game in nearly six years and a goal from a player who has started just twice in the last two seasons.

No Major League Soccer team has ever won the recently revamped CONCACAF Champions League. And Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena thinks he knows why. "We probably don't schedule it as a priority," he says. "So there's things as a league that we have to make better for us to have the elite clubs in North America and Central America. We have to grow as a league on the field and off the field in order to achieve that goal. " The Galaxy has a chance to brush aside those obstacles, not to mention Toronto FC, when the two MLS clubs meet in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Home Depot Center in Carson (the game will be televised on Telefutura and Fox Soccer)

The Galaxy unveiled its 2011 championship banner to considerable fanfare before a sellout crowed Saturday at Home Depot Center. Given the way the team played in the game that followed, it may be a while before it gets a chance to celebrate another title. Sloppy on defense for much of the night, the Galaxy completely unraveled late in the second half, allowing Real Salt Lake to rally from a one-goal deficit to a 3-1 win in the Major League Soccer season opener for both teams. The Galaxy boasted the league's best defense last year, giving up less than a goal a game.

The Major League Soccer schedule stretches into December for the first time this year, making the season more of a marathon than it's been in the past. For the defending champion Galaxy, however, it's starting off with a sprint. When the Galaxy opens its league season Saturday night at the Home Depot Center against Real Salt Lake, it will be playing the second of four games in a 12-day stretch, a test of stamina brought on by the overlapping schedules of the CONCACAF Champions League and MLS. "It is what it is," Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said after Friday's hourlong practice.

The last meaningful game the Galaxy played was last fall's Major League Soccer Cup final, which it won 1-0 to cap its first championship season in six years. But it's been tough sledding since then, with the team winning just two of its eight preseason games against MLS opponents. So the question heading into Wednesday's CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal game with FC Toronto at the Rogers Centre (Fox Soccer, 5 p.m. PST) is which Galaxy team will show up: the world-beater that won a title last year or the one that was outscored nearly 2 to 1 this winter while being shut out three times?

David Beckham's long goodbye might turn into a "nice to see you again. " Supposedly Paris-bound for months, the global icon won't be going to the French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain, and in fact, evidence strongly suggests that the 36-year-old will stay put with the Galaxy. That, however, does not mean there is a deal completed to keep Beckham with the Major League Soccer champions. Several hurdles remain but none appear insurmountable. "We're down the road," Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, which owns the Galaxy, said in a telephone interview with The Times on Tuesday.

The MLS Cup at the Home Depot Center on Sunday has a number of compelling story lines, including a straight one that starts with Houston Coach Dominic Kinnear, passes though his captain, Brian Ching, then ends with Galaxy teammates Landon Donovan and Todd Dunivant. That quartet won an MLS Cup together eight years ago in San Jose, after which Donovan and Dunivant headed off to Los Angeles and the entire San Jose franchise later moved to Houston. The foundation for this year's championship game might have been poured back then.