Landon Donovan

The Galaxy will celebrate its second consecutive MLS Cup victory with its fans at the Home Depot Center on Monday night. The entire team, including captain Landon Donovan and midfielder David Beckham, is expected to participate in the event, which is set to begin at 7 p.m. in the tennis stadium. Admission and parking are free. Gates are to open at 6 p.m. Championship mementos will be on sale, including squares of turf from the Home Depot Center field. Saturday's 3-1 win over the Houston Dynamo made the Galaxy just the third team in MLS history to win consecutive titles, joining D.C. United and Houston.

The Galaxy celebrated Saturday's MLS Cup victory deep into Sunday morning. But when Coach Bruce Arena and Tim Leiweke, the team's chief executive, awoke later that day, the countless champagne toasts weren't the only things that had their heads spinning. Because after winning consecutive league titles with David Beckham and Landon Donovan, the team must now figure out a way to win without one and possibly both players. "There's little doubt in my mind that we're going to have some transition here," said Leiweke, president of AEG, the global sports and entertainment company that owns the Galaxy.

Few teams had more reason - or opportunity - to pack it in and play for next season than the Galaxy did this year. Nearly halfway through the Major Soccer League season, the team, missing four of its starters, was buried in the conference cellar. The Galaxy climbed out to finish fourth in the Western Conference, then had to win a wild-card game just to get into the playoffs. And once there it found itself trailing time and again. Yet the Galaxy never quit and Saturday that resilience was rewarded one more time when the team rallied from a one-goal halftime deficit to beat the Houston Dynamo, 3-1, and win its second consecutive MLS Cup before a record crowd of 30,510 at the Home Depot Center.

David Beckham walked off the field at the Home Depot Center with a smile on his face and an American flag draped around his shoulders, leaping to high-five one last fan as he ended his most excellent MLS playing adventure with a powerful performance. Beckham didn't score in the 3-1 victory over Houston that secured the Galaxy's second straight MLS Cup championship, but he was a strong presence with his trademark curving free kicks and dynamic leadership. The Galaxy had been forced to rally all season, and he would not let its playoff journey end Saturday without a bounce-back triumph.

A drafty storage room deep in the bowels of the Home Depot Center hardly seems an appropriate place to meet with sporting royalty. Along one cluttered wall stand rolling racks of old uniforms and sweat suits. An oversize World Cup soccer ball sits ignored atop a dusty table, while hanging from the ceiling a tiny mirrored disco ball begins to spin slowly when David Beckham, wearing ragged jeans, a white V-neck T-shirt and a gray wool hat, steps in for another in a seemingly endless series of goodbye interviews.

Evan Longoria says he wants to be with the Tampa Bay Rays for his entire big league career. The slugging third baseman got his wish Monday when he and the Rays agreed to a $136.6-million, 10-year contract that adds six guaranteed seasons and $100 million. "I always wanted to be kind of a benchmark player … the guy that you could think about or associate with the organization," Longoria said. "My goal from day one was to be the first player that played their whole career here, to be the first guy that came into the organization and went out in the organization, and played all the years in between.

Galaxy forward Robbie Keane and team captain Landon Donovan were named Monday to Major League Soccer's First XI, the league's postseason all-star team. Keane, playing his first full season in MLS, finished fourth in the league in scoring with 16 goals before making five more in the playoffs. Keane also fueled the Galaxy's second-half run to a postseason berth by recording a goal or an assist in 15 of the team's final 19 games. Donovan, who made the team as a midfielder, was second in the league with 14 assists in just 26 games.

Two years ago, after the longest season of his long career, Landon Donovan returned to his Manhattan Beach home, drew the curtains, turned off the phone and spent two weeks trying to recover. He eventually emerged from his sequestration to have one of his finest Major League Soccer seasons in 2011, leading the Galaxy with 15 goals, including the score that gave the team its first title in six years. Exhausted again, Donovan will go back into hiding after Saturday's MLS Cup final, his 49th game in 48 weeks.

SEATTLE -- Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, who has been plagued by injury all season, did not dress for the Western Conference final against the Seattle Sounders on a wet and chilly Sunday night at CenturyLink Field. The scenario the Galaxy faces -- it takes a three-goal lead into the second of two matches in a Major League Soccer playoff series that will be decided on total scores -- might have had something to do with that decision. But the weather conditions and the punishing nature of Seattle's artificial turf might also be a factor.

A balky hamstring has left Landon Donovan's status for the MLS Western Conference final in Seattle uncertain and the Galaxy could be missing as many as two other regulars to injury as well. Donovan, a playmaking and scoring midfielder, missed four games to leg problems during the regular season and came out of the first leg of the conference final last Sunday with what has been described as hamstring tightness. He trained Friday for the first time in five days and was hopeful about his progress.