US World Cup Qualifying tickets go on sale Sunday; Brazil-Venezuela tickets tomorrow

Tickets for the US Men's first 2010 World Cup Qualifier go on sale this Sunday (happy Mother's day) at 3pm ET/12pm PT. The red, white and blue start their race to South Africa on 15 June at the The Home Depot Center in Carson, Ca. against Barbados.

Tickets prices range from $18 to $65 and can be purchased at ussoccer.com, by phone (213-480-3232 in L.A.; 714-740-2000 in Orange County; 619-220-8497 in San Diego), and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers throughout Southern California (including Macy’s, Wherehouse Music, FYE and Ritmo Latino).

This match represents the first ever World Cup Qualifier at the Home Depot Center, so hopefully a full house will come out.

On the other side of the country, tickets for the Brazil-Venezuela friendly on 6 June go on sale tomorrow (9 May). The game is a doubleheader with the New England Revolution and FC Dallas facing off in the second match.

Tickets for the two games rage from $30 to $110 and can be purchased by calling 1-877-GET-REVS or Ticketmaster at (617) 931-2222.

Two great nights of soccer on the coasts.

MLS Expansion - Philadelphia sells 2,000 season tickets in a week

In just one week, the new Philadelphia MLS side has sold more then 2,000 season tickets for their inaugural 2010 campaign. Not bad for a team that doesn't have a signal player, coach or date for any games.

This is a really strong showing, however I'm sure more then a few folks in Seattle are unimpressed with Philly’s numbers since they sold 3,000 season tickets within the first 24-hours of their MLS announcement. That said, Seattle has a built in advantage as they already have a strong soccer team in the market (USL's Seattle Sounders), they have a stadium (Quest field) and they had less time till their kicked off their MLS life (15-months compared to 25 for Philadelphia).

One other thing, why is there no link off MLS's home page to the new Philadelphia team? Seattle is linked up top, why not Philadelphia?

If you are interested in buying season tickets for 2010 or just learning a bit more about the future team, here is the Philadelphia MLS web site. On a side note, why is there a picture of Columbus Crew fans on the Philly 'reserve your tickets now' link? I would think the Sons of Ben would be only too happy to give them a local born image.

MLS Expansion - Seattle passes 10,000 season ticket mark

In yet another example of the power of soccer in Seattle, the MLS club that is still 15 months away from their first match has passed 10,000 season ticket deposits. This is an outstanding number that could easily end up above 15,000 before everything is said and done, which would fill a large portion of the bottom bowl at Qwest field.

Misinformation about Beckham debut

It seems a number of news outlets in England are running a story saying the Los Angeles Galaxy's August 23rd match against Chivas USA will be his American debut. Their 'source' seems to be LA's 'Beckham Pack' offer, but it seems they missed a big part of the story.

Beckham will join the team in early July and previous comments have suggested that he would start play at the end of the month or early August (however, some, okay, just MLS Commissioner Don Garber, have suggested he could be at the July 19 All-Star Game).

The league wants all MLS clubs to have a home date with Beckham. If LA waited till the 23rd, FC Dallas, DC United, New England Revolution and New York Red Bulls would not be guaranteed that opportunity (it could still happen in the playoffs).

With all the marketing that has gone into the Beckham deal, I don't think four teams will just surrender their chance to have their Beckham match.

In addition, all the articles say something like 'the August 23rd has been confirmed as his American debut" but the press release says nothing like that. It does say that "this deal is the only way to guarantee yourself the chance to see David Beckham at The Home Depot Center in a Galaxy uniform." but it never says this will be his first game. Perhaps they are confused because the release also talks about tonight's home opener.

What the 23rd looks to be is the first home date that is all but guaranteed to have Beckham on the pitch. There is still a chance he could play in a different home match prior to this date, but the odds are not as certain, so the team is using the match on the 23rd to get people to come out to tonight's home opener.

One other bone to pick, they all report that LA has slashed prices for the tickets to just $10. The problem is $10 is the cheapest tickets for all their matches. They are also selling $250 tickets and guess what, those tickets get you a better seat then the $10 general admission tickets.

Nothing like lazy journalism.