Now that the major decision regarding David Beckham's presence on the Great Britian Olympic men's soccer team has been made, comes the countdown to a really big decision facing the Los Angeles Galaxy, to wit:

Unfortunately and inevitably, it seems, the exciting and energetic soccer seen during the Euro 2012 group phase has dissipated into that nervous, cautious approach that seems to predominate in the knockout rounds.

If you know one French expression, it's probably "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." "The more things change, the more they stay the same" fits the French national team to a tee.

A packed week of 15 games provided many teams with opportunities to pick up points and rivals San Jose and Los Angeles did just that, each claiming six points heading into their Saturday showdown at Stanford Stadium.

Along with bitter rivalries and sold-out stadiums, MLS games offered several more examples of players making good after being cut loose earlier in their careers.

Historical anecdotes are taking a backseat as teams scrap for points in the most competitive environment in league history.

Along some scintillating play in the group phase and the obligatory goal-line controversy, the story so far at Euro 2012 is, sadly, the specter of racist fan behavior bursting into the public awareness like never before.

In a few weeks, testing results for goal-line technology systems will be made public. MLS has already stated it would quickly adopt a system if approved by FIFA, but could incidents like those in the Ukraine-England game at Euro 2012 exert excessive pressure for a system to be green-lighted?

Real Salt Lake stayed atop the rankings by beating Chivas USA as MLS league action returned following a very light schedule during the FIFA fixture dates.

MLS took some drastic liberties with its scheduling to accommodate the June FIFA dates and the benefits made the drawbacks worth the trouble.

Such is the parity at Euro 2012 that no team was assured of advancing to the quarterfinals and only two -- Sweden and hapless Ireland -- were eliminated after two games. But Germany and Spain made cases that they are the teams to beat, while France showed it is back after an emphatic 2-0 win over co-host Ukraine.

The first of three double-dates got the Concacaf World Cup semifinal round underway, and early results indicate that at least two of the three groups -- from which six teams will advance to the Hexagonal -- could go down to the final day of qualifying in October.

The turbulent tenure of Peter Nowak as Union head coach has ended and along with questionable personnel decisions, his rough-and-tough personality that management believed would play well eventually prompted his ouster.

Predictably, we heard -- after the tie against a team that has never reached the World Cup - that picking up a point on the road is a good result. There's truth to that, but I imagine many U.S. fans woke up on Wednesday with a $30 hangover, wishing they'd waited to watch the very few highlights of the Guatemala-USA game on Internet video instead of shelling out for the pay-per-view.

More players from Germany and Mexico are narrowing the available slots for MLS players as Coach Jurgen Klinsmann balances his long-term goals with the immediate task of advancing to the Hexagonal.