Galaxy

The new Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone is a genuine iPhone challenger. A couple of days with it is plenty to find clues why Apple has pursued Samsung so aggressively over patent-infringement claims — and this week won a court order blocking U.S. sales of the S III's cousin, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Despite Apple's complaints about "copycat products," the Galaxy S III is rolling out largely as planned. All four national carriers have announced versions of the sleek, slim phone, which runs on the latest version of Google's Android operating system and boasts a screen with about 70 percent more real estate than Apple's iPhone 4S. T-Mobile has already begun selling the S III, offering a 16-gigabyte version — that I tested — for $280 with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

WASHINGTON - Don't worry about when the world as we know it might end. NASA has calculated that our entire Milky Way galaxy will crash into a neighboring galaxy with a direct head-on hit - in 4 billion years. Astronomers in a NASA news conference Thursday said that years of observations from the Hubble Space Telescope provide grisly details of a long-anticipated galactic smashup. Astronomers had seen the Andromeda galaxy coming at us, but thought there was a chance that its sideways motion would make it miss or graze the Milky Way. Hubble readings now indicate that's not the case.

David Beckham bent in a free kick in the 62d minute to help the Los Angeles Galaxy tie the Montreal Impact, 1-1, on Saturday at Montreal's Olympic Stadium in front of 60,860 fans - the largest crowd for a professional soccer game in Canada. There was a mix of boos and cheers each time Beckham played the ball, even when he scored on one of his patented free kicks that curled inside the right post from 23 yards. Beckham's second goal of the season came 6 minutes after he was shown the yellow card for an elbow to the face of Felipe Martins, which might have been embellished by the Brazilian.

DAVID BECKHAM is set to stay with the Los Angeles Galaxy after turning down a chance to join Paris Saint-Germain, the French club said yesterday. After weeks of negotiations with PSG, the 36-year-old midfielder and former England captain decided he doesn't want to move his family from the United States. "David Beckham is not coming," PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said at the Qatar Open tennis tournament. "We feel a little disappointed. But both sides agreed it would be better that we not do the deal . . . maybe in the future.

LANDON DONOVAN'S goal in the game's 72nd minute gave the Los Angeles Galaxy a 1-0 win over the Houston Dynamo and the MLS Cup last night in Carson, Calif. The goal was set up when David Beckham headed a pass toward Robbie Keane, whose pass Donovan converted for a league-record 20th goal in 29 career playoff games.   MLS changes A new-look regular-season and playoff format for Major League Soccer was announced yesterday, as the league welcomes Montreal as its 19th franchise in 2012.

CARSON, Calif. - Landon Donovan scored in the 72d minute on passes from Robbie Keane and David Beckham, and the Los Angeles Galaxy's three superstars won their first MLS Cup together with a 1-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Sunday night. Beckham won his first MLS title in the final game of his groundbreaking, five-year deal with the Galaxy, who rolled to the franchise's third league crown after finishing with the best regular-season record. Beckham punctuated a solid performance with an alert header to Keane, the Irish striker who joined Los Angeles in midseason from Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League.

CARSON, Calif. - David Beckham has reached the grand finale of his five-year Hollywood saga. The English superstar will play for his first Major League Soccer championship on Sunday with the Los Angeles Galaxy, hoping to lift the MLS Cup alongside Landon Donovan in vindication of his groundbreaking American experiment. After posting his best season stateside during the Galaxy's dominant campaign, the midfielder needs just one more victory to earn something he didn't even realize he wanted when he moved to Los Angeles amid all that fanfare in 2007.

Mike Magee scored the go-ahead goal on a pass from David Beckham in the 58th minute, and Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane also scored as the Los Angeles Galaxy advanced to the MLS Cup final with a 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake on Sunday night in the Western Conference final in Carson, Calif. Los Angeles advanced to face the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup final on Nov. 20 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, where the Galaxy haven't lost all year. Earlier in the day, the Dynamo got goals from Andre Hainault and Carlo Costly to beat Sporting Kansas City, 2-0, in the Eastern Conference title game in Kansas City, Kan. Houston midfielder Brad Davis, who led MLS with 16 assists this season, left the game after injuring his right quadriceps in the 37th minute.

Kasey Keller took one final lap of appreciation around Seattle's home field after the Sounders' 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday, clapping and giving thumbs up the entire way to the fans. The career of arguably American's most influential goalkeeper had ended with a victory that turned out to be a loss. Osvaldo Alonso and Lamar Neagle scored five minutes apart early in the second half, but Salt Lake advanced to the Western Conference final in the MLS Cup playoffs on aggregate goals by a 3-2 margin over Seattle.

MIKE MAGEE has played every position for Los Angeles this season - defender, midfielder, forward, even goalkeeper for one game. Yesterday, it was his scoring touch that gave the Galaxy an advantage in their playoff series against New York. Magee scored the only goal of the match, off a long cross from David Beckham, in the 15th minute, giving the visiting Galaxy a 1-0 win against the Red Bulls in the first leg of the Western Conference semifinals. Magee's goal enables Los Angeles to head home needing only a tie or a win on Thursday night to advance to the conference final.