On August 12, the world will stop turning

For all fans of "round" football, this Saturday, August 12, the world will stop turning as one of the big European football powerhouses, Real Madrid, comes to Salt Lake to play Real Salt Lake in an exhibition game.

The European leagues are getting ready to start play again, and this is a pre-season warm up for "Los Galacticos" against a team that will provide them some competition, but not enough to mess up David Beckham's perfectly coiffed hair. Unfortunately, the Great El-ahrairah cannot attend the game since he is stuck in pizza & pasta land, but he will be there in spirit (and hopefully by internet) to see "Los Galaticos" get thumped by Salt Lake.

Will Salt Lake rise to the occasion. If you look at the game with critical eye, on one side, you have Real Madrid with some of the most highly-paid soccer players on the planet. David Beckham makes more money in one game that the cost of the entire payroll of Real Salt Lake for the year. They are always at the top of the Spanish league, having won the Spanish championship 29 times.

On the other hand, Salt Lake is at the bottom of the MLS standings and is having a less-than-stellar season. Although this game maybe a interesting diversion for Real Madrid, it is much more than that for Real Salt Lake. When a player's career is over, he will be able to look back on this game and brag about how he stole the ball from the great David Beckham. If he scores a goal, he could just die and go to heaven right there. With the fact that Chelsea FC from the English Premier League lost to the MLS All-Stars on Saturday, I would think that Real Salt Lake would be highly motivated to win against Real Madrid and would go all out to take them down a notch. Think the 1980 US Hockey Team "Miracle on Ice" but at Rice-Eccles Stadium.