After securing a rare win last week, DC United hoped to enlarge their fortune as they faced Chivas USA. The game finished a 1-0 Chivas win with the lone goal coming in the 12th minute off the foot of Justin Braun.

It was Braun’s 8th goal in 20 games and he is Chivas USA’s leading scorer. On the other side of the pitch, Chivas keeper Zach Thornton made 3 saves en route to his 4th shutout this year.

It was a solid performance by the home side and a typically disappointing performance by the away side. United were not done and dusted after the first goal and had at least 1 solid opportunity to level things up. This opportunity came and went in the 69th minute when Jaime Moreno’s 7-yard header was cleared off the line just in time.

After going out on strike against Liverpool and acting like a complete prima donna, ungrateful Javier Mascherano has gotten his wish and has been sold to Spanish club Barcelona for a reported €22 million. Good riddance!

The Argentina captain and midfielder is expected to sign a four-year deal with the Spanish champions. He then told Spanish television that it was a dream come true and he and his family have a reason to be proud. I’m not sure what they have to be proud of as Mascherano basically held Liverpool hostage until he could get his own way. He also claimed he was injured during Liverpool’s Europa League games so he wouldn’t be cup tied to the English club.

Of all the players taken in the 2007 NHL Draft, only Chicago’s superstar Patrick Kane has scored more points than Edmonton’s Sam Gagner.  Gagner just turned 21, but he already has three solid NHL seasons under his belt and his 131 career points rank are already the 48th-most by an Oiler. Gagner recently agreed to a new two-year, $4.55 million contract to stay in Edmonton.  Now his goal is to lose some weight.

Gagner played around 200 pounds last season, but has already slimmed down to a svelte 193 pounds.  His goal is to lose a few more pounds:

When you’re coming into this league, everyone’s telling you to put on weight … you get caught up in it, but I’ve worked this summer to lose pounds, to work on my fast-twitch, work on my speed with my trainer. I hope to see dividends from that. If I get to 190, I won’t get knocked around at that size, and I think I can get in and out of places quicker.

Unhappy Swedish international striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has moved from Spanish club Barcelona to AC Milan of Italy for the season on a loan. Milan then has the option of buying the player, who previously played for Inter Milan, for €24 million next summer.

The move was another in the long line of ridiculous financial football happenings as Barcelona paid a whopping €46 million for Ibrahimovic last year as well as giving up striker Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon to Inter.

The 28-year-old Ibrahimovic has agreed to a four-year contract with AC Milan, and reportedly took a pay cut to be able to play back Italy. Ibrahimovic struggled in his season with Barcelona even though he scored 16 goals in 29 games, and when the club signed David Villa out of Valencia the writing was on the wall as he became lower on the pecking order.