BECKHAM, JETLAG SET FLYING ON ADRENALINE FOR GAME BACK AFTER WEDNESDAY MATCHES IN EUROPE.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

Staff Writer

For David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Jonathan Bornstein, if it's Thursday, it must be Carson.

Or so says the day planner for the Galaxy's Beckham and Donovan, and Chivas USA's Bornstein. After playing for the United States and England in international friendlies in Europe on Wednesday, they boarded planes this morning and hoped to -- quite literally -- come flying to the rescue in their teams' intra-hallway rivalry tonight at the Home Depot Center.

How much any of them can help probably won't be known until they land early this afternoon, wipe the sleep out of their eyes, shake the lactic acid from their thighs and meet with the coaches and training staffs at the stadium.

"We're still at the mercy of the traffic-control gods," Galaxy president Alexi Lalas said. "Barring any weather or mechanical delays, we expect them all to arrive early in the afternoon, get a few hours rest on the ground, then it's off to the races (tonight)."

The tale of the tape seems to point to Beckham as the least likely to be given major minutes, since he played the entirety of England's 2-1 loss to Germany at Wembley Stadium, his second 90-minute game in four days on a still-healing left ankle. And, of course, he's 32.

Meanwhile, Bornstein and Donovan, 23 and 25, had shorter workouts. United States coach Bob Bradley seemed to be playing no favorites, subbing Donovan and Bornstein out together in the 64th minute of a 1-0 loss to Sweden.

Then again, there are other factors at play.

Chivas can more easily absorb the loss of Bornstein, its speedy left back. When he was away during the Gold Cup and Copa America tournaments, Chivas went 3-1-1 and with 30 points, and several games in hand on Houston and Dallas -- the teams it is trying to run down in the Western Conference -- a loss is little more than a disappointment.

For the Galaxy, with 14 points -- 12 shy of MLS' final playoff spot -- its needs its two best players.

Thus, when Preki was asked Tuesday what role Bornstein might have in tonight's game, he said: "None."

Later, he allowed that there was "a slim chance" Bornstein could help as a late substitute.

On Wednesday, just as England and the United States were kicking off their respective games, Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said he expected Beckham and Donovan to play, and that they could start.

Is this a sign of desperation?

"It's a big game for us," Yallop said. "If David and Landon both want to play, I've got to play them. David's traveling with his ankle, we know that's a problem. Landon is a fit kid, he always feels like he wants to play. He always seems to play well against Chivas (four goals, six assists in eight games, none of which the Galaxy has lost). Both guys want to play, but at what capacity is the thing."

If Beckham was surprised to have played 90 minutes against New York on Sunday, as he said afterward, imagine how he felt to have been left on the field until the end Wednesday.

Many of both countries' best players sat out this tuneup for European Championship qualifying with injuries: Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves for England and Miroslav Klose, Michael Ballack, Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger for Germany. And when midfielder Shaun Wright-Phillips, England's sixth and final substitute, came to check in at the 70-minute mark, Beckham began to run off the field until he realized that Wright-Phillips was coming on for left-mid Joe Cole.

Beckham didn't talk with reporters afterward, but he's not likely to have any gripes. The cap was his 97th for England and he's always wanted to join the exclusive club of Englishmen who have played 100games for their country.

Beckham slept for nearly all of his flight from New York to London and is scheduled to fly first class on an 11-hour British Airways flight from Heathrow to LosAngeles, allowing him the opportunity to recline.

Donovan and Bornstein's return isn't quite as straightforward. They were to leave by bus with many of their American teammates at 4 a.m. in Gotenberg, catch a 7 a.m. flight for Frankfurt, where they would fly business class on a SAS/Lufthansa direct flight to Los Angeles.

Donovan joked last week that he'd beat Bornstein up on the flight. In reality, they'll be flying friendly skies -- both players will be too busy trying to sleep.

"We haven't really talked about it," Bornstein said in phone interview several hours before the game. "I haven't had back-to-back games like this since club soccer, where you'd play two games in one day. But I've never done it in games with these kinds of implications.

"I want to play, but we'll see. I'm not closing any doors. Maybe I'll feel real good."

One player who understands well what Beckham, Bornstein and Donovan will feel like this evening is Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones, a long-time national team veteran.

He said he's made a next-day turnaround many times, once from Russia.

"It's part of the duty you have," Jones said. "It's a difficult situation. The time change is difficult. It does a lot of work on your muscles and your mental fitness, but if you're on the national team, you're supposed to be a cut above and handle those situations."

Still, sometimes a player's determination -- a quality that helped him reach the top of his sport -- can work against him.

"You think you're ready to go and think you can handle everything, but you get out there and you feel sluggish," Jones said. "Sometimes it's not beneficial to be out there."

Lalas, his former national teammate, also did the trick, playing for his club team in Italy, then flying to Boston to play the next day for the United States against Nigeria.

"At the end of the day, you end up functioning on adrenaline," he said. "It's not ideal, but to a certain extent, it's exciting."

Over in the Chivas camp, the feeling is that anyone trying to play back-to-back days on different continents is, to a certain extent, nuts.

"Unless you feel really good, it's just not worth it," Chivas midfielder Jesse Marsch said. "It's not like you're just playing a pub league game. They're playing international level. Even though it's a friendly, those are real games. ... when you're getting older, it's not like you can just recover immediately after a game."

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GALAXY/CHIVAS USA

TODAY

Galaxy VS. Chivas USA, 7 p.m., Home Depot Center.

TV: ESPN2.