Voting has begun for the WPS All-Star Game, which will be played here in Fenton on Aug. 30 at 4:30 p.m. Here’s a link to the ballot on the WPS website.

Here’s some pertinent information, courtesy the league:

A total of 18 WPS players will take part in the WPS All-Star Game with the Starting XI players selected through voting and the other seven chosen by the WPS Commissioner and the All-Star Game Head Coach. Players voted on to the Starting XI who are not available to play in the WPS All-Star Game will be replaced by the next-highest vote-getters at that position. The Starting XI will be made up of one goalkeeper, three defenders, five midfielders and two forwards with the vote ending at 8pm ET on July 31. The WPS All-Star team will be selected according to the following vote breakdown and will be announced the week of August 3:

11 players Vote - 25% fans, 25% media, 25% players, 25% coaches
7 players At-Large Selections (WPS Commissioner and All-Star Head Coach)

The coach, by the way, will be determined by a vote of the players.

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By the way, individual tickets for the All-Star Game go on sale on July 23.

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Former SLU player Brandon Barklage, who had worked his way into playing time with D.C. United before getting hurt, had successful ACL reconstruction surgery today and is now facing six months of rehab. Barklage hurt his knee in an Open Cup match on July 7. He had appeared in every minute of the Open Cup up to that point and in four MLS league matches.

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In case you’d forgotten, since they’ve taken a week off, the Gold Cup resumes this weekend and the United States plays Panama in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Philadelphia. The four semifinalists then reconvene in Chicago.

Steve Cherundolo, Michael Parkhurst and Charlie Davies have left the Gold Cup to join their European clubs, so the only players with this team that see regular national team duty are Twitterable Brian Ching and out of contract Heath Pearce. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on Fox Soccer Channel.

And in case you missed it, Ching got in a bit of trouble with MLS headquarters for sending this message out via Twitter after watching his team, Houston, lose to Seattle, on television: “Ref in Seattle just cheated the Dynamo. What a joke. Not even close. Ref is a cheat.” The league, which apparently subscribes to Ching’s feed, fined him $500.

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Which reminds me that Free Kicks will probably be twittering soon. I’m sure you can hardly wait.

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When David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy come to Kansas City on July 25, it will likely mark the last time we see Beckham in these parts. As fate would have it, a team of Scott Galagher 11-year-olds will be accompanying the teams out on the field at that game, so some local kid here will get to escort Beckham on to the field. (That assumes Beckham is in the starting lineup. If he isn’t, well, the subs come out un-escorted.) If you’re going to make the trip to see Beckham, or maybe Our Town’s Chris Klein, contact Brian Roth of the Wizards at 913-387-3839 or Broth@kcwizards.com.