Wednesday, February 18, 2009
No Name Creek
Small announcement to be made: coming soon will be a secondary blog, on which I will unveil a new comic strip, entitled No Name Creek. Further details to come when I figure it all out
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
David Beckham & the Los Angeles Debacle
For the uninitiated, David Beckham is among the most popular footballers on the planet as well as a huge prick. in 2007, Mr. Beckham left the Spanish club Real Madrid to join the LA Galaxy, in easily the most hyped transfer around the globe since, ironically, Pele's transfer to the New York Cosmos in the 70's. Because of the difference in playing seasons between Europe and the US, Becks didn't arrive in LA until July. He then managed to play in a grand total of 6 matches until november due to an injury he picked up prior to coming stateside, culminating with failure of the Galaxy to make the playoffs that year. Most everyone made a huge deal about Becks' failure to make a decent impact, and rightfully so. However, I thought it was stupid to expect so much, considering my lack of confidence in him to begin with. The one thing he did successfully was to sell literally millions of dollars in merchandise and extra ticket sales around the country. Sales dollars do not a truly great footballer make, unfortunately for him.
However, in his first full season with the Galaxy, there were once again high hopes for the British star. As the summer progressed, it seemed like he was doing a good job. By November, they had scored more goals than any other team in the league (55 in 30 games). Possibly also as a testament to Beckham's ability as an attacking midfielder, 2 out of the top 3 individual goal scorers in the League were Galaxy players: Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. And yet, for the second straight and 3 of the last 4 years, LA failed to make the playoffs. How might this happen you ask? well for starters, the team that scored more goals than any other team in MLS also gave up the most, at 62. This is 11 more goals against than the closest other team, DC United, who also did not get into the playoffs. By comparison, the Columbus Crew, who are the current MLS champions, scored 50 goals while only giving up 36. Columbus also had the league assist leader, Argentinian Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Even ahead of Beckham in the assist standings was Terry Cooke, a fellow Englishman playing for the Colorado Rapids. All home-team biases aside, it was extremely refreshing to know that a much less-paid and oft-underestimated Englishman, who came to the United States in his prime even after going through the same development program in Manchester United as the likes of Beckham and Paul Scholes can perform better on the field than the multi-million dollar international superstar.
The fact that Beckham could not contribute on defense or the inability of some of his teammates is not what makes him a prick in my eyes though. What gives him that distinction is the off-season events that have transpired. In January, Becks was allowed to go play for AC Milan in the Italian Serie A league on a 3-month loan. I realize no other sports in the world have this type of transaction among teams, but what it boils down to is this: players are often semi-traded for various reasons, but they are expected to return to the team they signed with after the agreed-upon time limit. Beckham's reasoning for asking for the loan was that he needed to maintain his fitness in order to stay elligible for the English national team. Admirable and logical as that may sound, I'm sure I wasn't the first to call BS on that statement. He was tired of playing in a league in which he respected few of the players and coaches, and wanted another shot at playing in the world's top flight. Furthermore, Becks hasn't seen decent time with his national team since the 2006 World Cup, so his excuse didn't really hold water.
Since he has been flourishing in his time with the Rossoneri, both the team and Becks himself have asked the MLS and the Galaxy for a permanent trade. This, only 2 years after Beckham insisted he would be an international ambassador for American club soccer and raise awareness both here and abroad on a long-term basis. He had signed for a 5 year, $25 million contract and was considering finishing his professional career here in America. Suddenly, he undoubtedly regrets the decision and is making more than a few people look bad. His attitude has let down many people in the US, as well as (and this is just my personal hypothesis but think about it, it makes perfect sense) distracting and lowering the moral of his Galaxy teammates. AC Milan couldn't make an offer acceptable to the Galaxy, so Becks is due back in California on March 9, meaning he will miss more than half of pre-season training with LA.
I have never thought of David Beckham being the quality of player he has been hyped up to be, and at this point I have even less respect for his character now. What he needs to do is get some perspective, support the team who signed him for such a lucrative contract and step up to what he promised he would do. Note that I'm not saying he absolutely has to bring the MLS up to the level of the European leagues in his 5 years here, but trying to cop out less than half of the way into it is just bad form on his part.
But hey, that's just my opinion.
However, in his first full season with the Galaxy, there were once again high hopes for the British star. As the summer progressed, it seemed like he was doing a good job. By November, they had scored more goals than any other team in the league (55 in 30 games). Possibly also as a testament to Beckham's ability as an attacking midfielder, 2 out of the top 3 individual goal scorers in the League were Galaxy players: Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. And yet, for the second straight and 3 of the last 4 years, LA failed to make the playoffs. How might this happen you ask? well for starters, the team that scored more goals than any other team in MLS also gave up the most, at 62. This is 11 more goals against than the closest other team, DC United, who also did not get into the playoffs. By comparison, the Columbus Crew, who are the current MLS champions, scored 50 goals while only giving up 36. Columbus also had the league assist leader, Argentinian Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Even ahead of Beckham in the assist standings was Terry Cooke, a fellow Englishman playing for the Colorado Rapids. All home-team biases aside, it was extremely refreshing to know that a much less-paid and oft-underestimated Englishman, who came to the United States in his prime even after going through the same development program in Manchester United as the likes of Beckham and Paul Scholes can perform better on the field than the multi-million dollar international superstar.
The fact that Beckham could not contribute on defense or the inability of some of his teammates is not what makes him a prick in my eyes though. What gives him that distinction is the off-season events that have transpired. In January, Becks was allowed to go play for AC Milan in the Italian Serie A league on a 3-month loan. I realize no other sports in the world have this type of transaction among teams, but what it boils down to is this: players are often semi-traded for various reasons, but they are expected to return to the team they signed with after the agreed-upon time limit. Beckham's reasoning for asking for the loan was that he needed to maintain his fitness in order to stay elligible for the English national team. Admirable and logical as that may sound, I'm sure I wasn't the first to call BS on that statement. He was tired of playing in a league in which he respected few of the players and coaches, and wanted another shot at playing in the world's top flight. Furthermore, Becks hasn't seen decent time with his national team since the 2006 World Cup, so his excuse didn't really hold water.
Since he has been flourishing in his time with the Rossoneri, both the team and Becks himself have asked the MLS and the Galaxy for a permanent trade. This, only 2 years after Beckham insisted he would be an international ambassador for American club soccer and raise awareness both here and abroad on a long-term basis. He had signed for a 5 year, $25 million contract and was considering finishing his professional career here in America. Suddenly, he undoubtedly regrets the decision and is making more than a few people look bad. His attitude has let down many people in the US, as well as (and this is just my personal hypothesis but think about it, it makes perfect sense) distracting and lowering the moral of his Galaxy teammates. AC Milan couldn't make an offer acceptable to the Galaxy, so Becks is due back in California on March 9, meaning he will miss more than half of pre-season training with LA.
I have never thought of David Beckham being the quality of player he has been hyped up to be, and at this point I have even less respect for his character now. What he needs to do is get some perspective, support the team who signed him for such a lucrative contract and step up to what he promised he would do. Note that I'm not saying he absolutely has to bring the MLS up to the level of the European leagues in his 5 years here, but trying to cop out less than half of the way into it is just bad form on his part.
But hey, that's just my opinion.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Big Balls explained
So my first ever blog entry...not in itself an undaunting task. Aside from seeming fairly eye-catching, the title fits me in several ways. First of all, my love of soccer (I prefer football, futbol, fussball, calcio, etc.) necessitated some reference to the world's game. Second, "Big Balls" is the title of an AC/DC song, my favorite band and frontrunners in my love for rock & roll music as a whole. This blog will serve as an outlet for many of my random rants and streams of consciousness, and is under no circumstances to be taken seriously by anyone at any time. I'm always up for discussions and comments if anybody actually takes the time to read my thoughts, however. Let the blogging begin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
