bonus beckham blog

Here were my original thoughts about Beckham coming to America:

yes i know david is coming to america. still amazed at how his talks with real broke down in like 72 hours. why is he coming here? i'll let john brewin from soccernet.com explain:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=399472&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1&cc=5901


so how is this for becks? becks has something that will defy age--ball striking ability. no one in the US has ever seen anything like this. sure joe midfielder might score a great free kick or switch the point of attack, but can he do it consistently and with pinpoint accuracy? i doubt it. becks can. it's amazing. yes, becks is "slow", but that can be compensated for. when i watch mls, you can easily counteract the speed of the 19-23 kids with a footballing brain. possess, see the field, pick your moments. (not run at 100 mph and hack everything in your path). becks can do all of that. LA needs a team of solid defenders, a combative defensive mid to carry becks water, and two hard working outside mids. forwards? can you stand in front of the goal and let the ball bounce of you? yes. then you can play. becks is then free a la zidane to just do whatever. think valderamma with tampa bay. not the fastest guy ever yet he was effective because he was technically gifted and footballing smart.



what does this mean for US soccer. it's a decent pick up. he will put fannies in the seats, temporarily, until the novelty wears off. that's fine. is becks going to anchor the future of US soccer? i hope not. no one player can do that. this is the first salvo fired by the mls. yes, you-- 30 something decent european based player--can play here in the US. $250M is a ridiculous number to start at. when the next fading european superstar asks where's my money, i'm not sure what the answer is going to be. if the mls continues in this fashion, they will go the way of the NASL. so we'll pay you an outrageous amount of money if you can play and sell tickets. the second part is key. we'll give you money if you can make money. if you can't, you'll have to wait until you're past 35 or not get the major cheese. simple equation. you dig? the mls has to continue this strategy. i just don't know where they're going to the money.

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So now the rumor is that Beckham is going to AC Milan to train. He did the same thing for a short period with Arsenal last year, but this looks a little more ominous. There are two issues at work here which will lead Beckham back to Europe: Beckham for England. Beckham in the US.

A move back to a European club keeps him on Capello’s radar, and he wants the outfield record for international caps. He cannot sit on his fanny in sunny LA and hope to be picked for the next round of friendlies and internationals. Therefore, he’ll go to Milan and train and maybe even play so that can continue to get picked. It is as simple as that.

Now, does Beckham have something to offer England? Yes, enegery, experience, a well placed cross or free kick. Can he play 90’? No way. Can he play 15-20’? Yes. So my beef isn’t Beckham playing for England. My problem is England moving forward. Right now it looks like Becks might be part of the World Cup team, which is semi-ridiculous because Capello has had chances to use games to evaluate, younger, more dynamic players and has not. Therefore the fall back position is the Lampard/Gerard midfield and Becks in some role. If it wasn’t for injuries, Heskey wouldn’t even be on the field. But he almost kept McClaren’s job and has really done an amazing job during the last round of qualifiers. I suppose if Capello wants to give the old guard one more try at the World Cup, then that’s his choice. But I guarantee, they won’t make it past the quarters. We all know has this going to end. They will play a well organized team and lose, probably on penalties. They are not fast enough and do not pass the ball well enough to beat the better teams in Europe.

Moving on, the MLS experiment is over. They splashed the cash and PR and had a bump in exposure, but the Galaxy have been found out. They are a poorly run organization. You can’t pay 2 players almost your entire capped salary and hope to survive. They haven’t made the playoffs in 3 years.

Speaking specifically about the Beckham impact on the team, he came to the team injured, was rushed onto the field to get some bang for the MLS buck and promptly stayed injured. Add to that, he was always flying back to Europe for internationals instead of meshing with the team and staying healthy. Besides money, all he cares about is the England team. Add loaning him out to another club, and this creates a lot of confusion for the typical ADD American. Why is Becks wearing a red and black shirt instead of the white jersey of the Galaxy? Why is Becks always in Europe and not here? Why is Becks trying to win baseball caps instead of getting his team in the playoffs?

The move to the MLS was undone for two reasons: injuries from the outset and Capello giving Beckham an England lifeline. It’s time for the MLS to cut their losses, sell Becks somehow and move on. MLS made a mistake. They have made tons since their inception. They will make more mistakes. But they were aggressive and it didn’t pay off. Time to pull the plug, re-evaluate and work on decisions that will improve the league. And can I say, expansion is not one of them.