2009 L.A. Galaxy: palpably underwhelming?

Nice find. Fitz, you have GOT to be in that clip.

 

Beckham SURPRISE! is lying. The video does a pretty good job showing his incitement, though in real life it was far more inflammatory.

We've screamed the most ridiculous absurd obscenities at guys who are simply MLS line players and no one has ever EVER gotten tweaked about it. It's just part of the experience, right?

You should have seen his face when the guy jumped down and ran to him; sort of looked like he dropped a load in his pants as he got that frightened rabbit look until HDC security people grappled the guy, then he got all tough again, hopping up on the barricade and shouting.

Ironically, it is the guy who just cried about Landon Donovan's lack of professionalism who did this.

Our guy was ejected from the stadium, and was ticketed for trespassing. Ordinarily, pitch invaders are made persona no grata at the venue, but something tells me there will be an exception for this, given the provocation and incitement Beckham made. This would be an interesting legal challenge: Beckham asked the guy to come down onto the field...and there are thousands of witnesses.

I'm just off frame on the right side, 3rd row.

 

By the way, there actually was a great game last night. The G's held Ronaldinho and his friends to a draw, 2-2.

The two Galaxy goals were beautiful and both had Beckham's delivery on them though someone else scored the goals. He took credit for the goal on the second, a corner kick right in front of our section, which drew lots of middle fingers since it came just minutes after his incitement incident. I myself simply applauded Bryan Jordan for scoring, rather than curse Beckham. I'm nice like that.

The goals against were both shots that Donovan Ricketts normally completely smothers. Not sure why they couldn't be handled adequately, possibly due to shielding by the defenders? Anyway, I've not seen Ricketts be made to look that bad.

Galaxy's rookie AJ De La Garza owned Ronaldinho on the right side all night. He was awesome...In fact the Galaxy backline of two rookies and and two old dudes did great under the circumstances.

 

This is becoming sad now.

Beckham to end up at Man City before the end of the Window?

 

He's too good to playing over there. Much like Donovan, who really needs to go a prove himself properly in Europe. At least he should want to. But i guess it's an easy life.

At the end of the day, at least he's getting MLS some publicity, good or bad. There would be a lot less interest in MLS were it not for Beckham. AC Milan and England or the L.A. Galaxy? It's a no-contest. Play in front of empty stadiums or the San Siro? Seriously, what do you guys expect? He even paid a huge sum of money to make the move go through.

For the first time in his career, Beckham didn't back himself to come through adversity when he signed for the MLS. He thought he was finished, out of favour at Madrid and for England, and was happy to take advantage of being offered silly money to play well below himself in a bit-part league. America will never be anything more than a pay-day for aging stars, the only thing Beckham did wrong was going 5 years too early.

 

Um, no.

Beckham has done a lot more than just sigining with the Galaxy 5 years early. He's lied, he's phoned in his game day performances, he's bent the the limits of his precious contract, he abandoned the team he was under contract to for his own personal aggrandizement...

Also, I am beginning to doubt the 'MLS is an inferior league' opinion. It has a salary cap that restrains 'free trade' of players, so there are lot of young guys getting very low salaries and that dilutes the competitiveness of teams in comparison to the teams that can spend unrestrained. However, if the league is inferior, how come a lot of european and south american fellas with long football pedigrees fail to succeed here?

Don't say it's because they are too good. That's crap and you know it.

 

Reuters Op ED piece: Boo him like Beckham

 

Because they come over after their legs have gone and they can have any real effect on a game. Angel is still making a bit of a splash because he went over quite early, but Huckerby isn't pulling up any trees is he?

How did Deuchar do? And Dichio was alright for a bit, they're crap english players who have found their level.

The fact is that Becks thought his chance had gone and took his role as ambassador of football over to america to either build up his bank balance and reputation, or to try and tap the market for footballing potential, or maybe both. His problem came when he realised he still had the drive and the ability. His failure came with how he reacted to the realisation.

I don't believe he would have phoned in performances, one good player doesn't make a team, and his presence left gaps in the budget for the rest of the squad. Remember, he is not the sort of player who can do it all himself, he's no Ronaldo. His great ability is to bring others into games, and to make it easier for them.

 

There's no excuse for his phoning it in.

There is no excuse for his incitement nor his phony "I just wanted to shake hands" crap either, both of which are fully evident here.

I hope he gets ebola.

 

He's been banned for life?

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare for everyone involved.

 

I think this could spell big trouble for Galaxy, as Beckham clearly beckoned him to come down. I see a big fan backlash if they try to uphold this life ban!!!

What do you think Fitz?

 

LA RIOT SQUAD.......I still got an wear the t-shirt you gave me last year Fitz..an i saw your lot wearing them in all of today papers but they were all black t-shirts an mine is gun metal gray so does that make me the GENERAL !!!!!!!!!!!

 

If it were England they could do as they wished. They own/rent the stadium, they can deny entry to whoever they like.

 

bushey, what you have is one of the original run of LARS 'gas mask guy' shirts. They were run twice in 2004 and 2005, and not ever again. About 75% were black, the rest grey. It is pretty rare and in fact took it out and put it back twice before finally leaving to meet you at the castle.

I'm glad you have it now though. I am glad to have the grey black scarf you left me with, as well.

The situation is still pretty unsettled. 19 cannot control what happened so there is opportunity to fight the ban, but ordinarily...he would be made persona non grata for leaving the stands and entering "the field".

I would like to see Beckham fined and/or suspended for his provocative actions.. LARS is quite anarchic, so getting consensus to lobby for that will be inefficient to put it mildly.

 

There is room for a compromise:
Josh apologizes, Beckham apologizes. Both serve a ban, sort of thing...it's a long shot, but I hope we see it.

It was stupid of him to jump down, but goddamit if Beckham didn't plead for that to happen...he's culpable.

 

Watching the confrontation unfold.

Please, take them all back, even Cruise!

 

Some bloke named Eddie Garcia from LARS on BBC radio here now. Seemed surprised by the term 'mickey mouse league'...

 

He's the guy who designs the shirts and who started the idea of the Riot Squad. He's legit.

 

Is that Gunner? I busied myself by reading the entire history of the Riot Squad last night. I now hold a special place in my heart for Shooter and the various heroes of the bygone Galaxy teams.

I also, however, looked at the forums, and despite being distraught at the ignorance of the Bradford fan, I still feel that the fans' complete and utter hatred of D-Beck is completely over the top.

 

Yes, he's Gunner. Shooter is amazing, and quite possibly the craziest genius ever.

You Brits can have moderation, it doesn't suit us. Excess is American. If you are going to hate someone, might as well be all the way.

I do agree with you, personally, though. It's not just Beckham the hate should be directed at, though he's certainly bearing the brunt. The fault for the whole situation is the revenue oriented AEG ownership, which Beckham basically commandeered by installing his own coach in Ruud Gullitt and displacing Lalas with Terry Byrne.

In truth, he deserves all he's getting, though we should be giving just as much to Tim Leiweke and the AEG goons who let this, in fact, MADE this all happen.

You probably haven't been seeing that if you stop in once in a while, but we've been after Tim and AEG for a long time to make them accountable. It's a lost cause but we keep trying.

In fact before the Chivas away game, a young friend caught Leiweke roaming hte stadium, offered her hand to him and said:
"Are you Mr. Leiweke?"
He said, "yes" and shook her hand.
She said, "Thanks for ruining my team."
He replied, "Nice...", as she walked away.

Here's a photo someone snapped of the incident. It was HUGE until, this week's events overshadowed it...

 

Mickey Mouse:
Let's put some facts to the idea though and see if it is borne out, shall we?

Where does a league stop being "Mickey Mouse" and start being worthwhile?

Attendance figures for most sports leagues worldwide

MLS ranks below all the biggest leagues in the world, most of which are in the US, but above the majority of all the rest in attendance. It is the 5th largest league in the US. Yet it is about the 11th largest soccer league in the world. It's also the youngest football league in the world. (I don't completely trust these numbers, for example, I don't see Mexico's HUGE football league totals in here...but they are a good place to start the conversation.)

The only thing truly "Mickey Mouse" about it is the salaries paid to players who aren't David Beckham or Cuahtemoc Blanco, and that some teams still play on shared fields with horrible gridiron lines on them.

This is all by careful design to avoid falling into a spiral of spending which would bankrupt the league, but it really holds the talent level back. I'm not sure what it will take to release the restraints on salaries, but stable profitable teams are the first step and the league is getting there.

So bottom line, when someone says "Mickey Mouse", what they really mean is "I don't like or care about it", and isn't that simply an insult? Not really a good way to start a conversation with the leading figure of a supporters group, is it?

Since Golden C-unt has made his way to these shores, we've had to put up with a lot of foreigners, mostly Englishmen, who clearly know better than we do all things football... The superiority complex is pretty boring now. Eddie was most likely just surprised someone would insult him to his face when he is a guest on their show. How rude!

 

I think it's quite easy to look down on the MLS.

The coverage that we get over here, which admittedly few watch, is just a stream from ESPN, which means that we get the **** commentators and the purely American tone, which gives sports like footbawl and ice hockey its charm because it adds to the foreign and novelty feeling. But when you have the 'you gotta love gomez's chances of clinching the mvp this year' approach to a sport that we hold close to our hearts and expect packaged in a certain way, it becomes laughable, and even contempable. It devalues the action.

The action itself is made up of severely underpaid rookies and over the hill pros. People seem to think that any mid-20 year old who has carved out a career in the MLS just isn't good enough for europe, so look down on them, and the presence of old players that people have heard of but who aren't good enough to compete at a very high level means that we see it as a retirement home for footballers. What we don't see is that these players fail over there too, because they aren't good enough for your league.

Another thing that we disrespect is the system of no promotion or relegation. Again this is something that makes the sport over there a foreign entity to over here. We're sure that our way of playing the game is best (and it probably is) and so any variations, i.e the americanised collegiate system and the lack of any danger of relegation, means that we see it as a puerile and insignificant version of the game.

You are our Arena Football.

Finally, you are ruining our idol. D-Beck came over adversity over here after some idiots over reacted to Simione diving in the World Cup, he became an icon of good-naturedness and professionalism. He overcomes stupidity to show himself as a genius on the football pitch. We love him. Celebrity doesn't seem to have changed him.

Then we see his trip over there as some sort of humanitarian gift to the lesser leagues of the world, he is crossing boundaries in a mercenary role. And again he defies the odds to become a very relevant figure in the top form of the game. But now, he seems to have called the shots, gone above his station, he's disrespected the game and, in this latest debacle, he's lost his cool - the thing that we loved most about him.

The majority of the English, including me, cannot see why you are so angry about him leaving to better himself in a far more competitive league, and are hugely bitter about the dismantling of a national hero.

The image of the MLS and football in America has gone from one of a dorky little brother who needs a little guidance and should be treated with sympathy and humoured to a ****y little upstart who thinks too highly of itself and is willing to bring down its biggest asset to satisfy its little man syndrome.

I can't really remember what I was aiming to say with this post. But I think this, in my opinion, is why we don't treat the MLS how you would like us to treat you.

I love you by the way.

 

Great perspective and solid post. You've done a great job of boiling the real issues down.

I love you too, bro.

As you might imagine, nobody here cares much about his role with Engand. Sorry. Nothing personal, but it will be my club over your country anyday. So the idolatry he gets for his perfomance there is replaced with idolatry for his celebrity which I meaningless on the pitch at the HDC and even more so when that celebrity idolatry is running amok in Milan.

Nevertheless, as I boo him at the August 1 friendly vs Barcelona, I shall endeavour to be more mindful of your feelings.

I'm just kidding. I'm pretty sure I am done booing unless he does something really stupid again.

 

By the way, Fitz, I'm 18 years 4 months and 12 days old.

 

Fitz you mention that some of the MLS teams play on shared grounds with American football markings still showing!!!

Well I've got news for you, we share Vicarage Road (WFC's ground) with a Rugby Team called Saracens (are you familiar with rugby, it's a bit like American Football?) Furthermore sometimes we can still see the rugby pitch markings when we are playing our matches, though that is rare!!!

So maybe you could call us "Micky Mouse"

 

Why, it seems like just yesterday...my little Y&P is all growed up!

I will update all concerned parties.

 

It should also be pointed out that:

I am speaking on behalf of england, and do not hold the majority of the views, hence the 'I love you, by the way', which wasn't aimed at you personally but at the American football culture.

If you were to ask a die-hard Arsenal fan what he thought, you'd be wasting your time, because they are all jingoistic neaderthals who think the sun shines out of some 15 year old African's ********.

 

Christ. He's a few time zones away, not a moron.

 

Ha...I had a laugh at that, but your reply has me literally LOL'ing, and I don't use that term lightly if at all.
On second thought, however, I wouldn't be too sure about the moron thing.

 

I understood your post to be an interpretation of what folks are feeling, even if some with whom I have shared it don't understand that. See my signature for further reference.

I know what you meant when you said you love me. insert rainbow smilie of choice here [ ]

 

While I appreciate that most americans are brain dead cocks, I dont like the insinuation that i look down on them and that im being patoenisinhg.

in fact, i adore them for looking after and cherishing a sport that is so undervalued in their cpuntry. i read the history 9of lars and wished that i had been there for the passion and humour.

i'm sorry.

and i do love you persoanlly too

 

I appreciate that, Y&P.
Your spelling has dropped a notch lately though. It's not like you.