What have I gotten myself into?
July 23 - 2007
Enough worrying about what Beckham’s impact on America will be - let’s start worrying about America’s impact on Beckham. Becks’ debut on Saturday left me wondering if Golden Balls is up to the perfect storm of weirdness and mediocrity he’s facing. Some causes for concern:
- Beckham is keeping some bizarre company. Much has been made of the TomKat connection and now you can throw in Will Smith and his clearly insane wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. To make matters worse, ubercunt Eva Longoria was at Posh’s side for Becks’ debut. And if that harpy is your go-to, non-cultist friend, how long can it be before auditing the Thetan with an e-meter starts to look like good, healthy fun?
- Beckham’s teammates are mostly crap. Unlike most fans, I have no issue with the quality of MLS. I happen to think MLS teams are quite good, and fit somewhere between lower-table Prem teams and Bundesliga mid-table teams. Beckham’s problem isn’t the quality of MLS, but rather the quality of MLS’s second-worst team. Can a man accustomed to playing alongside the Gutis and Stephen Gerards of the world be happy sharing midfield duties with Kelly Gray? And if Landon Donavan was to be Becks’ port in the storm, his blown header from 4 yards out must leave Becks feeling especially adrift in a sea of Chris Albrightness.
- Beckham should not have played Saturday. The guy has an injury, and was rushed into action anyway. And not for a crucial, must-win game, but for a goddamn exhibition match. This says a lot about the Galaxy and MLS, namely that the league is entirely purposeless. Beckham has to be thinking, “If they were risking my health for weeks ahead for a Chelsea photo-op, how important are those games anyway?” Yet another example of how MLS holds competition secondary to youth-soccer spectacle…and Becks can’t be happy about it.
- Beckham experienced his first American crowd. And he now knows the difference between 30,000 soccer moms politely clapping and woo-hooing, and 30,000 drunken Spanish/English laborers singing. Beckham went on and on about the “atmosphere” at the Home Depot, but I ain’t buyin’ it. The man’s last two games were a nail-biting League-finish at the Bernabeu, and an England International at Wembley. He could only be underwhelmed by his LA reception.
So if Beckham wants a “challenge” (as he’s so often labeled his American move) he now has it. American apathy, MLS executive ignorance, and a date with L.Ron all loom. Welcome, mate, to the backwater.
Most of your points are valid, but you clearly weren’t at the game, mate. If you were you’d be telling a different story.
I was at the game in LA (in the Chelsea section) and the noise from the crowd when Becks came on was OVERWHELMING. I said to the guy next to me - yelled, actually, since it was so freaking loud you could barely hear the guy you were standing next to - “Donovan McNabb doesn’t get this kind of reception from twice as many people!” When Beckham made his entrance that place was absolutely ROCKING.
I can’t say necessarily that it’s going to be like that at HDC every week, but on Saturday night the place was completely insane. We also got into a singing scrap with the LA Riot Squad in line to get into the stadium before the match and they seemed to know what they were doing. Very energetic.
It is not all doom and gloom on the crowd front, at least.
Comment by Kozemp — July 24, 2007 @ 9:21 am
I wasn’t there, so I’ll concede I might be wrong about the reception. I’ve no doubt there are pockets of excellent fan support (Galaxians, Riot Squad, etc.), but can we honestly say the HDC is in the same zip-code as the support Beckham has been playing in front of week in, week out?
Or Old Trafford when the players so much as poke their heads out of the tunnel for the first time?
Maybe it’s unfair, but I can’t imagine Beckham discovered new realms of noise in Carson, CA.
Comment by garth — July 24, 2007 @ 10:57 am
I’m not sure it’s fair to compare the crowd reactions Becks (or anyone) would get at HDC versus, say, Old Trafford, when one considers that United is something on the order of 120 years older than LA Galaxy. Places like United and Real are legitimate cultural institutions, whereas MLS is still - as sporting leagues go - in its infancy.
And, let’s face it - how many American fans of ANY sport are at the level of even the most middlebrow European fan? It’s not like we’ve got people singing their brains out at NFL games.
I take a lot of heart in the fact that there even IS a Riot Squad, honestly. It bodes well for the future of the league.
Comment by Kozemp — July 24, 2007 @ 12:43 pm
agreed.
Comment by garth — July 24, 2007 @ 1:42 pm