Becks in the US

I feel that if I'm going to credit Sorgenfrei with a little more blog inspiration than other individuals, I might as well cover a sports topic.

I don't know much about sports. This little fact about me probably results from the fact that as a child I started walking some time later than my peers, leading to a similar delay in the development of hand/foot/hockeystick-eye coordination. The net effect, when coupled with my desire to excel in knowing a lot about a particular thing, led to my interest in soccer, or as my former-SEC athlete friend Pete would say, football. Last year's World Cup broadcasts (thanks, ESPN!) set it off, and I would watch Sportscenter to hear scores and commentaries from matches I missed, and I followed the harrowing experiences of that stupid horse Barbaro for a whole month.

I've kept up this interest in soccer, and you can usually find me watching soccer on Saturday mornings on Fox Soccer Channel. I am in my first fantasy league, and while I went into it without an idea of who the players were (but for the select few that play for their national teams), but for the most part I've done well, with my major players being Edwin Van der Sar from Manchester United, Frank Lampard from Chelsea, and Nkwanko Kanu from Portsmouth. I also purchased FIFA 06 for PS2 and have played through almost seven seasons (mind you that a soccer season is 40 league games, not to mention the various possibilities for tournament play), first championing the Chicago Fire, then the Premiership, and finally tackling taking Oxford United from Football 2 to the Champion's League. If I get time, I will aim for a promotion, which, if you're unfamiliar with foreign soccer divisions and you're reading this blog, you should research so you can be amazed by the sheer brilliance of the sport's setup across the pond.

So I feel I can intelligently comment on David Beckham's newsmaking signings and comments of late, more than typical "Soccer will never be big in America" fare. In case you've been living under a sports news rock lately, Beckham has signed a five-year contract with L.A. Galaxy for $250 million. Most of this money has to come from endorsements, because I'm pretty sure Major League Soccer doesn't have that kind of budget.

To see some of the sports hype which surrounds Becks, take a look at this video. You'll see some of his goal-scoring potential, and, to be fair, "bend it like Beckham" is still a tall order. His freekicks can be as lethal as penalty kicks, and his crosses provide great opportunties for strikers to head a goal. But the problem is what happens between the goals, and Beckham has forgotten how to play a great portion of the game. It seems his fame has made him lazy, and he fails to play defense as much as he should, especially as a midfielder. It was precisely this issue that found him removed from England's national men's team, then Real Madrid's starting line-up, then Madrid's bench (a manager may make 3 substitutions per game, and usually only five players can be marked as substitutes), and finally Madrid's roster.



David Beckham is known as one of the Galácticos, super-expensive contract signers that play for the best teams. Fittingly, these players are picked as much for marketing purposes as form and skill, and I'd like to think that this is what L.A. Galaxy's managers were thinking when they made the bid. The alternative is too sad.

This is not a new phenomenon. Back when soccer's major United States league was called the North American Soccer League (which went bankrupt), Brazilian striker Pelé and German superdefender Franz Beckenbauer offered their services to develop the sport here. These men were wonderful players, and might still be able to take David Beckham today. The market was too tough to crack, even with these supergiant players.

There are three ways we can consider this move. The first option, and possibly most accurate, is to consider this a marketing move. Beckham himself has said that he wants to expand the soccer market in the United States. However, if ESPN buys the broadcasting rights for more MLS games (they made history when they purchased rights for 40 games for the coming 2007 season), I am afraid that people will tune in to see the magnificent David Beckham and be turned off by the sport. That is, unless Beckham reforms his lazy ways and starts playing with the form that made him famous, a captain for both his club and nation, and the most marketable man in international sports history.

The second option is for his skills. While he is lethal on free kicks and corner kicks, he needs to play the other 90% of the game. Already Galaxy midfielders are upset by the huge disparity between Beckham's meteoric salary (partially supplemented with sponsorship and image rights).

The third possibilty is the development of youth clubs. Becks grew up in Manchester United's youth club, and has experience with effective programs for training young soccer players. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal F.C.'s manager, relies almost exclusively on developing quality players in youth programs and that team is one of the top contenders for the Premiership title every year. I am excited about Beckham being close to his L.A.-based youth club and I think that might be the best part about the move.

In closing, Beckham's current form and post-game interview voice won't lend any credit to the soccer fan's assertion that soccer is indeed a manly sport. If the MLS wanted to show off the manliness of the beautiful game, they should sign John Terry or Didier Drogba from Chelsea. And to show you the manliness of these men, I leave you with two videos of glory:

John Terry:


Didier Drogba: