Oh brother, I just sat through the most fascinating and interesting 30 minutes of a soccer game, okay well maybe not that fascinating and interesting....so it is Thursday night the Red Sox have an off day, I could not stomach watching a pre season NFL game between the Colts and Cowboys, and I could not get myself to watch two Honduran club teams go at it on GolTV or watch Dream Team on FSC....so to get my sports and more importantly footie fix I found myself drifting to ESPN and watching the end of the DC United vs LA Galaxy match. Granted, had the Beckhamania not been going on I would have turned off the TV and read a book....how is that for a novel idea. But instead I watched the rest of the match, I must admit wanting to see how our peroxide friend Mr Spice would do.
Of course the talking heads commentating on the match were so googoo and gaagaa over every move Becks made you thought he would single handily score a brace and set up another goal....of course, as was to be expected, Becks did what he could do to turn the tide for the Galaxy. Granted he had one spectacular pass from his half which dissected the defense...of course had a Rooney or Van Nistelrooy been the target the result may have been better. Instead it was golden boy Donovan who appeared to go after the ball half heartedly when the saw the keeper coming out, and rather than accelerating through the ball appeared to timidly try to toe poke or chip or trip on the ball and then proceed to fly through the air like a human cannonball, probably trying to win a penalty. Of course he then was rolling around like he took a shot from the grass knoll for a good 2 minutes.
What I find particularly humorous was the dedicated "Beckham Cam"....as if I need to see his reaction when his pub league teammates once again balloon a shot over the goal. Like my wife said, if this were the WE channel or Oxygen, it might make sense to exploit Beckham's B Movie looks. I also enjoyed hearing the commentators state "ohhhhh be careful you don't want to give Beckham a free kick..." There is no denying that Becks is a master of the dead ball, but come on. First, I challenge you to name me 5 big goals he scored directly from a free kick....other than his goal against Greece in qualifiers, his other successes tend to be a result of his passes not direct shots. Second, without world class players to latch on to his dead balls Becks might get more and more frustrated while the commentators continue to place unrealistic expectations on his dead ball abilities.
Once again, we must temper our expectations. Beckham should be one of the top 10 players in the MLS, however he is not in his prime nor is he nor was he a Ronaldino, Messi or Zidane type player. One that will take on defenders one v one and score spectacular goals. Beckham, when you peel the onion back, is a solid player who knows his limitations and abilities. He is one of the best crossers, long ball and dead ball specialists, but for any of these to matter he needs teammates on the end of these that can clinically finish, otherwise it will all be for naught. So put him at Manchester United with Cantona, Cole, Sheringham, Giggs, Scholes et al or at Read Madrid with Zidane, Raul, Van Nistelrooy or with England with Rooney, Owen, Shearer etc and he can thrive. I have yet to be convinced that he can play the role the MLS sees for him...granted the sample size is insignificant, but the Galaxy are not the next coming of the Red Devils either.
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