Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

As part of MLS's hype machine, David Beckham will be holding a press conference today to officially announce his joining the Los Angeles Galaxy. They've announced big signings with press conferences before, but I imagine that the room will contain more than Grant Wahl and a guy from Soccer America.

It hasn't yet gotten tiresome yet, but I'll tell you what I'm already tired of: the Victoria Beckham hype. Is she actually a star? The only upside to her fame is that she actually did something to be famous, but it wasn't much.


So...what will this guy actually do for the Galaxy? They have only won three games this season, and are on track for having the pathetic record they ended last season with when this team, the "class" of the league, missed out on the playoffs.

Is Beckham enough to change their fortunes? They'll be a better team, certainly. He'll certainly be more of an asset than Cuauhtémoc Blanco will be for Chicago (they hype behind Blanco in the Mexican American community hasn't quite reached Beckham levels, but it's comprable). We won't see Beckham punching a reporter, pretending to urinate on opponents or claiming to be the reincarnation of an Aztec emperor, that's for darned sure.


I remember reading a story, possible apocryphal, about Franz Beckenbauer's debut with the New York Cosmos. Two executives from Warner Communications, owners of the team, were watching the match and saw Beckenbauer playing sweeper. Supposedly, one of them said, "Tell that Kraut to get forward, we don't pay him all that money to defend." Of course, Beckenbauer was a defender...

My point here is that non-soccer fans used to traditional American sports that are brought to the games may be expecting the wrong thing from Beckham. Big baseball and basketball stars are expected to score over and over again, not so much with Beckham. He is very skilled in free kicks which may make for thrills. For the most part though, what he does causes goals to be scored, but he won't be scoring them himself. This, coupled with much of Beckham's image confirming the stereotype that soccer is for effete pretty boys, could be a marketing problem for the league when the hype wears off.


This isn't to say that a Beckham can't make LA a winning squad. Argentine player Guillermo Barros Schelotto, for example, turned Columbus around, and they were a far more pathetic squad than the Galaxy. Schelotto's first games made a lot of us think that he would turn out to be a complete hump, just here to draw a paycheck before his knees gave out (Lothar Matthäus, anyone?). But, he found his footing and is kicking ass.

(By the way, am I the only one disturbed by the over enthusiastic teenage mancrush that Christopher Sullivan seems to have for Schelotto?)

Another "big signing" that has done well is Juan Pablo Angel. The former Aston Villa player has scored 9 goals in the ten games he has played in and is considered a big part of the reason why the traditionally underperforming Red Bulls are actual cup contenders this season. Abel Xavier, the Portugese player that is one of Beckham's new teammates, hasn't played a lot of games yet but seems not to be a total waste of field turf.

Other big signings are not doing so well. Fred, the young Brazillian player hyped up before the season, is not ripping things up the way folks thought he would (but his Brazillian teammate Luciano Emilio has been doing okay, even if he isn't the world beater that he was sold as). Claudio Reyna, not a foreign signing but considered a big catch, hasn't done as well as people thought either.

And Blanco...I already talked about Blanco. We'll see how long before that becomes a total disaster.


The picture of a shirtless Beckham is just an attempt to bring more female visitors to this site.


By the way, if you check this ESPN promo, you will notice that one of the LA fans is actually wearing a Columbus jersey with Beckham's name on it. Is Alexi Lalas planning a trade already? I'm starting that rumor.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.