Not your average friendly match
July 23rd, 2007, filed by Simon Evans
David Beckham’s debut for LA Galaxy, in a friendly against Chelsea — a 12 minute appearance as a substitute gingerly nursing a sore ankle — at least turned the attention away from the celebrity and business angle of his arrival in Major League Soccer and towards the field of play.
Not entirely, of course, because the television cameras spent a good deal of time ‘celeb spotting’ in the crowd and ESPN viewers were treated to interviews with the likes of actress Jennifer Love Hewitt and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and constant shots of Victoria Beckham in her sunglasses chatting with Eva Longoria and Katie Holmes.
But that glitz is part of the plan. Galaxy chief Alexi Lalas popped up at half-time in the television coverage bubbling about the glamour but he was smart enough to make sure he thanked the loyal Galaxy fans who were turning up at the Home Depot Center long before ‘Becksmania’. (One of those fans has a few sharp comments here)
What impressed this viewer was the way that the Galaxy approached the game. It was certainly not the tippy-tappy stuff of friendly games (or exhibition matches as they are called in the States).
“LA played the game with a lot of passion. I think maybe they waited to show David Beckham they have a team,” Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho told reporters.
“They were highly motivated and they gave us a hard game. I think this is the correct attitude to play football. If they continue doing this, they will get results and they will improve.”
They were indeed fired up but there seemed to be something more about their determination than just wanting to put on a good show for their new team-mate.
Matt Dickinson in The Times (of London) says this: “Embarrassed by recent performances, the Galaxy had taken the ‘pub team’ insult to heart and they unexpectedly made a contest of it. Chelsea might have scored three or four on top of John Terry’s strike but the Galaxy had their chances.”
The pub team comment had come from the British press and a collection of the criticisms was reported by our soccer editor Mike Collett here.
The silliness of an unfit Beckham jogging around for a few minutes aside, it has been a pretty positive week for the image of Major League Soccer. The MLS All Stars (or a league representative side as such outfits are called in the UK) showed plenty of motivation and more as they beat Celtic on Thursday, looking impressively together for a team put together a few days before the match.
Soccer fans over here tell me that the amount of media coverage given to the game in the past week has been unprecedented. The question now is can the momentum be maintained?
With basketball and American football still in close season, this is an ideal chance for the MLS to have a few weeks of prime-time promotion. Can they take the opportunity?
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:00 pm GMT
It strikes me that Beckham should only play friendly matches, and probably just in 12-minute bursts at that. In a league with no relegation to worry about there’s really no point risking him in competitive matches, is there?
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm GMT
The glitz isn’t part of the plan, it’s the whole plan. And Beckham’s performances for the team are entirely irrelevant. He needs to be the guy they pass to every time, and every time he needs to do something spectacular. They want to turn him into an NBA star, so the important thing will be his personal contribution, not the effect he has on the team.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:45 pm GMT
An NBA-style star, I should have said. I don’t mean he’s going to throw the ball into the net, although if he did I’m sure the referee would turn a blind eye.