Scandal!

This headline just makes me laugh:

Daily Mail (uk): Great tackle, Becks - but have the Armani airbrushers pumped up your lunchbox?

Click it and check out Beckham's lunchbox (now that's new word for that part of the anatomy). I say it was airbrushed. Either that, or a sock.

Becks From 70

Reminds you of this, doesn't it? From 1996:

If The Beckhams Lived in Oklahoma

Photoshop rules.

From Wintrest, via Who Ate All the Pies?

Beckham Speaks

David Beckham interviewed by Michael Parkinson earlier this month:

Part 1:


Part 2:


hat tip to Who Ate All the Pies?

Footie News

bbc photo gallery: David Beckham enjoys a traditional Maori greeting as he arrives in Wellington, New Zealand, with the LA Galaxy
I always have to ease back into blogging after an absence. Easy topics like soccer.

Damarcus Beasley tore ligaments in his knee last weekend and is probably done for the SPL season. Hope he can rehab himself back into shape again.

Legendary women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance's sexual harassment trial scheduled for April 2008.

The groups for Euro 2008 were drawn this morning: Group C (Italy, France, Holland, Romania) nominated as "Group of Death".

The Guardian (uk) has a gallery of photoshopped pics of what the England players will be doing during Euro 2008.

No surprise here: Kaka wins the Ballon D'Or, Europe's top player; Christiano Ronaldo a distant second.

Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra and their 8-month old twins visit the University of Texas. Cute!

Mia Hamm, Nomar Garciaparra and their 8-month-old daughters, Grace and Ava, with Mack Brown [UT head coach]

Beckham and ...?

A man walks past a David Beckham advertising poster at Los Angeles Galaxy stadium shop in Carson, California, July 20, 2007. He is scheduled to play against Chelsea on Saturday, although an ankle injury may prevent his debut. REUTERS/Toby Melville (UNITED STATES)

Good article on the BBC Football site about David Beckham's LA Galaxy teammates, heretofore pretty much anonymous except for Landycakes Donovan (Invisi-Landon in big games) and old pro Cobi Jones, the most-capped player on the US Men's National Team.

BBC Football: LA Galaxy pen pics

Footie News

Oguchi Onyewu taunts the fans after being sent off in the 73rd minute.
AP
The US men's national team eked out a 1-0 win against Guatemala in the Gold Cup last night. Not carried on English-speaking TV, but I watched it on Telemundo. The good news: Great goal by Clint Dempsey (video here), with assists from Taylor Twellman and DaMarcus Beasley. Bad news: Despite being played in California, the crowd was 90% Guatamelan. More bad news: Oguchi Onyewu got sent off with a second yellow red card. He really lost his cool with the flopping of Guatemalan ace Carlos Ruiz. The other good news is that I didn't have to listen to Dave O'Brien, who was doing the MLS game on ESPN2. I tuned in after the USMNT game to hear O'Brien intone "It's a final, US 1, Guatemala 0, and Clint Dempsey responsible for that score." What an idiot. Dempsey scored a goal; he isn't responsible for the score of the whole game. Listening to O'Brien talk about soccer reminds me of reading a badly translated menu in a Chinese restaurant. (ESPN so does not get soccer. One of their graphics for a player last night said, "Played in England for two years". So -- was he playing pickup in Holland Park, or in the Premier League? It was probably somewhere in between, but ESPN doesn't think American soccer fans would know the difference between the Premier League and League Two.)

This week US Soccer dedicated Field 1 at the Home Depot Center to Glenn "Mooch" Myernick. Soccer fan Drew Carey donated $160,000 to the Mooch Myernich Memorial Fund.

The fund was established to help increase the number of children playing the sport in metropolitan communities nationwide, and to assist soccer clubs and organizations in urban areas to create and sustain soccer opportunities for local underserved children. Prior to Tuesday’s event, the Foundation had already raised more than $100,000 from individual and corporate donors in Myernick’s honor to help support the growth of soccer in major metropolitan areas across the country. An assistant coach for the USA in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cup, Myernick was universally admired, respected and loved by all those whose lives he touched. He passed away in October of 2006 at the age of 51.

David Beckham lead England to a 3-0 win over Estonia in their crucial Euro 2008 qualifier. He set up goals with beautiful crosses in to Peter Crouch and Michael Owen. Watch the video of the goals here; Joe Cole's goal was even better. It reminded me of Maxi Rodriguez's goal in the World Cup. The English press isn't finished with Beckham; today's alarming news story puts Becks at high risk for deep vein thrombosis if he tries to travel to England games from LA.

I've discovered a new women's soccer blog, USA Women's Soccer. Filled with news, but I can't figure out how to link to individual posts. This one's about halfway down the May archive:

This one slipped under the radar, but the National Soccer Hall of Fame revamped its election rules at its April 28 board meeting. Instead of the top two vote getters (provided they get over 50% of the vote) getting elected plus the possibility of a third player getting elected if he/she received over 80% of the vote, the new rule states that any candidate that receives over 75% of the vote will be elected to the Hall of Fame. While each Hall of Fame has a different election process, this is the same percentage required as the final round of voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Basketball Hall of Fame, while the Football Hall of Fame requires 80% of the vote. And in case you're curious, if the new rules were in place for the 2007 election, Joy Fawcett still would not have been elected as she only received 67.25% of the vote.

He's Beck!

Real Madrid's David Beckham leaves the pitch after beating Deportivo la Coruna 3-1 in a Spanish league football match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. Beckham is back in the England squad for the first time since last year's World Cup after Steve McClaren opted to swallow his pride and pick the Real midfielder for Friday's friendly against Brazil and the following Wednesday's crucial Euro 2008 qualifier in Estonia.(AFP/Pedro Armestre)

Finally, manager Steve McClaren recalls Beckham to the England squad. 'Ol Bleached Teeth was happy to shitcan Beckham after the World Cup, to show us who's boss; now he comes crawling back to England's best dead ball specialist. You can listen to a long interview with Beckham (recorded before the recall was announced) here on the BBC (click on podcast) or a shorter interview here.

MLS and American soccer are roundly derided in all these articles:

"Beckham will soon be off to an international backwater"

"What a waste of talent."

"His career seemed to be easing into a more comfortable twilight zone when in January Beckham announced he would move to LA Galaxy."

"He is going to be playing at a significantly lower level when he moves to Los Angeles. It is the first step to retirement."

"After their trip to Tallinn, England play Israel and Russia at Wembley on Sept 8 and 12 respectively. Estonia then visit on Oct 13 before the difficult trip to Russia on Oct 17. From July 1, Beckham will only be up against the best that America has to offer so it is unlikely that he will be ready for such challenging matches."

"As far as I am concerned, Beckham retired the moment he announced he was off to play the equivalent of non-league football in America.”

"He looked like a spent force at the World Cup, and if that was not the case would he really be heading for the elephants’ graveyard that is North American “soccer”? Out there in the galaxy of mediocrity that is the rough equivalent of our Nationwide Conference, he cannot hope to be fit enough, or sharp enough, to complete the European qualifying series with England next season. "

"This is the pattern of Beckham's career and it is unlikely to be touched by the fact that in practical terms his forthcoming move to the soccer boondocks of America means that his return to the international stage should be brief."

I watched an MLS game tonight and can't disagree with any of these comments. The level of play, the technical ability, the speed are all lacking. David Beckham will be the best player in MLS the moment he steps onto the field.