Thursday, August 30, 2007
Coming of age
It's Midnight, my team is losing and not looking like they'll do anything except give up a couple more goals in the second half so rather than be a zombie the next day at work, I decide to go to bed. I guess I missed a good second half. Or at least a valiant effort. My Twitter on the right gives a taste of my thought process at the time.
What did we do before YouTube? Heck, a co-worker of mine came to my office to tell me he'd seen the highlights this morning on ESPN. It's sure not 1996 any more.
So, LA lost. I'll be willing to bet there weren't many who gave them much chance of winning any silverware. But, the team came back and played well from what I read. It's not the opponent was an average team...this was a Mexican team which has been winning every piece of silverware in site. The best team in CONCACAF.
But the thing which hit me the most was the fact that LA fans, the ones who have been with the team long before Beckham thought about heading to the New World, are heart broken yet proud of their boys at this loss. It's taken twelve years but that's the type of passion the league has been needing and it's coming around.
So, the season is virtually over for LA. The best bet now is to focus on next season. Rest Beckham for as long as he need to be fully fit. If McClaren wants him, so be it. But give him plenty of rest so he'll be 100% next season. Look at some of the youngsters and, heck, see if Cobi is willing to make one more tour. I know he has it in his legs if he really wants it.
Personally, I don't blame Lalas or Yallop for the failure of the team this season. Lalas is simply a puppet and Yallop an employee who hasn't had all the tools all the time to get the job done correctly. The blame rests with the money whores who own the team. Everything about this season was done to maximize the return on their investment in Beckham. Ok, they should at least break even, but it seems to me at this point they are getting that and more...much more. Of course, because of the salary cap we won't be seeing any of that applied to the talent on the pitch...so, why ruin the team buy continuing this tactic? call Vancouver and Minnesota and reschedule their friendlies for next spring. Give injured players (in addition to Beckham) time off to heal. Let the youngsters gain some experience.
Of course, AEG still calls the shots and, well, I'm not too confident about things at this point.
So, let's see if LA can build on this performance and get a good result in the Wooden Spoon Derby this weekend.
What did we do before YouTube? Heck, a co-worker of mine came to my office to tell me he'd seen the highlights this morning on ESPN. It's sure not 1996 any more.
So, LA lost. I'll be willing to bet there weren't many who gave them much chance of winning any silverware. But, the team came back and played well from what I read. It's not the opponent was an average team...this was a Mexican team which has been winning every piece of silverware in site. The best team in CONCACAF.
But the thing which hit me the most was the fact that LA fans, the ones who have been with the team long before Beckham thought about heading to the New World, are heart broken yet proud of their boys at this loss. It's taken twelve years but that's the type of passion the league has been needing and it's coming around.
So, the season is virtually over for LA. The best bet now is to focus on next season. Rest Beckham for as long as he need to be fully fit. If McClaren wants him, so be it. But give him plenty of rest so he'll be 100% next season. Look at some of the youngsters and, heck, see if Cobi is willing to make one more tour. I know he has it in his legs if he really wants it.
Personally, I don't blame Lalas or Yallop for the failure of the team this season. Lalas is simply a puppet and Yallop an employee who hasn't had all the tools all the time to get the job done correctly. The blame rests with the money whores who own the team. Everything about this season was done to maximize the return on their investment in Beckham. Ok, they should at least break even, but it seems to me at this point they are getting that and more...much more. Of course, because of the salary cap we won't be seeing any of that applied to the talent on the pitch...so, why ruin the team buy continuing this tactic? call Vancouver and Minnesota and reschedule their friendlies for next spring. Give injured players (in addition to Beckham) time off to heal. Let the youngsters gain some experience.
Of course, AEG still calls the shots and, well, I'm not too confident about things at this point.
So, let's see if LA can build on this performance and get a good result in the Wooden Spoon Derby this weekend.
Labels: AEG, Alexi Lalas, David Beckham, Frank Yallop, LA Galaxy
¶ 4:29 PM
