Photo by ISIphotos.com
If you ever wondered what David Beckham's arrival in Major League Soccer, and his impact on the Los Angeles Galaxy, was really like, wonder no more.
Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl has written a book, titled The Beckham Experiment, that gives us a detailed behind-the-scenes look at Beckham's arrival in America. The book isn't out yet (it comes out on July 14th), but the first excerpt from the book was released today by Sports Illustrated. In short, it is a must-read.
Give the excerpt a read and feel free to share your thoughts on it below.
Landon Donovan is doing the impossible and turning me into a fan of his.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2009/07/donovan-and-beckham-turf-war-sets-up.html
“My respect has gone way up for Landon after the Confed Cup and has even gone up further after him standing up to Beckham.”
AMEN.
As a “captain” it is up to Becks to support the team regardless, not flying to Houston sealed the deal to me.
I was upset with Landon when he gave up the captaincy, I still remember thinking that damn LD is too unselfish (from his play with the USMNT), he seems not to want to be the star and Becks arrival may help him….but the manner in which it was handled wow! silly, clearly dumb. and good for Landon for texting, if you can’t have a conversation because somebody doesn’t want to talk, hey shoot a text get the conversation started….I can assure you there will be a team meeting with Becks with Lando the Man leading the troops and clearning the air.
Go get em Landon!
I hope the book includes a chapter on Victoria’s role in all this.
Should be an interesting read.
It was an experiment gone bad. You don’t mix a player like Beckham in that kind of team environment and expect them to all come together and start winning and singing “Kum ba ya.”
My respect has gone way up for Landon after the Confed Cup and has even gone up further after him standing up to Beckham. The only thing that was kind of weird is that Landon confronted Beckham via text on his play. Kind of weird but we are in a different generation.
At least we will get to see this soap opera play out starting in July. Get the popcorn!
Note: none of that is to say that I think Beckham was a good fit for the Galaxy or that he didn’t give up the ghost in the second half of last season.
I certainly wish the Galaxy had sold him to Milan when they had the chance so that we could all avoid whatever foolishness is coming in the next months — foolishness that is already bringing more attention back to the league. At too high a cost for my taste.