So Real Madrid wants David Beckham back.....

[musiclawyer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/6739101.stm


The Galacticos battling the Galaxy for rights to the old dude.
But David says NO! He's coming to America.

Honestly, Real Madrid is a really screwed up club for not locking Beck's up a long time ago. Like I says to my soccer pals, Becks makes plays. He's not fast, his defense has never been great, but he makes plays, and injury free, he can do it for several more years.

Now I'm afraid he won't make the Galaxy a whole lot better because they don't have Sergio Ramos or Rude Van N. But it should be good theater

[northzax]

1. well, they offered him one year

at less than the Galaxy were offering! why would he stay?


if Donovan can get used to receiving those set pieces, LA could be good as hell, in 2008. not this year.

[musiclawyer]

2. Donovan is not a high ball player

He's best as a withdrawn attacking midfielder. I imagine Becks will give him some nice thru balls and suspect he and Beck's will work well together. But what's missing is a strong target man good in the air..... such Brian Ching. That's what the Galaxy should be trying to get asap and for next year for certain.
But I'm terrified of Becks getting hurt playing for his national team. I bet Alexi Lalas almost had a stroke Saturday when he saw Beck's pull up lame at the end of the Zaragoza game. I sure as heck thought he had torn a hamstring. But he came back. MLS need Beckham healthy, making crosses, and putting in a few on set pieces. Otherwise the MLS bashers will have a field day.

[northzax]

3. true, true, but you never know who will be dug up

and even better than free kicks, imho, is becks' ability to hit a runner in stride in open space. Donovan will get more chances from that.

by the way, as a premonition, did you see the fight Real is having with Brazil over Robinho? http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/6914392

[musiclawyer]

4. I thought FIFA rules dictated

that Country prevail over Club? What do I know.... It's a real Hobsens choice for the players though. It should never have to come to that. ..... Anyway, yes, a healthy Beckham will do lots of good things for Donovan

[northzax]

5. Yes, the rules say

That if proper notice is given by the national team, the club is sol. It is, however, a delicate trade-off between the two. If a national manager screws clubs too much, then his players won't be happy (and, of course, a player can always refuse a national team spot) and won't get as good club spots. Yes, everyone wants to play for country, but the clubs pay the bills and develop the players. Real is paying Robinho a chunk of change for this weekend, and since Brasil doesn't need him until next week, they should let him stay in Madrid. As a subplot, of course, of Real loses, and Barca wins this weekend, Ronaldinho wins the league, after refusing national team duty this summer.

[musiclawyer]

6. Very educational . Thank you.

What are your thoughts re: the San Jose Eartquakes. Their website says that they are opening an office downtown an Joses this summer. The SF chronicloe reports that the Oakland A's genreal manager Billy Beane has hinted at eventually running the soccer operations. He's a big football fan ostensibly. It also reports that the A's will definately be in charge of a soccer specific venue in addition to their own baseball facility. I am delighted, not only because I live in Northern California, but because the return of the Quakes means one step closer to MLS single table!

[northzax]

7. i will believe it when I see it

yes, the name and record has been reserved for use in San Jose area. the buy in, these days, is a SSS, and I don't see that happening in the Bay Area anytime soon. but sure, you got $60 million and a plot of land to put a stadium on? (oh, and the ability to lose $5-10 million for a couple of years?) then you can buy yourselves the Earthquakes. it would be a great market to be back in (and you know single table will never happen in MLS, conferences make much more sense, economically, that way you get geographic rivaliries. to really make the next step as a league and become financially successful, I think MLS needs to find owners and good, downtown, stadia within the next 7 years in three of these cities: Portland, Seattle, St. Louis, San Francisco/San Jose (why not both, really?), Philly, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, Vancouver. If they can expand to those cities, over 5 years, and the developmental superleague kicks in more players, MLS could become a top 15 league in the world, if not top ten.

Billy Beane needs to run a baseball team, and leave footie to, well, footie people.

and we have learned that the location of stadiums is what is really important. they have to be convenient to where people live. Look at the mess that is Frisco, great stadium, great facilities, dead stands.

[musiclawyer]

8. You are a wise man

But I think understimate Lewis Wolf of the A's. They guy never loses money. If he thinks he can revive the Earthquakes and make money, he will. Their best best right now is downtown san jose adjacent to the airport.

As to your cities, I agree good owner and locations are needed. My personal choices would be San Jose, Portland, and Minnesota. But it may not happen that way. ( My hunch is Kansas City will move west somewhere and an expansion team will start up in the east. The other depends on stadium I imagine ) Graham Jones of the LA times says there is support within MLS for single table once the league reaches 16 teams--30 game schedule --home and away. The backbone of MLS support is first and second generation immigrants. I don't think they value the conference tradition as much as fans of other sports. The other big group of MLS supporters are hard core soccer people who follow La Liga, Premiership etc in Europe. They've come to appreciate the single table. So if you took an unscientific survey, I'd imagine most current MLS ticket buyers would support single table. I might be wrong. But single table would assure that every game is meaningful. MLS might adopt a modified playoff scheme which heavily rewards the first place team scheme to keep the top tier interesting, and in deference to local historical custom. But I do think it's coming one day.