SI.com colleague Greg Lalas writes in his latest column that he hopes the Galaxy misses the playoffs, which may seem a bit surprising given his brother Alexi is president of the club.
Greg brings up some good points, and I can't say I disagree with a lot of them.
15 comments:
Wow. That's pretty funny.
That's tough love.
Greg's got as much brain power as his brother. Truth is, the only one who couldn't handle the spotlight was Alexi Lalas himself. With his boneheaded, panicked trades, gutting the team during the season and okaying this ridiculous schedule, he blew it; setting his team up for failure.
As another blog has pointed out, the team that's hit the field for this "victory" run were there by and large BEFORE Alexi started trading everybody - they just weren't able to play together, due to inserting "new" players and due to injury. So maybe if Greg's older brother had been able to keep his cool, these guys could have gelled a long time ago.
And the Galaxy performed very well when the "world" was watching in the SuperLiga. I think Greg is just worried that if the Galaxy make the playoffs, they'll knock his beloved Revolution out. Now, THAT'S a team that can't handle the pressure. How many championship games have they disappeared in?
Any idea about if Beckham could be fit for the Chicago Fire game?
So Pat Walsh has a good article at Goal.com regarding how the league will deal with depth issues during the upcoming expansion phase. The article brings up good points but I wanted to get your opinon on where depth will come from in the coming years. Should the MLS bring in more Mexican/Central Americans or Internationals? Depth already seems an issue right now. Either way the salary cap and minimum player salary need to be increased somewhere in the 10%-20% range.
I agree with anonymous #2.
Would love to hear Greg speak on his brother specifically, i topic i'm guessing he wouldn't address. And in that regard, he shouldn't be addressing the Galaxy at all to be fair.
I have to agree that to hear players say "Its nice not to have all the attention and pressure Becks brings..." is pretty disheartening. Gee, I wonder who that sounds like? Surely that is a Donovan-esque quote. Lord Lieweke must be close to the final positioning of the AEG Death Star, setting a direct course for the Galaxy. Lalas and Yallop and several players are surely doomed.
fc uptown, you've identified the wrong person in your speculation of who said such a quote. I do believe I've read that quote, or something similar, as coming from Pete Vagenas or Cobi Jones or Kyle Martino or was it Joe Cannon - anyway, it took me by surprise, as to who it was, but it was not Donovan.
Jeez, why can't we be optimistic and say that they actually learned something during the experience? I for one belive that when they make the playoffs and Becks comes back that everyone will step up and prove this theory wrong.
Yeah, I have to pull rank here and say that probably no one interviews more Galaxy players than I do, and all of the ones I've talked to want Beckham back on the field. They had some great games with him. He helped them beat the top team in the league right now to get them to that SuperLiga final.
Sorry, there's just no way that I believe every time the Galaxy get a free kick or a corner kick, that half of them aren't thinking, "Damn, wish David was here."
More than a few players (Donovan, Cobi, Joe, Kyle,) have told me that they're hoping to keep the run going so that when David comes back, there's something for him to play for. They know how hard he's tried for them and they feel they've let him and themselves down a little by having such a poor season.
Also, what more than a couple mentioned was that once everyone wrote them off, that took the pressure off and they were able to surprise even themselves a little bit.
Finally, if adversity buillds character, seriously, the Galaxy have to be able to dig deem at this point. The guys left have been through a lot together.
Thanks Andrea. You are awesome!
Thanks Andrea. Beckham is so sentimental about the teams he plays on and his teammates, it's nice to hear that lousy circumstances haven't completely alienated them.
Am I the only one who finds it a bit weird that two well-known American soccer writers (Greg Lalas and Jeff Bradley) have such huge conflicts of interests covering the sport?
I think it's strange as well. I mean, I've thought about that before and couldn't think of other prominent writers/announcers/media members whose siblings or relatives were coaches/officials in the very same sport they covered.
I mean, would Frank Belichick have covered the Patriots' recent videotape scandal? Would Bob Goodell have commented on the NFL's existence under this commissioner?
It does seem strange indeed.
Well, like my complaints about Heather Mitts trying to comment on a coach she still plays for, or Julie Foudy taking sides in a situation where she considers some of the people involved to be like sisters to her, some of the ties that bind in soccer are a tangled mess.
At least Lalas doesn't have a son playing on the Galaxy.
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