The most impatiently awaited British import since the Beatles arrived in Los Angeles Saturday night. The media throng surrounding David Beckham’s spot on the end of the Los Angeles Galaxy bench before the match lived up to his reputation as the most well-known soccer player since Pele.
Too bad this has the potential to turn off as many potential soccer fans as it could gain, but not from the low level of Major League Soccer but instead from ESPN mishandling the sport once again.
As a big soccer fan, I need no introduction to Beckham. I’m a fan of Arsenal (Manchester United’s bitter rivals) and though he was never one of my favorite players, he always captured the headlines and was very well respected, especially because of his role in the England national team. His arrival at Real Madrid was one of the biggest stories I’ve seen as a fan, and it was fitting for Real to finally win the Spanish league in his last game there.
But the thing is, I know all of this – and I know that Beckham is not the type of player to steal highlights, except for his famous free kicks. I know that Beckham is a player who sets others up, keeps the pace moving, and works well both on the right wing or as a deeper-lying passer from the midfield.
Translated out of soccer lingo, that means Becks could be the John Stockton of MLS, a passer, but not like Kobe Bryant, a finisher. This also means his style of play does not suit SportsCenter highlights as much as somebody like Pele.
Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of person who will be tuning into ESPN for my first soccer match and making Beckham’s Galaxy jersey the first soccer shirt in my closet. That’s the kind of person who might be fooled and feel burned – he’s a great player, shouldn’t he be scoring a bunch? Assists and set-up passes aren’t as immediately beautiful as pure goal-scoring ability.
His team certainly won’t help him out much this year. LA Galaxy is a horrible team this season, between bad players and lack of familiarity with one another, with only one real star – mercurial American forward Landon Donovan. Their goalkeeper and one of their defenders, Abel Xavier (also a European import) are solid, but everybody else is garbage. That they survived to lose only 1-0 to Chelsea is amazing. Galaxy is one of the worst teams in MLS, and I know that American clubs can play better than LA’s poor showing Saturday night.
However, American announcers are not. God how I wish I had Fox Soccer Channel, the only home to good American soccer announcers. ESPN’s crew had the affable Tommy Smyth, imported from their European Champions League coverage but seemingly told to dumb down his thoughts; former American international Eric Wynalda; and the insufferable Dave O’Brien, who was one of the worst parts of the 2006 World Cup for me.
I wanted to jump through the TV and start announcing the game so badly it hurt. Maybe they kept their comments painfully obvious for the curious neophytes in the audience, and maybe they kept their comments hopelessly optimistic out of respect for who pays the bills, but this is the kind of thing that doesn’t help American soccer. There’s a difference between talking down to an audience and being informative and explaining what’s going on, and the ESPN booth was too much the former.
It cannot be denied that American soccer is finally coming of age, that the controlled growth of the MLS is finally paying dividends, and that Beckham will probably be the first of many aging worldwide stars to collect their final paychecks in the U.S. It’s almost unfortunate for ESPN – a goal-scorer like Ronaldo is easy to quantify (fast, shoots, scores a lot) but understanding Beckham requires understanding soccer’s subtleties, which some people (hi, Jim Rome!) don’t want to take the time to learn.
If ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel can present Beckham better than they did for his introduction, and continue to market him properly, then they will succeed. MLS is growing quite nicely – unlike the bang-and-bust North American Soccer League in the ’70s, this is a league meant to last, and Beckham’s arrival indicates the next solid step forward. Hopefully, in 15 years’ time, more Americans will understand the subtleties of soccer because of an Englishman named Beckham.