Notes on "football"

Before I post on the "The Phoenix Also Rises" and ZJ's new thread, here are some thoughts on seeing Beckham live and in person for a complete 90 minutes plus stopages (or whatever they call it) against Chivas last night:

1. Beckham was clearly the best player on the field . In fact, he and Landon Donovan were the only Galaxy players who seemed to move the ball with any purpose. Beckham also looked more polished and controlled than anyone else on the field; he reminds me very much a soccer version of Jason Kidd in the way that he sees the field and always executes the right play at the right time.

2. Beckham is much scrappier (although more diminutive) than I would have guessed. I sort of invisioned a washed up pretty boy, but he was damn tough out there, not taking any shit from anyone despite being tripped repeatedly and pushed around. He even sparked a fight after getting absolutely taken out from behind. The most surprising thing to me was that Beckham's already the leader of the Galaxy. In fact, I think they've already made him the captain, which sounds crazy considering he's only played a couple games, but not crazy once you watch him play.

3. The rest of the Galaxy suck. The defense gave up two ridiculous goals in the 2nd half, which resulted from bonehead plays. The third goal was basically scored after the game was over. They need to revamp.

4. Beckham looked more frustrated with his teammates than Kobe Bryant playing with a team full of Smush Parkers. He also limped rather severely for most of the 2nd half and basically couldn't run at the end of the game. His ankle is obviously still hurting and I doubt the Galaxy can keep playing him for entire games until he gets better. Of course, they are paying him 3 billion dollars per game, so I can see why they want him out there. Of note, Beckham is very quick when he's not limping.

5. This goes without saying, but Beckham makes women crazy. At least half the crowd was teenage girls. Whenever Beckham touched the ball, a group of girls sitting directly behind us would start screaming at the top of their lungs. It nearly blew out my ear drums. I kept looking back at them hoping they would notice me staring at them with annoyance, only to find a bunch of giggling girls. More disturbingly, Rita, Priya's friend from work, kept saying things like, "Oh my god, Beckham just bent over, I wish we were closer," and "Oh my god, Beckham just adjusted his shorts."

6. Lastly, I was surprised to find that the Galaxy were giving out staw sombreros to mock the Chivas team, which I guess has a mostly hispanic fan base. I found this to be both tasteless and charming at the same time. You would never see that sort of thing at a mainsteam sporting event. I guess it's not as shocking as fans shooting off fireworks in the stadium after every goal, seemingly without any reaction by the security. I think that would land you in jail if you did that at a baseball game.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience. If every MLS game were as heated as that game, I would consider becoming a regular soccer fan. Until then, I'll leave it to Jason Hart and the hispanics.