NSG Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 USA! USA! Cringe-tastic stuff this. At least with Duscher on board we wont be after him Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skirge Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Hmmmmmm it is fkn crazy over there like but Beckham or Duscher, no contest for me like, Becks all the way!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Massive step down for him, whatever anyone says about the player or the league. [whisper]I'll be slightly proud if he makes the US more interested in football though.[/whisper] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSG Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Biggest star to go over there since Paylay [/American Accent] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShearMagic Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Great for American football. Poor for David Beckham. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Biggest star to go over there since Paylay [/American Accent] Pele gives thousands of heterosexual men the horn, don't diss. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEMTEX Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Biggest star to go over there since Paylay [/American Accent] Bigger than Paylay tbh. I hope he makes soccer really insanely super popular and then I can move to america with less concern. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eyeball_tickler Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 they've ruined rounders, netball and rugby so far so if it gets really popular over there they will find some way of ruining it completely, like playing music during the match or "double goal zones" © where every goal scored in a certain time period counts as 2. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlufPurdi Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 He'll flop, like all the rest. No-one's really arsed about him over there, from what I've heard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 He'll flop, like all the rest. No-one's really arsed about him over there, from what I've heard. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6897026.stm ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSG Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 He'll flop, like all the rest. No-one's really arsed about him over there, from what I've heard. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6897026.stm ? New York getting the same number of fans as Middlesbrough Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlufPurdi Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 There's a hell of a lot more people than 30,000 in the US, David. That's also an initial game, wait for the forced fan fare to die down before you can measure anything. Seriously, this is what I've heard. He doesn't register anywhere near the top in various "polls" on popularity. He's got more of an uphill battle than our media would have us believe. Why do you think they're doing reality TV etc? Cause they've been advised to, well, they're probably that sad enough too, mind you. He'll flop, in terms of what he says he wants to achieve, but he'll live a happy life smiling in front of all the cameras and hanging around with famous people. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlufPurdi Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2725724.ece Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 You just don't like his hair. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thenorthumbrian Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 There's a hell of a lot more people than 30,000 in the US, David. That's also an initial game, wait for the forced fan fare to die down before you can measure anything. Seriously, this is what I've heard. He doesn't register anywhere near the top in various "polls" on popularity. He's got more of an uphill battle than our media would have us believe. Why do you think they're doing reality TV etc? Cause they've been advised to, well, they're probably that sad enough too, mind you. He'll flop, in terms of what he says he wants to achieve, but he'll live a happy life smiling in front of all the cameras and hanging around with famous people. Exactly, he's probably known more for being "Mr Posh" over there. If Pele and Beckenbaur couldn't get football established there Beckham never will, they were vastly more gifted footballers than he ever was. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thespence Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Exactly, he's probably known more for being "Mr Posh" over there. If Pele and Beckenbaur couldn't get football established there Beckham never will, they were vastly more gifted footballers than he ever was. Image & good PR will go further than natural ability in promoting a brand. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Verlaine Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 racists. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlufPurdi Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 There's a hell of a lot more people than 30,000 in the US, David. That's also an initial game, wait for the forced fan fare to die down before you can measure anything. Seriously, this is what I've heard. He doesn't register anywhere near the top in various "polls" on popularity. He's got more of an uphill battle than our media would have us believe. Why do you think they're doing reality TV etc? Cause they've been advised to, well, they're probably that sad enough too, mind you. He'll flop, in terms of what he says he wants to achieve, but he'll live a happy life smiling in front of all the cameras and hanging around with famous people. Exactly, he's probably known more for being "Mr Posh" over there. If Pele and Beckenbaur couldn't get football established there Beckham never will, they were vastly more gifted footballers than he ever was. Don't forget Best, all players with more to their game and dazzling skill to go with it. What's Beckham going to do, his long crosses and the odd free kick? Will take more than that to get them interested, and then keep them interested. It's all celebrity from here on in, the football matters not a jot. Today's Independent article on the farce that is... Reborn in the USA: Beckham heads for LA David Beckham begins his new life in Los Angeles today with much to prove on and off the pitch By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent in Los Angeles Published: 13 July 2007 The secret of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's status in Hollywood, as Vinnie Jones explained this week, was simple: you hardly ever see them and so, in their absence, the mythology grows. Tinseltown's premier couple always leave their public wanting more. It is one lesson that David Beckham and his wife Victoria will have to learn on their first day in Los Angeles today but it will surely not be the last. Today the former England captain will resist the tugging fatigue of jetlag and walk out of Los Angeles International Airport into the sunshine and the all-consuming maw of the American media. He will tell us that this is a move made for sporting reasons, and that he wants to be soccer's missionary in America. Like all stars he will no doubt make his move to the Los Angeles Galaxy seem just that little bit altruistic, giving himself to the people of America so that they too can share in the dream. Beckham in Hollywood, however, is rather more than just football - it is, like everything this man does, replete with conflicting arguments about his motives and sporting merits. From some angles he looks like a maverick, a man for whom the parochial boundaries of European sport are there to be broken. A bona fide gold-standard British cultural export ready to break the toughest town of all. And then you remember he is also a current England international happy to play for about £3.5m a year in a league where Danny Dichio sometimes wins goal of the week. The standard of Major League Soccer is the issue that is most easy to grasp as you contemplate the complexities of the Beckham's arrival in LA. There will doubtless be much finger-wagging today from the LA Galaxy's hierarchy, who are determined not to be patronised by English football on their big day. Chief among the defenders of the MLS so far has been Alexi Lalas, the urbane, intelligent former American international who played for Padova in Serie A and is now the president of the LA Galaxy. Lalas has progressed from a peacenik, beardy look to the sober-suited executive and he gets angry at any questioning of the standards of the MLS. While their egalitarian ideals of salary caps and a beautifully democratic ban on charter flights for teams - the MLS say they give an unfair advantage - are to be commended, it is a criticism that is justified. The one factor that undermines this latest Beckham project more than any other is a league where the likes of Carl Robinson (ex-West Ham and Wales) and Abel Xavier have also chosen to see out their careers. The old Italian international Giorgio Chinaglia played here in the first soccer boom of the 1970s when Pele, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer played for the long since defunct New York Cosmos and in their spare time hung out in Studio 54 with the Rolling Stones. "The MLS never has 70,000 people at a match and the New York Red Bulls average just 10,000 at the moment," he said. "I don't think that Beckham alone can do it." He points out that the LA Galaxy are struggling themselves - just three wins all season - and Beckham is just not the sort of player, like a Pele or Best, capable of giving American audiences the dribbling skills they seem to like. "He is the first big superstar to come to the MLS and I hope others come," Chinaglia said. "He'll do his best and the league are on the right track. Chicago have got Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the Mexico international, but you need at least 50 more players of that character." But the MLS is not necessarily trying to create a league that competes with the Premiership or La Liga; they are trying to find a voice that allows them to be heard amid the celebrity clamour of American entertainment. On Sunset Boulevard's billboards alone, the Die Hard 4.0 movie competes with HBO's new season of the television show Entourage and the forthcoming Transformers movie. To stand a chance in this town you need star quality and at last - through Beckham - the LA Galaxy have a seat at the top table. LA is a fearsomely ambitious place where fame is as enduring a currency as the dollar itself. For the successful, every door in town opens and for the rest of the ambitious young things there is an apron, a menu and a career waiting tables while they wait for the big break. The Beckhams arrive with much goodwill - Victoria's profile has certainly rocketed - but how they preserve and enhance it will be just as important as today's stage- managed presentation. In a place that fuels so many of the world's cultural trends it seems implausible that Beckham will be able to hold the attention of Hollywood by just playing football. The whole Beckham project will involve as much reinvention as a Robert De Niro method-acting masterclass. Certainly it will have to be a lot more eye-catching than switching from the right side of midfield to the centre, which is the first change the LA Galaxy have in mind. Beckham's appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week was recognition of his status, but closer reading of the piece itself suggested that the magazine was presuming very little prior knowledge of the man himself among their readership. This was Beckham for the uninitiated. And no mention of the five games he will probably miss - for which tickets had already been sold - when he flies back to play for England. There was a telling hint, however, that there is some resentment among the other LA Galaxy players at his salary. The football heartlands of California are said to be based amongst the Hispanic population although a perfunctory view of LA tells you that it is not them who dictate the direction of popular culture. Equally, football is still as far away as ever from the hearts and minds of the African-American population. When Beckham heads back from training at the Home Depot Center stadium he could take a detour through the nearby Compton district which had its notoriety chronicled in the rap music of NWA. Like many of his generation who were bored English teenagers of the 1980s, Beckham will be familiar with the raw bombast of that era of music. Persuading young black urban Americans to take up his game might prove difficult. Achieving that would surely cement football's popularity in the American psyche. Watching the LA-born Boston Celtics basketball star Paul Pierce take penalties at a Chelsea training session this week you were not simply struck by how bad he was at them. What was plainly obvious was that he had never kicked a football before in his life. Reaching all elements of American society beyond the kids of the middle-class and their "soccer moms" is a much greater challenge for Beckham. The Sports Illustrated cover shot had Beckham in full LA Galaxy gear on a roped-off red carpet, an image that the marketing men were keen to point out was intended to signify LA rather than what Beckham intends to spend his time doing here. In reality, he is on the road so much with the LA Galaxy in his first few months that he will probably spend more time in airports and hotels than Beverly Hills. For the Beckhams, Hollywood seems like the perfect solution. Although those in the know say Victoria would have preferred London or New York (it's about the fashion scene apparently) she will have her celebrity projection and he will too - as well as a football team to play in. But at least in Manchester and Madrid he was apart from the red carpets and parties. Now they are just a limousine ride away down the hill. Spend too much time there and his credibility as a footballer will ebb, not to mention the interest of a city which has plenty of stars to choose from. Next week the American television network NBC will screen the documentary that covers Victoria organising the family move to LA and there is a similar fly-on-the-wall show in production about Beckham's last few months at Real Madrid. They are about to take their places in the American consciousness. Success will no longer be measured in terms of titles and trophies, it is the start of the transition of the most famous English footballer of his generation into a figure whose fame is even greater and wide-ranging. Whatever he turns out to be, it will certainly make a change from running a pub or opening a sports shop. Beckham is nothing if not an innovator. But he is playing by different rules now and that plea he has always offered up to judge him first and foremost as a footballer will start to sound ever more hollow from today onwards. http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/news/article2765502.ece Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parky Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 It'll be all over in about six months and then he'll try and get a movie deal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Jay Sea Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 The whole Becks and Posh thing is basically a circus. How and why folks take an interest in them is beyond me. I reckon it's nailed on that he'll be assassinated before the end of the year (with a bit of luck). Mind I'd prefer to see her head blown clean off at some film premier or whatever. Live as well with say 50 million viewers with Tom Cruise and his bird covered in claret and here single brain cell will land in his boot. Probably 6/4 against one of the will be done in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alan Shearer 9 Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Beckham will shit all over the American league, you only need to watch it for 5 minutes on telly to see how shit it is. People will expect him to score 5 goals a game overhead kicks from his own half, some of the fans in America just don't know the game. PK PK! PK! THAT's A PK KICK! If Pele, Cruijff, Maradona and Beckenbauer couldn't increase the popularity/standard of american football, how the fuck will Beckham make a difference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohmelads Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 I think Beckham can give the game a lot of publicity over there but he won't be around long enough to make a difference. He's 32 and nearing retirement, he's got three seasons maximum and that's nothing when you think about it. If football is going to take off in the US, it needs a large number of high profile players moving over at a younger age and that's not going to happen. Besides, American Football, Basketball and Baseball will all do their best to make sure "soccer" doesn't take off. I'm not all that sure I want football to take off in the States because I don't want them ruining the beautiful game. The vast majority of Americans know very little about "soccer" and have even less appreciation of how deeply ingrained it is in many cultures around the world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fatshaft Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Beckham will s*** all over the American league, you only need to watch it for 5 minutes on telly to see how s*** it is. People will expect him to score 5 goals a game overhead kicks from his own half, some of the fans in America just don't know the game. PK PK! PK! THAT's A PK KICK! If Pele, Cruijff, Maradona and Beckenbauer couldn't increase the popularity/standard of american football, how the f*** will Beckham make a difference. When the were there it was the 70's. Media wasn't in the state it is today, there really is a world of difference, and a lot more money sloshing around than even that which got the previous superstrs there. It is definetly a wait and see. Remember soccer is themost played sport by miles for the under 16s over there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 It's got Lineker to Grampus Eight written all over it to me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shak Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 They could get Kaka to go to MLS, still wouldn't make a difference. "Soccer" is generally looked down upon in the US, just like American Football is looked down upon over here. It's not real football, the one that you're brought up with and is in your blood. Sure, some of the more open minded people will take interest in it, but it'll generally be the sport that they're attracted to in the first place rather than the players. Beckham will get a few more people going to games over there, but I'd wager it'll mostly be people who already know a bit about football and want to see Beckham live going rather than people deciding to give it a chance because some alledged superstar has arrived. It'd be like Peyton Manning coming over to finish his career in NFL Europe (not going to happen ). People over here who follow the NFL would go along to see him play live, but it's not like the people who've always thought American Football was shit are going to suddenly sit up and say "Hmmm, this guy is meant to be the business, think I'll go along and see him even though I think the sport is shit." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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