Interesting Comments
So last night I was watching the Fox Football Fone-In show and their interview with Alexi “Kiss of Death” Lalas and I have to admit I like him more now that I did before the interview. First a little history behind my nickname for Alexi, let’s look at what happens when he is involved with a franchise. San Jose, Alexi was the GM from 2004-2005, at the end of 2005 the team moved to Houston, death to soccer in San Jose. Alexi moved to the MetroStars after San Jose, and sure enough within a year they were sold and rebranded as the Red Bulls, they still sucked and Alexi jumped ship to move to LA. In LA, he was involved in the biggest move in MLS history, no it was not the Chris Klein trade. It is none other than Mr. Posh Spice, you know David Beckham. Which lead to the rebranding of the Galaxy franchise, rebuilding the team, oh and sure enough, they still suck. I am not sure if Alexi, will have a job in 3 months or not, but I have to admit he provided a great interview last night.
Alexi is and hopefully will always be an honest guy, who tells it like it is. When asked if the Galaxy made a mistake in how they have handled Beckham’s playing time, he said simply “If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently” that is fair hindsight is usually 20-20. What I thought really set the right tone were two statements, first was when he was asked “If by some miracle the Galaxy make it to the MLS Cup (even Alexi smiled at that joke) and David Beckham got called up to the final England Euro 2008 qualifying match (they take place on the same date), what would he do?” Alexi did not hesitate to respond “David would play for England, it is a FIFA black out date and that is that.” He did not whine, or make excuses; he stated the simple facts of the situation. Next was a question about how bloated the Galaxy schedule is towards the end of the season and would that happen again next year, Alexi answered “It is my job to make sure this doesn’t happen again. It looked easy to do on paper, but in real life it is very hard”. Once again a very honest answer that admits the mistake but realizes that the LA Galaxy organization is doing something that no other MLS team has ever done, that is deal with the Beckham hype machine. There is not template on how to deal with it, so they are making it up on the fly and learning from the experience. I also loved that Alexi again defended the quality of play in the league, I am not sure he is really 100% on target with a statement like “MLS is as good as any other league in the world” but consider that his very bad Galaxy team took the best team from Mexico to extra time in the SuperLiga, and only lost on PK’s.
Just prior to the Fox show, I was at the weekly RSL coach’s show at the Iceberg Café. I heard a couple interesting comments there as well. First was from Jack Stewart, who if any would have a reason to answer questions with a bit of attitude or negativity (having lost his starting job), it was exactly the opposite. Jack was direct and to the point, he acknowledged that the team has changed and from his perspective gotten better. He also stated that the attitude in practice was very different with Jason as coach, no longer did everyone know who the starters would be, but now there is an environment of working and competing for the starting slots, even for a shot at the 18 man roster. I like that and it is exactly what Jason has preached, that players would have to “earn” their spots. It was interesting that even off the air, Jack was very upbeat and provided the same answers, so much for the players having to bite their tongues. I also noticed how Jason, has not forgotten the post match statements by Houston player Brian Ching, hopefully as we face Houston on their pitch, they won’t offer excuses for getting beat. On a very humorous note, Matias Mantilla had to correct the voice of RSL Bill Riley on the pronunciation of his name, no better time than in the middle of an interview. I also found Matias’ statements about the play of MLS to be refreshing, he stated that the level of play is much better than he expected and he thinks around the world people underestimate the level of play in MLS. He must have talked with Alexi Lalas recently.
Some other interesting News Items
Harris and Forko called to their national teams When the notices are actually received by RSL, things work much better’
Clash of Champions This time Chris Seitz suits up against a very different Brazil team than at the U20’s
Coverage of RSL vs. KC from an interesting source Nothing beats a Jamaican perspective
A voice of logic on the SLCC? Interesting how someone understood thing better than others.
ESPN.com article on Beckerman Nice to see him get some credit
Beckham’s old boss offers his opinion Great point about how the distances in the US have held back the rivalry factor from developing
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on September 5, 2007 at 2:54 pm and is filed under The soapbox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.