Late: Good, Bad and Ugly

Vacation still has me a little off balance. I didn't post the week's good, bad and ugly Monday morning. This week it was easy, they all could be found in multiples at Saturday's 'Beckham Debut'.

THE GOOD:
Of course exposure for MLS ranks up there along with Jennifer Love-Hewitt's front row seat, but I'm going with Drew Carey.

When the history of soccer in the US is written, I believe there will be two heroes mentioned. The first will be Phil Anschutz, affectionately known as 'Uncle Phil' to hardcore American soccer fans. Anschutz, who at one time owned five teams in MLS and kept the league afloat with very deep pockets. His investments and patience has allowed the League the time necessary to establish themselves in a tough sports environment. The second will be Drew Carey (yeah I know, if you're going to dream, dream big)whose passion for the game shows every time he opens his mouth. He has been 'pimping' American soccer in just about every interview he has ever done, often taking away precious air time from the reason he was asked to a talk show to begin with. His interview at the Galaxy-Chelsea match was classic though. ESPN had a roving reporter finding celebrities in the audience and talking with them. Drew said he was excited that others were discovering the game but continued looking over his shoulder at the action on the field. He then says something to the effect that ESPN cut away to an interview the other night and missed a goal and he didn't want that to happen now. Good stuff!

THE BAD:
WOW! A lot to pick from here, Tommy Smyth with Beckham's hair, graphic, Eric Wynalda's fascination with Posh's sun glasses, but I'm going with the sell out crowd.

Here's the problem, you get a sell out crowd in LA to see David Beckham limp around for twelve minutes, cheering wildly when he touches the ball. The Galaxy are playing a Club with the highest profile players as well as the highest paid players on the planet. The bad is the fact that the crowd is a result of one gimpy player rather than the unbelievable talent on the other side of the ball. We're talking about England's captain, John Terry and a World All Star team of Ashley cole, Steve Lampard, Drogba, Cech, Makelele, Essien, Carvalho, Schevchenko but that's not enough to fill the stadium. Maybe if a couple of them had been in People magazine last week.

THE UGLY:



Without a doubt this goes to the LA management for putting Beckham on the field at all. I don't think I need to waste my time on a lot of verbage.