Putting the Ham in Beckham
By Lee Russakoff
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:09:06 GMT
Remember all that noise about David Beckham bringing soccer to America? Yea ... not so much.
In The Beckham Experiment, a new book by Grant Wahl, Landon Donovan takes a few bites out of the Beckham aura. The L.A. Galaxy's second-most famous player calls out the captain for a lack of leadership, a lack of commitment and a generally laissez-faire attitude.
"Maybe he's not a leader, maybe he's not a captain," Donovan said. "Fair enough. But at a minimum, you should bust your ass every day. That hasn't happened. And I don't think that's too much for us to expect. Especially when he's brought all this on us." ...
"Somewhere along the way - and in my mind it coincides with Ruud being let go - he just flipped a switch and said, 'Uh-huh, I'm not doing it anymore'." ...
"My sense is that David's clearly frustrated, that he's unhappy and, honestly, that he thinks it's a joke," he said. "I also kind of feel (he has taken the team) for granted. I don't see dedication or commitment to this team, and that's troubling."
In other words, "Blue's dead. Frank's divorced. I lost my house. Nicole thinks I'm a total jackass. And now we got nine kids who are gonna get expelled from school, and you're not even gonna help them."
Donovan went on to say he can't take much more of this tomfoolery.
"Let's say he does stay here three more years," Donovan said. "I'm not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way. This is f------ miserable. I don't want to have soccer be this way."
The irony: Donovan did more for American soccer last weekend in South Africa than Beckham could ever hope to do.
The lesson: Importing foreign talent to American leagues is not the answer. Building a national program that can compete on the international level is. We're Americans. We want to be the best at everything. If we aren't, we deem it unimportant.
Case(s) in point: the Winter Olympics, math, science, women's synchronized swimming.
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It is pretty true though. Beckham will play an LA game, then disappear to go play in games in Europe. lol
By Lee Russakoff
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:09:06 GMT
Remember all that noise about David Beckham bringing soccer to America? Yea ... not so much.
In The Beckham Experiment, a new book by Grant Wahl, Landon Donovan takes a few bites out of the Beckham aura. The L.A. Galaxy's second-most famous player calls out the captain for a lack of leadership, a lack of commitment and a generally laissez-faire attitude.
"Maybe he's not a leader, maybe he's not a captain," Donovan said. "Fair enough. But at a minimum, you should bust your ass every day. That hasn't happened. And I don't think that's too much for us to expect. Especially when he's brought all this on us." ...
"Somewhere along the way - and in my mind it coincides with Ruud being let go - he just flipped a switch and said, 'Uh-huh, I'm not doing it anymore'." ...
"My sense is that David's clearly frustrated, that he's unhappy and, honestly, that he thinks it's a joke," he said. "I also kind of feel (he has taken the team) for granted. I don't see dedication or commitment to this team, and that's troubling."
In other words, "Blue's dead. Frank's divorced. I lost my house. Nicole thinks I'm a total jackass. And now we got nine kids who are gonna get expelled from school, and you're not even gonna help them."
Donovan went on to say he can't take much more of this tomfoolery.
"Let's say he does stay here three more years," Donovan said. "I'm not going to spend the next three years of my life doing it this way. This is f------ miserable. I don't want to have soccer be this way."
The irony: Donovan did more for American soccer last weekend in South Africa than Beckham could ever hope to do.
The lesson: Importing foreign talent to American leagues is not the answer. Building a national program that can compete on the international level is. We're Americans. We want to be the best at everything. If we aren't, we deem it unimportant.
Case(s) in point: the Winter Olympics, math, science, women's synchronized swimming.
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It is pretty true though. Beckham will play an LA game, then disappear to go play in games in Europe. lol
