Becks a self-absorbed *****...

[PrinceofCalifornia]

Zeus.....And your other question.

Mood of the club is great. They understand what he is doing and feel they can win with or without him.

After all they had their 2 worst seasons in history with him as part of the team, all be it less than half a season his1st year.

The most important player (Donovan) to the team is coming back after his Bayern stint and the players were more worried about him than Beckham.

2 things. Salary cap and new schedule. They simply can't keep plucking the best players in the league out of club matches for international duty. With world cup qualifying going on this spring and summer it will be another disaster. MLS played during 2006 world cup for gods sake.

Club matches need to stop like all other leagues in the world.

[robbie36]

The most important player (Donovan) to the team is coming back after his Bayern stint and the players were more worried about him than Beckham.

Well I guess the fans are used to turncoats. Donovan made it very clear from the beginning that he was looking for a permanent contract from Bayern but wasnt offered one while Becks at least showed some form.

[PrinceofCalifornia]

The most important player (Donovan) to the team is coming back after his Bayern stint and the players were more worried about him than Beckham.

Well I guess the fans are used to turncoats. Donovan made it very clear from the beginning that he was looking for a permanent contract from Bayern but wasnt offered one while Becks at least showed some form.

That is to be suspected as long as we are a "B" league.

You can't blame him for seeing how he measures up overseas. So I guess Dempsey, McBride, Howard, Altidore, Adu, Guzan, Johnson, etal are all turncoats.

I guess in your book anyone that wants to better their career is a turncoat. He has given his best years to MLS, Galaxy, and promoting US Soccer.

Unfortunately, It is rarer for anyone to spend their entire career on one team.

[zeusbheld]

Zeus.....And your other question.

Mood of the club is great. They understand what he is doing and feel they can win with or without him.

After all they had their 2 worst seasons in history with him as part of the team, all be it less than half a season his1st year.

The most important player (Donovan) to the team is coming back after his Bayern stint and the players were more worried about him than Beckham.

Becks is a poor fit for MLS from a football point of view in my opinion. he's far too specialized for a team that doesn't have the lunchpail players sorted out--i don't think any team in MLS can really get the best out of him whereas a flair player who is more of a scorer has a more immediate impact (donovan).

2 things. Salary cap and new schedule. They simply can't keep plucking the best players in the league out of club matches for international duty. With world cup qualifying going on this spring and summer it will be another disaster. MLS played during 2006 world cup for gods sake.

Club matches need to stop like all other leagues in the world.

too true about club matches needing to stop. it shows the rest of the world a lack of seriousness, ffs. if MLS is ever to be respected they have to run the league like a real league and in-line with the way the rest of th world does the sport.

[robbie36]

POC, I stand corrected, Donovan made his intentions clear from the start and although returning to LA Galaxy was not his first choice, LA Galaxy fans are lucky to have him back. It is hard to see that he acted in bad faith in any way.

I dont think the same applies to Becks however, who effectively signed a contract that fully compensated him for playing in a 'minor league' in return for the benefits it would bring the team and the league. Now, at first sight, it looks to me that Becks has broken the spirit of that contract and made LA Galaxy look rather foolish for signing him in the first place.

I think you disagree with both those last statements but while I will readily admit your posts clearly reflect a vastly greater knowledge of the MLS, LA Galaxy, Becks contract etc than I do you (which is negligible) they have been extremely vague in explaining in detail why my initial assessment is wrong.

[zeusbheld]

Couple that with some of the hatred toward the Galaxy for the money, attention, and perceived favoritsm they receive and perception is twisted. The whole beat LA thing is a nationwide phenom.

i think that sort of team-hatred is ultimately good for a league, as long as the league is not so imbalanced that the small market teams have no chance to win. i mean, think about Manchester United---what generates more interest in the Prem both in Engerland and around the world, than so many millions of people hating the rags? there are more rag-haters than supporters of *any* team, i'd imagine--they polarise the neutrals. adds to the fun.

The league will never be built up on one player anyway so to me it's just a cycle or stage for the league. The quality on the pitch and of life for the average player must improve for that to keep growing.

Becks isn't the kind of player who will shine without quality players of the right kind around him. he's a show pony when you drop him in an MLS team. move to LA was never about football though. and yeah, the overall quality needs to improve before 'marquee' players make a difference.

MLS is on the radar for sure and they need to capitalize on that.

MLS've come a long way by being disciplined financially, they now have to take the next step--and i don't think it's Beckham, it's improving overall quality.

[robbie36]

POC, I stand corrected, Donovan made his intentions clear from the start and although returning to LA Galaxy was not his first choice, LA Galaxy fans are lucky to have him back. It is hard to see that he acted in bad faith in any way.

I dont think the same applies to Becks however, who effectively signed a contract that fully compensated him for playing in a 'minor league' in return for the benefits it would bring the team and the league. Now, at first sight, it looks to me that Becks has broken the spirit of that contract and made LA Galaxy look rather foolish for signing him in the first place.

I think you disagree with both those last statements but while I will readily admit your posts clearly reflect a vastly greater knowledge of the MLS, LA Galaxy, Becks contract etc than I do you (which is negligible) they have been extremely vague in explaining in detail why my initial assessment is wrong.

[PrinceofCalifornia]

Robbie.

Not saying your wrong at all. We are just looking at it from different perspectives I think, and I didn't mean to come off that way. I'm not sure their is a right or wrong here.

I just think I look at it more form the players perspective and business side and was expressing that. The reality is the game has changed. You seem to look at it as a passionate knowledgable fan and I think thats great.

When he signed with the Galaxy, Beckham was getting the cold shoulder from Real Madrid, England National team, and general consensus in Europe was he had seen his better days. He was getting low ball offers at best.

He was also out of contract injured and made the best deal for himslef. At that point I think he believed would play out his days in the USA and help the MLS.

He busted his butt to get fit and always gave the most on the pitch in my opinion. Once his game picked up and interest resurfaced his whole perspective changed. I just have trouble blaming him for what has transpired.

I think Zeus said it best his style and game don't fit here.

I think we do agree that Donovan and Becks are apples and oranges. Donovan is a great guy that enjoys his life in LA( Manhattan Beach), but their is so much pressure on him to "do more because his time is limited" and "he is not tapping his potential". He on the other hand is made for the MLS.

That story will be continued I'm sure.

[robbie36]

Ok I accept your explanation.

But to the extent that his fitness improved (and that the management of the England team changed) I dont see that as a viable excuse to take advantage and break a very sizeable contract (that effectively should be to the advantage of LA Galaxy).

If you think about it, if say the opposite had occured, and Becks was injured for the remains of his career and never played a single game for LA Galaxy, I am sure they would have incurred a sizeable liability (although not,of course, the full US$250m). I also suspect they would have paid it.

As I say, his decision to sign for LA Galaxy was both smart and understandable, given the circumstances. His actions since show a selfishniss that noone should respect - least of all LA Galaxy fans.

[CiaranM]

MLS begins life without Beckham and GazidisThe England midfielder's absence could help shift the focus on to the league's attempts to grow the sport from the grassroots

Like Paris without the Eiffel Tower or London without Big Ben, Major League Soccer faces a future bereft; minus its distinctive landmark as it launched its 2009 season in Seattle last night with a game between the local team, the Sounders, and the New York Red Bulls, which ended in a 3?0 victory for the home team.

That's right. Ivan Gazidis, the former MLS deputy commissioner and resident marketing guru, has gone to Arsenal, swapping the unenviable task of selling soccer to the Yanks for the unenviable job of selling upmarket flats in Highbury to skint Londoners. He will be missed, both because he had a clear vision of where the sport was going in the US and the willingness to persist (at least until the lure of the Premier League proved too much) in what is essentially hostile territory.

David Beckham has gone, too, though it is not entirely clear if he will also be missed. Certainly, ESPN's daily highlights show, SportsCenter, will no longer be able put aside 10 seconds a night, once a month, to broadcast footage of a rare goal by the Englishman for the LA Galaxy, while People magazine will have to struggle along without a steady supply of pap shots of Beckham sitting courtside at the Lakers looking hunky.

LA Galaxy's home attendances will fall marginally, as will the crowds they attract when on the road. But that was already the case after the first half of the 2008 season, when the novelty of Beckham's presence had worn off and the realisation kicked in that the English midfielder was not soccer's answer to Kobe Bryant, that his on-the-field contributions were of a subtle variety.

In fact, they were so subtle at times they were almost nonexistent. LA Galaxy, the best supported and richest team in the league, had a shocking season last year, failing ? once again ? to make the play-offs. No wonder the club's new coach, Bruce Arena, seems less than enthusiastic about the possibility of the Englishman returning to California when the transfer window opens on 1 July. He has dismantled Galaxy's squad from last year and it would be only natural that he would prefer to begin the post-Beckham era sooner rather than later. Given that the player appears desperate to remain in Europe, he may get his wish.

Viewed from abroad the permanent departure of Beckham from the MLS scene might be interpreted as confirmation ? as if we Eurocentric sceptics needed any ? that Americans and soccer go together like fish and bicycles. Certainly it was a confirmation of soccer's minor-league status in the US but only for those people who expected the Englishman to transform a sporting landscape that has been set for decades. That was never going to happen. He was never going help soccer replace baseball as the national pastime, at least not this side of the fourth millennium.

As sensible people like Gazidis understood, so-called "stars" like David Beckham are a good thing, as long as they are viewed in the same way people view the prospect of Mary J Blige turning up in the middle of U2 concert to sing One ? it's a pleasant surprise but it's not why you would buy the past and future CDs.

If soccer is to establish itself as a major sport in the States, it will do so incrementally, by growing the grassroots, building stadiums solely for the purpose of soccer (and creating the intimate yet noisy atmosphere required to inject a sense of occasion) and expanding slowly across the continent by introducing new teams in the major cities.

Most of pre-season coverage in the 2009 MLS has centred on one such expansion team, the newly founded Seattle Sounders, which counts the comedian Drew Carey among its owners and the former Arsenal winger Freddie Ljungberg among its players. This week it was announced that the Vancouver Whitecaps, backed with money from, among others, the NBA legend Steve Nash, will join the league in 2011. Portland will soon follow ? establishing a three-way geographical rivalry of the kind that the league hopes will persist long after Beckham's flight to Milan has been forgotten.