Tracey Ullman Channels Beckham, and some European Thoughts

By: Laurie | April 6th, 2008

Thought you might enjoy this video of Tracey Ullman channeling David Beckham. (Hat tip to Showtime Fan. And if the video doesn’t work on your computer, as it isn’t working on mine, click on that link.)

HUGE thanks to Jen for holding the fort while I was gone. It was so great to be able to leave knowing my “baby” was in good hands. I hated the thought of leaving for the MLS opening week, but having Jen to keep things going made it easier. Also, a big thanks to everybody who left comments while I was gone. My internet time was limited, so this blog was my only source of Galaxy information. Getting multiple perspectives from a lot of people gave me a fairly detailed portrait of what I missed. The next best thing to being here.

A few thoughts on MLS from a European perspective. First off, it was soooo much fun to see Beckham get his 100th cap in Paris. And it was interestingly low-key. The Parisian media mentioned it, of course, and l’Equipe, the French sports daily, had an article on it, but it was a lot less than I expected. And the French fans cheered Beckham in a low-key way, but it was nothing like in other venues, like Asia and the US, where there are squeals of ecstasy every time he touches the ball. He was just another player trying to get a job done. (French fans also don’t squeal in ecstasy over their own players, for what it’s worth.)

I really thought the English FA would apply pressure to England coach Fabio Capello to put the 100th cap off until the US game, to be played in England in May. This would have allowed fantastic PR and profit-making opportunities. (And maybe they did apply pressure, but he resisted. From what I hear, Cabbage-man Capello is no pushover.) As it was, it was like any other game, where Beckham played fairly well and England lost.

It would have been nice to see him get the win, except that it would have been against my France boys, so I was personally happy with how things came out.

Also, the 0-4 drubbing from Colorado got highlight coverage in the UK. I was traveling the day of and day after the game, so I didn’t see much. But there was certainly some anti-Beckham, anti-Galaxy gloating going on, just as there was here in the States. The man certainly creates extreme, polar feelings in people.

On the other hand, the San Jose game also got coverage, including one of those “coming up next, David Beckham scores in MLS” preview blurb things. In Dublin they showed both goals, giving Beckham full credit for his contributions. And seriously, from a quality standpoint, both goals stood up to what I saw in the Premiere League while I was there.

I had a great trip but am REALLY glad to be back, and looking forward to seeing my first Galaxy games of 2008.