My SuperLiga Awards to Our Galaxy Guys

By: Laurie | August 31st, 2007

Well, we may not have taken THE award at SuperLiga, but that doesn’t mean our guys aren’t worthy of winning something. So I’m creating my own set of awards in the wake of that courageous, painful loss on Wednesday.

First the “Remember This Feeling — It Comes From the Presence of a Backbone” award to: the entire Galaxy team. They did not curl up and die, and they played even better in the second half, without Beckham. I, for one, was damn proud.

Then we have the “I Feel Ferocious Pain in My Maternal Area” award to: Pete Vagenas. Could anything possibly be worse than both an own goal and a missed penalty, both of which were game-changing? On the bright side, there’s noplace to go but up, right? Love you, Pete! Hang in there!!

The “Dude, I Didn’t Know Bodies Over Thirty Could DO That!” award to: Chris Klein. I’ll bet you were one hurtin’ puppy yesterday, Chris, but that goal was amazing!

The “Does It Hurt to Play With Gloves of Gold?” award to: Joe Cannon. Our hero and savior yet again. And we don’t blame you for the penalties. Or at least I don’t.

The “Maybe One More Wrist Kiss Woulda Done The Trick” award to: Landon Donovan. ‘Nuff said. But I still find that whole OCD thing kind of endearing.

The “Wait, So You’re How Old Again?” award to Cobi Jones. Please, Cobi. One more season! We need you!!

The “Will You Finally Stop When We Have To Take You Off the Field in Pieces?” award to: David Beckham. Maybe this additional injury will make him slow down and heal. (P.S. Hey, David! Skip the England Games!!!!)

The “Huh…Wha…Where Did It Go?” award to: Abel Xavier. You are an awesome, amazing presence in the backline, Abel. And as for penalties? Well… You are an awesome, amazing presence in the backline.

UPDATE: Oops, forgot one! A late add-on to my awards is the “They Don’t Pay You Enough to be a Goalkeeper Too (But We Appreciate It)” award to: Troy Roberts. Beautiful save, Troy! Let’s hope it helps you keep your roster spot next year when they’re discarding everybody and his grandma to create the ALL NEW Beckham’s Team.

And finally, we have the “Best Post-Game Speech Ever In History” award to: Frank Yallop for the following speech:

“I’m really proud of the way our guys came out because of all the crap we’ve been f—— through,” Yallop said. “I’m telling you, it’s been difficult to f—— deal with. I’m sorry to swear, but it’s been hard. But they kept going, and that makes me proud. That’s all I can say.”

This is me, loving Frank Yallop. Stay, Frank! Stay! Let’s dump Alexi instead!

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: Just for Fun, Player News, SuperLiga

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diane

Rickard, that's a good point. I'm just so often surprised at the power FIFA wields (and of course, we know who gets wavers on this or that rule!). The medical bills and loss of significant player--not just in this case, it happens often enough-- are a tough issue for the smaller and/or less wealthy clubs.
d

A trophy for failure.
rickard

"Club docs v Country docs: country always wins — and the club has to pay the medical bills if they send their players home f*cked up. Actually, if there’s a debate FIFA’s doctors decide, and you know which events their employers put first. FIFA is truly a scary dictatorship."

Actually I think this is a good thing, give too much power to the clubs and the World Cup will end up somewhat like the pre-Nagano Olympic hockey tournaments, a tournament no one cares about because all the stars are absent.
Actually the fact that the Olympic football tournament these days only is a U23 competition that few people even know about is enough of a compromise.
dana

Justjack,
The final was televised on telefutura, a Spanish langauge station (channel 46 on Time Warner Cable.) All the SuperLiga games were shown on this station. i hope that helps.
Diane

Hi justjack (or anyone w/info), I just confused myself regarding the which MD has final say question. OK, FIFA is made up of, and rules with its iron fist, its members: 200+ country FA's (football associations). It is also "associated with" 5 or 6 regional unions, like UEFA, that are umbrella organizations which include each of their regions FA's, also as members, so the FA's are members of both FIFA and say UEFA or CONCACAF, their regional unions. The things that confuse me are (1) are the regional unions, like UEFA, controlled by FIFA (2) do the the regional unions have any power over the FA's or do they just organize stuff?
For example, take the question of whether Steven Gerrard plays in the upcoming Euro qualifiers, obviously organized by UEFA. I said that FIFA docs have the final say over whether he will play, not the club docs. But I thought I read last week that the FA docs had looked at his x-rays to confirm that he was unfit for the England v Germany match. If there was still (and might still be) a question, or fight from the club manager, would it be ruled on by UEFA or FIFA? Or go from FA to UEFA to FIFA?

And REALLY shouldn't this all be a human rights issue ;-) ?
justjack

Oh, OT: I just heard the reason my daughter's coach gave up the rest of his Galaxy match tix (no, we didn't win his lottery--but then again I couldn't afford the four hour odessey to Carson from Ventura anyway) was that Becks is out and he was too depressed to bear any more defeats. But he's a Liverpool fan so....
justjack

Lando: The hand kissing thing looks similar to all that crossing stuff one sees in Argentine and other countries' football. At least the latter has some sort of religious tradition (although, being an atheistic Jew, it all looks odd to me). My wife is convinced it's for Bianca... like a spousal secret code... except it's not very secret, eh? I need a shower.

Becks: Ow, just Ow. The FIFA gods are indeed bad beasts of the feudal lord sort... and now England is screwed doubly because Lampard is out too with a torn something in his thigh (during training). maybe it's all karmic comeuppance for Stevie, yeah? One can hope.

SO where are people watching these matches if not at the HDC itself? I found no teevee listings for the final. IN another post Laurie said something about the web.. URL? Does it cost dollars?
Diane

I thought Nomar Garciaparra's at bat routine was the strangest, although now that I saw him holding Mia Hamm's (ok, and his) sweet baby twins at her Hall of Fame induction last week I have upgraded him to perfect. So Donovan tops my current what is he/she DOING list.
Laurie

Diane, I was hoping somebody else would answer about the hand-kissing. I have no idea, except that he does it every time.
Laurie

Dick, I am so with you!
Dick

I'm surprised no one commented on your view that Frank stay and Alexi go. I agree completely. Things have gone from bad to worse since Lalas took over. Yallop's made some mistakes. But even with all the problems he's had to confront, he's shown quite a bit of inventiveness and creativity. I'd love to see what he can do with a reasonably rested and mostly whole team. Unfortunately, we are not likely to see anything of the sort this season.
Diane

(as long as we're here, what does the hand kissing MEAN, is it a tic, like adjusting batting gloves 4000 times?)
Diane

Phew. I'll make it 3 beers for you. I knew we couldn't be that far off the same page...on player well-being anyway. And certainly on stupid management issues...and how to plan for next year...well, so, I knew we couldn't be that far off the same page.

Club docs v Country docs: country always wins -- and the club has to pay the medical bills if they send their players home f*cked up. Actually, if there's a debate FIFA's doctors decide, and you know which events their employers put first. FIFA is truly a scary dictatorship.
Karl

I can not stand the Landon Donovon shaman ritual before every PK he takes. If you're putting that much thought into it, you're not doing it right. Choose a corner and stick it in there. It's not like this is something you can't practice outside of a game.
Laurie

Oh, and last thing. Just for the record, I'm not frustrated with Beckham himself. I'm frustrated with how the whole circus has been managed.

He's a player -- not a god and not a savior. Making so many decisions solely because of him isn't fair to either him or to the team. Let him heal, then just let him play without putting the pressure on him to "save" the league. He'll put enough pressure on himself to do more than his part.

Also, they shouldn't build next year's team around him any more than any other team with a very good player does. The problem is that when he's gone (for international play or injury) the team falls apart because there is no center to orbit around. Create a team he fits into, but not one that orbits only around him.

Okay, I'm done now. :-)
Laurie

And you bring up another interesting point. I'm wondering what happens for international play if one set of docs (say, the Galaxy's) says he's not fit and the other (say, England's) says he is.
Laurie

Diane, in my mind this was more of an Energizer Bunny kind of award. Being who he is, he'll just keep going and going and going until he's leaving a foot here and a kneecap there... Or until, finally, somebody says "Stop." It looks like they'll have no choice now but to say it given this new injury, and this is a good thing. He needs to be forced to take time to heal.

(No offense taken, btw. It's your maternal area talking. This I understand.) :-)
Diane

You guys are SO wierd (said with all due affection of course). Is it only because you're Galaxy fans that you hold Beckham responsible for when and where he was played, and therefore injured, instead of the Galaxy brass? It's not his brain that needed jogging. Everywhere else he's played, it's only been his job to want to play and win, and to give everything he's got whenever he's on the pitch. It's never been his job to diagnose his own injuries and decide how they be treated -- and I don't think he made those decisions here, or in England either. I think the club f*cked up big time, from the day he arrived, but that's just me, or me and a whole bunch of other keen-eyed observers.

Also, unless any of the Galaxy's internationals permanently retire from their national teams, those guys REALLY don't get the choice about what games to skip. FIFA gives national team managers total control over who they call up, and if called they have to go. (Shouldn't that be a human rights violation?)

Oops, just finished your post and it looks like Beckham's on your nerves in general, Laurie. I was going to suggest a "gave a leg and a leg" award (not my line, but I liked it), but that's probably not on at the moment I'll hazard a guess.
dana

What is all that about with Landon, anyway. I hate when he does that, kissing himself! Creepy! I always feel like I need to turn away, like I'm intruding on a private moment .

I absolutely LOVE Cobi Jones. I think Yallop putting him in changed the entire momentum of the game!

Hey, and don't forget Troy Robert's awesome save off the line!
Ian

Well, at least if there's any good news on the Beckham front, the MCL strain seems to have jogged his brain into working and admitting he's not going to be able to play every football match on Earth at once. Honestly, I don't think England games are going to be that much of an issue for too much longer. At least he'll have Euro 2008 off, because I really don't think they'll qualify, and who knows - maybe the couch that replaces Steve McClaren after that national day of shame will be a Beckham-hater, though I wouldn't bank on it.