Others’ Thoughts on the Galaxy, and on Beckham’s Debut

By: Laurie | August 10th, 2007

A lot of interesting stuff out there about the game last night, and particularly about David Beckham’s debut. Amazingly, there are those out there who do not consider “sucked slightly less than before” to be a worthy team accomplishment! What’s up with that? Obviously they are not viewing our boys with a mother’s heart.

In my first and favorite excerpt, we have my buddy Jeff Bull, formerly of It’s a Simple Game and now of Center Holds It. He provides us with an excellent post on Beckham’s debut in the midst of LA’s season of epic sucking, the highlight of which is the following paragraph:

To return to the first kiss analogy, consider Beckham an intriguingly deep and tender kiss…while the rest of the Galaxy amounts to a rough, mildly painful groping of our collective breasts.

Dammit, Jeff! I’ve done so well in not thinking of Beckham in that way. Cut it out! (Thinking…kittens. And warm, sweet, fuzzy puppies… And…and…butterflies…)

One other good paragraph (in the middle of an interesting piece which you really need to go read):

- I didn’t understand the decision to start a central midfield of Kelly Gray and Kevin Harmse. Maybe Peter Vagenas is hurt, I don’t know, but I thought he’d work better with either of the two as opposed to having those guys work as a tandem. And if Gray, whom I usually like well enough (he’s a good University of Portland guy, after all), was supposed to provide sharp passing, the experiment totally failed: I can’t think of an LA player who gave away the ball more often. If there’s an anti-matter equivalent of the Man of the Match, it was Gray.

I’m not sure about this. Our entire midfield gives me shivers. And not in a good way, either. (Although I think Harmse has excellent passion and serious potential, he’s still young.) But I thought we looked better without Vagenas. What do you think?

We also have an excellent and multifaceted piece from Ian Plenderleith at USSoccerPlayers.com. This one hits on a lot of topics, so I may be going back to it in future posts. If you can’t wait, be sure to read the whole thing.

It was just like watching England at RFK Stadium last night. There was David Beckham in the middle of the field, in a white shirt, playing long balls up to a struggling forward line in a desperate but ultimately failed and unimaginative attempt to claw back a 1-0 deficit. To make him feel even more at home, it was raining too.

The rain made it “a bit more enjoyable,” Beckham said afterwards. “I like it when the ground’s wet.” His coach Frank Yallop claimed the rain made the decision to bring Beckham into the game with 20 minutes left “a bit easier,” and that it made him feel “more comfortable bringing David on.” It seems the latest medical thinking is that suspect ankles react well to a greasy surface

Well, at least nobody took him out and he didn’t seem to be limping afterwards. So maybe rain IS a good thing for a Englishman with a bum ankle?

That’s all I have room for at the moment; I’ll post some more excerpts on the Big Bad Beckham Beginning later.

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: 2007 Games, League Game Recaps, Player News

« Our Weekly Galaxy Poetry, Dedicated to Beckham’s Debut | Home | Kelly Gray Talks About Beckham and That Chartered Plane »

Jay

Pre-Beckham I'd say Gray is the only guy that could possibly do the job. Not because of his ability, but because he's seen it before, Ching has a similar style. People put the ball where they want it, and Ching gets his head or foot on it. That style is the reason some people's reaction to a Ching goal is "Where'd he come from?"
Laurie

Jay, you're completely right on the fact that I'm still struggling to get a read on Pavon's style of play. Of all the players whose skills aren't being utilized without Beckham, I think he tops the list. I've only seen highlights of his play for Honduras, but that was impressive. In my mind, just from the little I've seen, he has skills maybe along the lines of Milan's "Super Pippo"? Is this how you see it? Or does he bring other skills altogether?

Pre-Beckham, though, I think we agree that we have nobody who can utilize his talents.
Jay

It seems tome most of you are unaware of Pavon's style of play. If you watch him playing for his national team, and watch him, not the ball. You'll notice that he creates his chances when he doesn't have the ball. He's seems to be just waiting for the ball on the Galaxy because nobody has a clue on how to pass to him. I suspect Beckham will change that.

Guide to Pavon:
Do not pass the ball TO him. Put the ball where you WANT HIM TO GO... he'll get there.

Buddle played well. After seeing all the combination that Yallop has put up top I say Pavon-Buddle has been the best so far.
Diane

"...team created to work around [fill in any name] skills..." we've all noted that this last few weeks should be an object lesson in that folly.

I liked both the kiss and the watching England analogies, especially the fact that they invoke such polar opposite pictures!
Laurie

Chris, thanks for the reinforcement on Buddle -- I was wondering if I was the only one in the universe who saw cause for hope.

I do disagree about Donovan and Pavon having the same skills, though. In my mind, Donovan is much more of a creator of opportunities. Pavon just receives them. That was the only thing he was brought in for, in my opinion -- to receive opportunities created by Beckham and drive them into the goal. I'm reserving judgment on him till we see whether that works or not.

In my mind, this entire team was created to work around Beckham's skills. Because of that, we have plenty of people who can get the ball to Beckham, and several who can receive the ball from Beckham, but nobody else who can bridge the gap. This would have been fine if Beckham had showed up in April. It's not so great when he's showing up in mid-August.
Chris

My thoughts: Buddle DID do well, though some finishing practice is DEFINITELY in order...Gray, though sloppy at times, is one of the few players not afraid to run at defenders...saying that, why does the galaxy have TWO forwards who are of the exact same put-it-in-front-of-me-because-I-can't-create-off-the-dribble in Pavon and Donovan? Without midfielders to serve quality through balls, these two are LOST. We saw a glimpse of what might be when Becks sprung LD down the left side late in the game. When becks plays a full 90, I do feel we'll see a better side, especially from the fwds, who will not want to look asinine wasting quality balls sent into the box.
Roberto

Beckham is overrated by he ignorant public, but he is even more underrated by football fans. He looked really sharp in the middle last night, and I think he will actually elevate his career in MLS (compared to Real Madrid). He is a class act, ON THE FIELD and off.
Laurie

P.S. You and I are going to have to agree to disagree on the Martino-Vagenas question. (Although we can probably both agree that Martino sucked yesterday. I think it was temporary.) And for the record, I've seen Vagenas referred to elsewhere as "Passback Pete" due to his penchant for sending the ball backwards.

It's all a matter of perspective.
Laurie

Doug, I knew that comment would bring you out of the woodwork. :-)
Doug

WIthout Vagenas? WIthout Vagenas, we get the lame performance of last night. At least Pete isn't afraid to take the ball downfield instead of panicking, turning around, and passing back to the goalkeeper just because an opposing player looks at him.