This was supposed to be the day that Landon Donovan, Bruce Arena and the Galaxy were going to talk about the upcoming book by Grant Wahl in which Landon is quoted criticizing sometime Galaxy teammate David Beckham … but it didn’t happen.
Instead, 1) Landon called in sick today and didn’t go to practice (he looked ill, frankly, when I saw him yesterday) and 2) a Galaxy spokesman said no one on the club is going to speak to the issue raised in the Beckham book — “The Beckham Experiment” — until it is available in print and players/coaches/officials have read it.
And the book isn’t due to appear in stores until July 14, as I understand. And the date is irrelevant, anyway, because soccer players aren’t going to run out and buy any book … and everyone knows all they need to know from the stuff excerpted in Sports Illustrated.
Which means things will get weird, because the club apparently isn’t going to talk about the elephant in the room until after Beckham is back in town.
We’ll continue to poke around, see if someone is brave enough to talk about this, perhaps not-for-attribution. Maybe even Landon, who often tells the truth before he remembers that lies and evasions often are the smarter course (if cynical course) of action.
Meanwhile, the issue is this: The club has its best player (Donovan) calling out its most famous player (Beckham) and that challenge is just hanging out there like a storm cloud ready to burst … and it’s impossible not to wonder how in hell this is going to work out … and we’re not going to talk about it till after Beckham is in town.
Weird. Odd.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Stan // Jul 3, 2009 at 4:35 PM
“Weird. Odd.”
. . . but juicy.
2 jackie // Jul 3, 2009 at 5:15 PM
All of a sudden nobody talking,they were talking from Aug.08 to Grant Wahl,Lalas ,Arena ,Donovan andthe other medicore players.They bought this man here and is trying to destroy him .If beckham is bad why were they trying to keep him here.LA galaxy players traveled ,eat and drink ,together for whole of last season and behind his back the whole team was writing a book.Bring on the lawyers ,that’s the reason they shut their lying asses.
3 soccer goals // Jul 7, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Soccer drama. I love it.
4 Colin // Jul 8, 2009 at 1:21 PM
Paul, thanks for writing on US soccer and the Galaxy. Despite the major gains in soccer popularity, it’s still hard to find any decent writers willing to put pen to paper…
As far as the Galaxy is concerned, I think this book and Donovan’s statements show the main point: Donovan is emotionally involved with the Galaxy, and loves his team. Beckham doesn’t.
And if you’re not emotionally invested in your team, bad things happen. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants Beckham needs, and maybe the fact that AEG got smart and kicked out all of his cronies will help the situation.
5 Dennis Pope // Jul 9, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Did you see the story on ESPN.com today, where Alexi Lalas is quoted as saying he didn’t think Donovan was the Galaxy’s MVP last season? Absurd.
6 Joseph D'Hipolito // Jul 11, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Dennis, it’s obvious that Lalas has a personal grudge against Donovan. Also, as you know, Lalas is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Shrewd, yes. Self-promoting, definitely, Quick on the draw, you bet. But smart?
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