Jan 31, 2007

The Beautiful Game

With everyone so aflutter about the Beckham signing, I want to be on record as saying that I think Red Bull NY's signings of Claudio Reyna and Ronald Waterreus will be more influential on the field. Beckham does a couple of things astonishingly well: he delivers crosses and he takes free kicks. So he'll be good for a few highlight-reel goals, and he'll put people in the seats for a while. All of which is to the good.

Reyna and Waterreus, on the other hand, will solidify two of the most important positions on the field--goalkeeper and midfield general--for MLS' most important team. I'm going to love Beckham's occasional flashy goal, but I'm going to love RBNY's improved team play even more.

What got me started on this was a Slate article on soccer, which can be found here.

1 comment:

Andy Irvine said...

Beckham is not past it. I think the guy can still play...on the field, while the play is going on...not just set plays. International soccer, especially at the big clubs, is so political and so full of egos (especially managers) that sometimes I think guys get left out for no good reason. Maybe the press says something about how his former girlfriend had a dog with a yellow collar (Villareal)and that made the manager mad because he thought somehow the player was not fully supporting his current club. Just my opinion...don't want to get Becks in trouble based on a made up story.