Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Clueless in London

Apparently, over in England some think LA Galaxy fans made a lot of signs in Dallas' home stadium about being mad that David Beckham didn't show up.

I'm not saying that Galaxy fans aren't frustrated that David's not better, but come on - that's like saying a Galaxy fan threw that beer at Becks during the Chivas/Galaxy match. Get a clue about the opposing fans, Brits.

It's really egregious when the article shows a guy holding up a pic of Becks with a red markered question mark. The fan is clearly wearing an FC Dallas jersey, yet the photo is captioned "The fans are eager to know when their new signing will play."

Here's a hint - if he's wearing an FC Dallas shirt and a wig that's red and white, he's probably not a Galaxy fan, so Becks has not signed for his team. Ugh.

But the papers know that the article will draw more attention if it seems like the Galaxy's own fans want Beckham to play, and are demanding that he do so even at risk to his career, including his international career with England. It just makes Americans look even more clueless about soccer, and too many papers abroad never pass up the chance to do that, but the truth about the real ignorance is a different story.

6 comments:

pete said...

I posted on the comments section of that article earlier today. First for the idiot in NY who slammed soccer and second for the same reason you posted the link. Apparently my comment wasnt approved as its been a few hours and it wasnt posted. Oh well.

Anonymous said...

The game was at 2AM in London. With a few pints in them at 2AM on a Tuesday morning I am impressed that they wrote anything about the match.

A.C. said...

Yeah, ok, considering what they did write about the game, they called it a tie - and didn't mention the result or who scored, I guess they were really drunk.

Paul Poenicke said...

Quick question: who is more ignorant about US soccer--the British press, the (non-soccer dedicated) US press, or US sports fans? I give an edge to the US fan--he might actually, because of all the Becks coverage, be able to identity the right jersey. The US press, those non-soccer dedicated outlets (normal sports columnists who will "stoop" to do a soccer story, major outlets--see NT times--who try to bring their "wisdom" to our puny game) probably has the advantage over the British press--and not by lack of disinterest. The US press mirrors the British press in stupidity, snobbery, and error, falling into a modicum of accuracy simply because they are physically closer to the American game, and have a few more readers would complain of a faulty report.

For soccer to finally gain some hold in the US, alternative outlets, the blogosphere and websites, will have to grow US fans to a point where the mainstream media will be forced to recogize--and honor--our sport. That day will see a soccer highlight show take over Basscenter on ESPN's Sunday morning slot.

scaryice said...

Let's also not forget that for some reason this season MLS has gone back to listing the home teams second, which is the opposite of how the rest of the world does it. I dunno why they switched after doing it the other way the past couple years.

Anonymous said...

Oh, those Brits.

They really need to stick to reporting on war crimes and such. I read a football article in The Guardian once and almost fell out of love with that paper (not to mention, it had me questioning all I thought I knew of the universe).

Sure, they invented "soccer" (or at least, began using something other than human heads), but they need to leave all things "beautiful game" to others now.