Sit Beckham, Sit. Good Brit.

So let's just list off everything that is surrounding this issue.

Beckham is still recovering from a sprained ankle. He played 60 minutes on August 15th in a win against DC United in the SuperLiga Semi-Finals. He then flew to New York the following day to attend press junkets and media appearances all day on Friday. Saturday night, Becks went the distance on Field Turf in the 5-4 loss to RBNY. The following day, "Golden Balls" jumped on a plane and flew off to London for the Wednesday evening England match at Wembly Stadium against Germany, in which he and his bum ankle went the distance again.

Ok, catch your breath.

So after the 2-1 loss to Germany, Beckham jumped on another plane and flew from London to Los Angeles in order to suit up for the MLS Super Classico, LA Galaxy vs. Chivas USA. In this match he went the whole 90 minutes, got in a fight, and showed some signs that his ankle is still less than perfect. The Galaxy lost 3-0.

So...now the Galaxy are claiming that they are worried about Beckham?

The Galaxy have a road match this Sunday in the thin air of Colorado at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a match that is sold out. Everyone pretty much knows that this bottom of the table match up isn't sold out because the fans want to see the Rapids...they are coming to see Becks. Considering the amount of mileage that Beckham has just put his ankle and considering that the Galaxy's one shot at any type of glory this season is a Wednesday night match against Pachuca in the SuperLiga Final, I say that the Galaxy should disappoint the sold out crowd at DSG Park and sit Beckham.

Beckham showed in the 2-0 win over DC United that when he is on, he can change the entire make up of the Galaxy side. If either Frank Yallop or Alexi Lalas are going to retain their jobs this year, they are going to have to win the SuperLiga Championship. They are already out of the USOC and they really haven't a chance in hell in making it to the MLS Cup Playoffs. So, sitting beckham this Sunday to allow both himself and his ankle time to rest in preparation for the SuperLiga Final makes perfect sense. Furthermore, the thin air really can't do that much good for his ankle in the first place. Beckham said that his trip to Denver for the MLS All Star Game had bad effects on his ankle. So why risk the guy in a match that at this point, is really meaningless?

Now all of this logic aside, we all know that "Golden Balls" will be out on the pitch, wearing the Captain's armband and trying to will the Galaxy to their first MLS victory since the 4th of July. Considering the lack of bench players for Yallop, we should all expect to see Beckham go the entire 90 minutes on Sunday, barring injury or a red card. Yallop, Lalas, Garber & Co. and just about anyone who works for SUM/MLS, will pretty much demand that Beckham is on the field for this match. If I were Yallop, I would be doing two things right now, in this order:

- Getting my resume ready for job hunting.
- Telling Beckham that he is staying in LA to get some rest and treatment on his ankle and to be ready for Pachuca on Wednesday night.

Sit Beckham, Sit. Good Brit.

Match Recap: DC United 0 - 2 LA Galaxy

What a difference a Brit makes.

David Beckham started the SuperLiga Semi-Final match tonight against DC United. He not only started, but he set the tempo for the entire LA Galaxy side and he showed why he isn't washed up. I have never seen the Galaxy play at that tempo and speed before. It was good to see him banging away at guys, making hard challenges and getting into it with everyone on the field. He damn near took Jamie's legs off with his late tackle that drew a Yellow card, but over all, he performed incredibly.

Beckham was the difference.

Without Beckham, I honestly do not see the Galaxy scoring on his free kick (Amazing goal btw) nor do I see anyone in a Galaxy jersey making that pass to Donovan as he ran passed Gros, who decided to try and stop and watch the ball roll under his feet. When he left the game, the Galaxy became an entirely different beast. They didn't bunker, but the really didn't do what they did the first 60 minutes. Without Beckham, I really don't see the Galaxy winning this game.

Then again, I really have a hard time seeing United winning either. We looked tough, we had great movement at times, but our trapping and finishing just wasn't there tonight. Joe Cannon had an amazing second half. He made some saves that were spectacular. I do question why he is trying to look like Dante Hicks from Clerks, but hey, if he plays like that, let him look like Dante.

I saw several passes go right bye guys tonight, simply because we failed to trap the ball. All of them killed offensive movements at the Galaxy goal. It's always the simple things that get you.

Some notes:

- Props to either the Riot Squad or the Galaxians or whomever was chanting, "Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Hey, Hey, Hey, Good Bye!" We do that at RFK when we win, and I believe we did it last week when we won 1-0, so payback is a bitch.

- Vanney trade. I am not that sold on it now. I guess I have to weight the Erpen SNAFUs against the slow white man in the back. Not sure yet, I would rather see Burch ahead of both.

- Referee Alex Prus called a very, very loose match. I honestly think that the Galaxy should have had a PK as United should have as well, maybe two.

- Oh My Gawd, the field at the Home Depot Center looks worse than the field Olimpia hosted United on in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. WTF??? It almost looked like they were trying to make it look like the floor of the old Boston Garden.

- Captain Beckham? That was quick.

Well, the Galaxy have one shot at glory this season, and if Beckham plays like he did tonight, even with Pachuca having their great form of right now, I think they will get the first SuperLiga trophy. Depends on the ankle.

As for DC United... they are off to Columbus for an Eastern Conference showdown with the Crew. Hopefully, we will see the back line that pitched two straight shutouts along with Gomez and Simms in the midfield. United looked better with Simms in instead of Carroll. We have three straight Eastern Conference matches, away to the Crew, home to RBNY and away to Toronto FC. Let's put the Beckham show behind us now and get back to business of collecting three points a match.

SuperDuperLiga

Check out the website...just pay no attention to the group stats, as they seem to not even know where clubs are in their own tournament.

As this is a SUM event...why doesn't this surprise me?

Copa Panamerica, so where was MLS?

I was pretty shocked to be reading reports of a soccer tournament being held in Glendale, Arizona at the University of Phoenix Stadium (UPS). According to the website for the tournament, it was a pre-season tournament that had the following participants:

- Club America
- Boca Juniors
- Cruz Azul
- Alianza Lima
- Caracas
- Deportivo Cali

The tournament had two groups of three with the winner of each group playing each other in the final. Cruz Azul knocked off Boca Juniors 3-1 and claimed the trophy and the $250,000 championship purse. All of the matches took place at the UPS.

As I was under the impression that all international soccer matches that occur in the US were under the guidance of SUM, I am trying to figure out why there wasn’t one or two MLS clubs taking part in this tournament? It’s not like it is a foreign concept to have MLS clubs take part in international tournaments during the regular season, the Galaxy just finished one and four other clubs are gearing up to start the SuperLiga tonight and tomorrow night. So why didn’t SUM/MLS get any of the MLS clubs in on the action?

I honestly think that this would have been a very good opportunity for MLS to get its clubs more international experience, much better than the All Star Game provides. They could have sent the Chicago Fire and Red Bull New York. The Fire could have used this tournament as the introduction of Blanco as well as the Sunday home match against Celtic. Blanco could have played his first match in a Fire jersey against his former club; that would have packed in the fans at the UPS.

Having this type of tournament in the US is the exact type thing that MLS/SUM should be working to avoid. If these two groups are trying to use the SuperLiga to try and convince the US Latin American community that the MLS clubs are worth watching, why have a tournament that showcases six non-MLS clubs on US soil? Why showcase the very clubs that the US Latin American community points to as the clubs they support?

I think that an even bigger question is why have the Copa Panamerica held in the US so close to the SuperLiga? If the Copa Panamerica is not going to have any MLS clubs participate, hold it in Mexico. Better yet, have the two tournaments merge and have the SuperLiga clubs and the Copa Panamerica clubs all fight it out for the $1 million dollar purse, giving the runner up the $250,000 for second place.

I like the idea of the Copa Panamerica and if I still lived in Phoenix, I would have been attending all of the matches. I don’t like that it was held in the US without any of the MLS clubs participating nor do I like that it was held so close to the SuperLiga. Having the tournament in the US is fine, just have one or more of the clubs from the first division in the US participate, namely MLS.