Book Review: The Beckham Experiment

I recently finished the book "The Beckham Experiment" by Grant Wahl, and I know what you're thinking: Why would you read a book about soccer? I'm not sure, to be honest, but one reason might be because it was sent to me free. In any case, I'm glad I did.

Before picking this up, I knew approximately four things about David Beckham:
1. He was half great soccer player, half pretty boy and fashionista
2. He married the second hottest Spice Girl
3. A movie with his name in it introduced the world to the hotness that is Keira Knightley
4. He came to the US to play in MLS and it was a big deal

And that's it. I knew he joined the L.A. Galaxy of MLS, and had no idea how that turned out.

This book takes you inside everything, from the decision process to come over here from England all the way to the final outcome, with plenty of inside access in between, on all sides, and what a train wreck this was, with no shortage of mistakes and miscues, including:

Beckham's inability to be "one of the guys", his frustration with the skill level of his teammates, his failure to take a leadership role despite taking the team captaincy away from Landon Donovan, and his play not living up to expectations, due both to injuries and to simple poor effort.

Donovan's immaturity, both on a personal and professional level.

Coach Ruud Gullitt, and his lazy attitude and sense of entitlement leading to a lack of preparation by the team, and a whole shit load of confused players when he refused to learn the differences between MLS and European League soccer.

GM Alexei Lalas's failure to keep control of the soccer operations of his team, leading to his eventual firing.

Team owner Tim Leiweke's initial decisions to try to turn this in to the David Beckham show and bow to the whims of his management team, only turning around and making the correct decisions for the whole team when it was too late.

But mainly, from the people behind Beckham. From his personal manager Tim Byrne to the head of the production company behind him, Simon Fuller, and their strong arming of everyone involved to make decisions for the team, leading to two losing seasons and three coaches in two years.

It's amazing how something with the best intentions (Leiweke's desire to explode soccer in the US and Beckham's wish to be a part of it) can be corrupted by money and too many people covering their owns asses and looking out only for their own pockets. This story doesn't even have to pertain to soccer, it could essentially apply to any far-reaching plan that gets torpedoed when everyone has their own agenda.

Wahl was given a lot of behind the scenes access here, and he used to his full advantage, getting down to the nitty gritty details, particularly with Lalas who was very candid throughout. And, despite the fact that Beckham wouldn't grat him one on one interviews, he still manages to convey what Beckham was thinking and feeling throughout much of the book, and you really get a sense of both his frustration and his teammates' once he gave up on them.

This is a really great and interesting look at the entire situation, and I recommend it, whether you are a soccer fan or not. As for me, despite having very little interest in soccer, after reading this book I almost watched the USA vs. Mexico World Cup Qualifier.

Almost.

Who Cares?

Well the so called big week is upon us. David f’ing Beckham is coming to the Twin Cities!!! My first and only question is, "who gives two shits?" Only in America would people actually get excited and pay top dollar to come watch this twat play. There is one reason that "Becks" (nice pillow biting nickname) is playing in the United States, because the rest of the world, which actually cares about the sport, knows he is not the world class player Americans are led to believe he is. Great, he can hit a free kick as good as anyone in the world. That might come into play a couple times per game, the other 89 minutes of the game he is just another slightly above average player with lots of tattoos, a six pack of abs and a really bad hair cut. That would be like a Division 1 basketball program signing Small so he could shoot free throws, but minus the abs.

Beckham is also playing in America because we and our players suck at soccer. Beckham can come over here and actually dominate a game so people think he is good. This is evident by the fact that his team is touring the country playing teams like the Minnesota Thunder. For those of you who don’t know and most likely don’t care, the Thunder is MN’s so called professional team. They are also the same "professionals" that just went down to the Shattuck School and got beat by a bunch of 16-18 year olds as a tune up for this weekend. To put that into perspective, it would be like Winona State scheduling the gophers for all 28 games of their basketball schedule.

There are 3 types of people who will actually pay to watch this game over the weekend. 1) The guy who sits around and think it makes him sophisticated because he calls himself a soccer fan. You know the guy. He walks around in one of his 20 replica jerseys, uses British slang when he talks, drink Guiness or Bass, hangs out at Brits Pub and was most likely they guy who called soccer players fags in high school. 2) Teenage girls. 3) Typical dumb ass American’s who have been told by their TV sets that this guy is important. Either way the only people who will leave the game feeling like they got what they paid for are the teenage girls, because without a doubt Beckham will spend more time walking around with his jersey off then he will on. The first group of fans are idiots who inside will feel let down, but will still act excited because they want to keep up their charade as a "soccer fan". The 3rd group of people will be bored out of their minds and wonder to themselves why they just wasted all of that money and time to watch something they still don’t understand and hate.

Unless you are a 14 year old girl or a gay guy with a thing for British guys who have failed miserably trying to pull off the look of Brad Pitts character in Snatch you are a Laser for attending this game.

Also, what in the hell is with Beckhams meth addict looking wife??? It looks like Kurt Warner’s wife cut her hair.

P.S. W, Sorry about writing about non Holy Angels soccer on your blog. This has just been pissing me off!

[Snake: It looks like Pele and Yahoo are stealing your bits. - W]