Posts tagged AlexiLalas at FanHouse

We've known for a while that Alexi Lalas is the Matt Millen of Major League Soccer. Various pundits in the soccer media have been blasting him for building a team with three millionaire stars and a bunch of guys making less than the dude who shines Lalas' shoes at the airport. Now it's the mainstream sports media's turn to rip into Lalas.

The center of the latest controversy is a lawsuit over a David Beckham jersey. The L.A. Galaxy star gave the jersey to two kids in Honolulu who were holding up a "Go Beckham" sign during the Pan-Pacific Championship last February. Neither family can agree on which kid actually took the handoff from Becks, and now they're going to court over it.

Alexi Lalas, of course, took it all in stride.

"This is a great opportunity to teach and learn a lesson about sharing. My suggestion is that the judge get a pair of scissors, cut the thing in half and give half to each. It's certainly not anything that we would ever want to have happen and certainly not anything that David or any of our players who hand out jerseys would have intended.

"This was a huge thing in any child's life and it's a pity that it has gotten to this point."

Today on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, Michael Wilbon was having none of that.

I really liked Alexi Lalas better when he looked like he had just stumbled in from a Phish jam, missing one shoe and with his arm around some girl who calls herself Delirium and smells of patchouli and coffee grounds. Look at him now, sitting next to Posh's husband -- as Billy Walsh from "Entourage" might say, "There he is, fresh from the dry cleaners, my one and only favorite suit."

Besides going corporate, now Lalas has gotten on my bad side as a hockey fan. The president of the L.A. Galaxy told the Globe and Mail this weekend that surpassing the NHL in the U.S. is one of his top priorities:

With Beckham's handsome face to market, with a broad participatory base and with an ever-expanding soccer-mad Hispanic community in the United States now roughly equivalent to the population of Canada, soccer has a leg up on at least one other exotic game struggling to gain a foothold in much the American market – a game that once tried dropping its own golden boy into Hollywood for a time.

"I think that we can – and I say this with all due respect for Canada, which may be the only the only place where I'll get a major argument – pick off hockey here, and then we'll move on to the next major-league sport," Lalas said. "We can start picking them off one by one."

If I had a yellow card to pull, I'd thrust it in the air and ask Lalas for a clarification.

On Deck is The FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups

Colorado Rockies (37-34) vs. New York Yankees (35-34)-3:05PM Est.

No, Roger's not high like Alexi Lalas, it's just that he's pitching in the rarified air of Colorado this evening. Speaking of being high, I think I am because I swear the Rockies have a better record than the Yankees, and that's just not possible. The Rocket's also going for another career milestone tonight, as a victory would give him 350 in his career. Roger's pitched well in his only two starts of the season, including a loss in his last outing in which he only gave up two runs. He'll be going against another legend in Rodrigo Lopez who's 3-0 with a 2.90 ERA. Wait a second, Rodrigo Lopez is 3-0 with an ERA under 3.00? I am high.

The departure of the suddenly very much not washed-up David Beckham after he resurrected his career along with Real Madrid's title hopes to American shores has spawned a lot of mostly unfair criticism of America and its long running obsession with hating soccer. MLS has problems but it's a real league that is probably on a par with second-tier Euro leagues around UEFA. Alexi Lalas, however, goes too far:

"The fact that a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business,'' Lalas said in an interview with The Guardian published Tuesday.

"In England, our league is considered second class, but I honestly believe if you took a helicopter and grabbed a bunch of MLS players and took them to the perceived best league in the world they wouldn't miss a beat and the fans wouldn't notice any drop in quality.''

Oh. My. God. (Becky, look at her butt, etc.)

These Zinadine Zidane-to-LA rumours (in footie we spell like Brits!) just will not die. Alexi Lalas:

Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas said over the weekend that the Galaxy have made an offer to the 1998 World Cup champion and team president Tim Leiweke told Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport that "we have contacted his entourage about coming to play for us this year. He knows our door will always be open. His contract won't be a problem."

This is a far cry from the lead offered by the LA Daily News ("It looks like the Galaxy is making room in its universe for one more Galactico") or the subhead, for that matter ("MLS team, international star reportedly in negotiations"). It appears that LA has extended their checkbook-laden hand but there's no indication Zidane's has any interest in the Galaxy.

Complicating things further is MLS' new Beckham rule, which allows each team to sign one and only one player who exceeds the league salary cap. These designated player (or DP) slots can be traded and LA has indeed acquired an extra one, but next year several players already in the league will lose the one-year exceptions they have currently and teams will be forced to use their DP slots on them. Landon Donovan is one of these players. If LA actually wants to build some sort of crazy mismatched midfield of the stars, they'll have to find a way to acquire not one but two DP slots.

The chances of this actually happening? Remote. But is this an opportunity to deploy hilarious Zidane animated GIFs? Hell yes!

(Via Sports By Brooks.)