Category: Soccer (Page 23 of 29)

      Beckham and Donovan unhappy with one another

      July 12, 2009 /

      beck

      Much has happened during David Beckham’s five-month absence from the L.A. Galaxy. After the painstaking and very public negotiations between the Galaxy and AC Milan, Beckham was able to play for the Italian club, much to the disdain of his American fans and teammates. In an upcoming book entitled “The Beckham Experiment,” Landon Donovan is quoted as calling his teammate a bad captain who is also stingy. Apparently, Beckham is not too pleased.

      “It’s unprofessional in my eyes. In every soccer player’s eyes throughout the world it would be unprofessional to speak out about a teammate especially in the press and not to your face,” Beckham said.

      “But I’m going to turn it on a positive spin because that’s what this needs. But in 17 years, I have played with the biggest teams in the world and the biggest players and not once have I been criticized for my professionalism. It’s important to get this cleared up and I will be speaking to Landon either this evening or over the next couple of days.”

      The Galaxy plays Chivas USA on Saturday, with Beckham returning to his first practice with the team on Monday.

      And what about playing with Donovan?

      “I’m personally very professional when I am on the field. I don’t care what people say about me off the field, once I’m on the field I’m professional and if there is a chance for him to score, I will be giving him the ball. Me and Landon will talk, but that will be a private conversation.”

      Jesus, this whole situation with Beckham and the Galaxy has been horrible, hasn’t it? Donovan had every right to criticize his teammate, but sometimes you wonder why these guys choose to go to media instead of confronting one another man-to-man. I can understand why Beckham would be irritated, but at this point he should be getting used to this type of response.

      Soccer

      Ranking the 50 highest-earning athletes

      July 1, 2009 /

      SI.com compiled a ranking of the 50 highest-earning American athletes and discovered that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are at the top of the list.

      1. Tiger Woods
      Pro Golf
      Last Year’s Rank: 1
      Salary/Winnings: $7,737,626
      Endorsements: $92,000,000
      Total: $99,737,626

      Tiger sacrificed millions in appearance fees during his year off to recover from knee surgery, but replaced his lucrative Buick deal — voided by mutual consent — with a new one from AT&T.

      2. Phil Mickelson
      Pro Golf
      Last Year’s Rank: 2
      Salary/Winnings: $6,350,356
      Endorsements: $46,600,000
      Total: $52,950,356

      Like Tiger, Phil no longer counts on a car-maker in his endorsement portfolio. (Ford chose not to re-sign him.) He still has lucrative deals with Rolex, Callaway, Exxon, Barclay’s and KPMG.

      3. LeBron James
      Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA)
      Last Year’s Rank: 3
      Salary/Winnings: $14,410,581
      Endorsements: $28,000,000
      Total: $42,410,581

      LeBron has one more season left under his deal before he can opt out. If Cleveland doesn’t show it’s Finals-worthy by next spring, expect the Knicks to come in with a huge offer.

      4. Alex Rodriguez
      New York Yankees (MLB)
      Last Year’s Rank: 6 (tie)
      Salary/Winnings: $33,000,000
      Endorsements: $6,000,000
      Total: $39,000,000

      We’re in the middle of A-Rod’s peak earning power in his middle-loaded, 10-year megadeal: He’ll make another $33 million in 2010 and then gradually decrease to a “normal” $20 million by ’17.

      No. 5 Shaquille O’Neal
      Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA)
      Last Year’s Rank: 6 (tie)
      Salary/Winnings: $20,000,000
      Endorsements: $15,000,000
      Total: $35,000,000

      The Big Bargaining Chip? Regardless of his trade to Cleveland, Shaq is in the final year of the five-year, $100 million deal he signed while with Miami. It’s the largest expiring deal in the NBA.

      No. 10 Peyton Manning
      Indianapolis Colts (NFL)
      Last Year’s Rank: 9
      Salary/Winnings: $14,500,000
      Endorsements: $13,000,000
      Total: $27,000,000

      NFL’s top endorser has distributed $500,000 in grants in ’09 through his PayBack Foundation to charities in Indianapolis, near his alma mater (Tennessee) and his hometown, New Orleans.

      It’s amazing that the highest paid NFL player (Peyton Manning) barely cracked the top 10. Granted, the NFL only has a 17-game regular season, but you’d think that for what football players put their bodies through every season that they would make more than baseball players, golfers and basketball players.

      Although he is pitching well this season despite his overall numbers, seeing Zito’s name on this list at No. 26 makes me shudder. He’s the third best pitcher (maybe fourth depending on how high you value Randy Johnson) on his own club, yet he’s the 26th highest-earning American athlete. Still, it should be noted that Zito donates $400 for every strikeout that he throws to the Strikeouts for Troops charity that he created to help hospitals treat soldiers that are wounded in military operations. In fact, as the article notes, a lot of the guys on this list give thousands of dollars to charities every year and that shouldn’t be overlooked.

      General Sports, Golf, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, Soccer, Tennis

      Michael Jackson, David Beckham, the USA Men’s Soccer Team. How are these things related?

      June 28, 2009 /

      http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/sports/photos/2008/07/18/beckham-david-xl-080710ap.jpg

      Most people in America, and especially Los Angeles (thanks to bus advertisements everywhere), know that David Beckham plays for the LA Galaxy. The only problem is that he kinda doesn’t. With all his English national team World Cup qualifiers and his loan to AC Milan, his MLS season is about as long as a cocktail weenie.

      After the tragic death of Michael Jackson last week, David Beckham’s future in American soccer has been called into question. How could these two seemingly unrelated things be related? Well, SPORTSbyBROOKS has all the answers. Due to spatial constraints, let me give you a quick summation: AEG is a corporation operating concert venues/events worldwide, including all those canceled comeback concerts in England with Michael Jackson. Davd Beckham has been a flop since arriving in America, his potential for igniting interest in soccer in America has fizzled. He is now a financial drain on his team.

      And, of course, the owners of the Los Angeles Galaxy that could really use the cash on this year’s balance sheet to offset losses in other parts of the business… AEG.

      On top of it all, the best thing that could happen to the popularity of U.S. soccer is happening today in South Africa as the U.S. men’s national team takes on Brazil for the chance to hoist their first international soccer cup in modern history. AEG didn’t need to invest in David Beckham to raise soccer’s profile in America; they needed to invest in U.S. Soccer. (Or better insurance.)

      Hell yeah. Despite our loss to Brazil in the final today. I can’t agree more with Brooks’ sentiment that we should look to America for American soccer. While we don’t have nearly the farm system of the global soccer powerhouses like Spain and Brazil, the infrastructure is certainly there, as well as the ability. Remember when American ice hockey was laughable when compared to the USSR? Neither do I, being born in ’82 and all. But I saw the movie. Well hey, where did that go?

      Having been a fan of American soccer since the ’96 (update: my bad, 94) World Cup here, I’ve never been able to talk much about it with other people. This past week, once I told them what had happened with Spain, I’ve never felt as much interest and enthusiasm for an upcoming soccer match as this morning. Keep it up America (and the LA Galaxy’s real hero, Landon Donovan) and good luck next month when we play our southern rivals, Mexico.

      And as long as we’re on the subject of Michael Jackson and USA soccer, you gotta check out this memorial jersey.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, News, Rumors & Gossip, Soccer

      South Africa’s World Cup ambiance: Bees!!! I mean the vuvuzela.

      June 28, 2009 /

      http://www.rnw.nl/data/files/images/lead/3628828464_5039fb020b.jpg

      While watching the biggest game in U.S. soccer history during a Lions Club party at Far Bar (they never let me down because they always let me in) I couldn’t help but wonder what the strange background noise was throughout the broadcast. At first I thought the nice grandma next to me had fainted into her Wasabi Fries, but thanks to Martin Rogers at Yahoo! Sports I now know (psst…you can hear for yourself in Rogers’ article), and dread its upcoming World Cup preponderance:

      If you’re still not familiar with the term, the vuvuzela is the instrument that provides that horrendous droning, foghorn-like sound that has assaulted eardrums as a constant accompaniment to coverage of the World Cup warmup event. And you haven’t heard the last of it.

      The vuvuzela is seen as an integral part of the soccer-watching experience in South Africa and FIFA has already given the green light to its use in next year’s World Cup finals. That could mean a month’s worth of mind-numbing horn blowing as the musical backdrop to the greatest tournament in soccer.

      Something clearly needs to be done — but without offending the South African people or interfering with their proud traditions.

      Agreed. Goodness gracious, is this the sound I’m going to have to listen to for the 20-some games I’ll watch next summer? I know it’s a different culture over there and we always need to be respectful of the traditions of others, but oh man, it’s like playing a match in a bee hive. I hope the droves of new viewers in America of the next World Cup aren’t turned away from the sport when they hear it for 3 hours.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Rumors & Gossip, Soccer

      Brazil rallies from 0-2 deficit to beat U.S., 3-2, and with the Confederations Cup

      June 28, 2009 /

      Via the Los Angeles Times…

      Producing the best soccer it has played in recent memory, the United States men’s national team came within a whisker Sunday of pulling off its second staggering international soccer upset in just five days.

      After shutting out Spain, the world’s No. 1-ranked team, 2-0, in midweek, the U.S. was leading Brazil by the same score at halftime in the final of the FIFA Confederations Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.

      Then, the five-time world champions and defending Confederations Cup champions regrouped and came back with a vengeance.

      Three goals in the second half, the first scored after a mere 45 seconds, earned Brazil a 3-2 victory as it won the eight-nation tournament for a record third time. The Brazilians also won the event in 1997 and 2005.

      Bummer.

      Soccer

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