Galaxy addition equals Ruiz subtraction

Los Angeles have signed Argentine defender Eduardo Dominguez, according to MLS headquarters and will join the team after he obtains a visa and international transfer clearance.

This likely signals the end of Carlos Ruiz's Galaxy days, but no reports on whether he's been dealt to another MLS squad or simply released. Dominguez, 29, joins the Galaxy from Huracan in Argentina's first division.

"We are excited to add Eduardo to our squad and believe that he will add balance, quality and experience to our defense," Galaxy Director of Soccer Paul Bravo said. "He has all the attributes necessary to be an outstanding defender in this league."

The Galaxy made no mention of Ruiz in the press release but added that "the Galaxy will need to clear a senior roster spot in order to officially add Dominguez to the roster."

Donovan left out of MLS Millionaires Club

Washington Post soccer blogger/journalist Steve Goff recently posted the MLS player salary sheet, and the most surprising thing wasn't that that there were five players whose base salary was over one million dollars. The surprising thing was that Landon Donovan wasn't one of them, while Claudio Reyna still was.

Current Captain America Donovan's base salary is listed at $900,000, over $4.5 million less than his teammate David Beckham, but more shocking is the fact that the former Captain America Claudio Reyna makes $300,000 more per year in guaranteed salary. Putting aside for the moment that Donovan is the current captain of the USMNT, while Reyna is retired (Donovan is Bucky to Reyna's Steve Rogers), it is hard to understand why Reyna continues to be part of the Millionaires Club in MLS.

Given Reyna's age (35 in July) and his pedestrian performance in MLS last season, one would imagine that the MLS brass would sit him down prior to this season and attempt to re-negotiate his salary. Reyna appeared in 21 of 30 matches last season, helping the Red Bulls in a late season push into the MLS Cup playoffs, but even Reyna himself would acknowledge that he's lost a step, that he's not the player he was.

But my point is not really that they are paying Reyna too much. If his agent was able to finagle a nice contract when he entered the league in 2007, so be it. Good for him. He's certainly not over the hill and if he can stay healthy, the Red Bulls will be more successful with him than without him. But if you're LD, the new Cap America, you have to be a bit peeved that you aren't getting paid slightly more -- that MLS appears to be valuing the past a bit more than the present. After all, all five players in the Millionaires Club are over the age of 30. The youngest player on the list is MLS "rookie" Marcello Gallardo, midfielder for DC United, who just turned 32 in January.

For many American fans, Donovan, 26, is the face of MLS or at the very least the American face. He is certainly the most well known player on the U.S. national team and although there are LD haters out there (see Steve Davis' column on this phenomenon), no one can deny that he is one of the most talented American players since ... well, since Claudio Reyna.

Of course, LD is at a bit of negotiating disadvantage when compared to other the other young Americans in MLS. He can't threaten Europe. He wants to play here. He hated Germany and one doesn't get the sense in interviews that he is looking longingly across the pond.

Sure, $900,000 is a lot of money to regular folk, but doesn't the new Captain America deserve to be the first under-30 member of the Millionaires Club in MLS?

"Wow, Galaxy stuff is expensive"

$2100? Do you also get to be the starting goalkeeper for a month?

Beckham to buy MLS club

During an interview on 60 minutes, David Beckham revealed that his contract allows him the option to buy an MLS club when his contract with the Galaxy is up in 2011.

Oh, and fuck you, Anderson Cooper, "little known soccer team in Los Angeles." Little known to your metro-sexual ass. It would have been nice if you did some research. "He's not just known for scoring..." A couple interesting points, though:

• MLS attendance is up 9% since Becks arrival
  
• After five years Becks could make about $250 million
  
• Beckham still sounds like a little girl
• Andy Cooper plays like a girl

Ruud awakening for LA fans

Ok, the trite headline aside, how should LA fans feel about their new coach Ruud Gullit?

The former Chelsea, Newcastle, Feyenoord manager was named as a replacement for outgoing Frank Yallop who "resigned" to take the head coach reigns of the expansion San Jose Earthquakes on Friday. So, Alexi Lalas got his big-name coach to go with his big-name signing. But will it turn into big-time play or is it just a couple of washed up Euro trash having one last hurrah? More on this later.

In other coaching news, Bruce Arena was given the boot after just two seasons as the head coach of New York.

LA hope Becks, new kit stops them from sucking

The Los Angeles Beckhams unveil their new look just in time for another season of Project Runway.

Rumor mill cranks out a doozy

A rumor floating around cyberspace has actor and certifiable lunatic Tom Cruise buying the Los Angeles Galaxy to help pay the salary of his buddy David Beckham. Quick, check your copies of Dianetics. This must be the sign of the end of days. Yep, here it is: And, lo, the finisher of impossible missions will buy the galaxy and he and the boy of spice will feast upon the masses. Cruise's first plans as owner of the Galaxy are to change the mascot to Xenu Princess Warrior, reaquire former Galaxy player Andrew Shue, who will be given a producer's credit, oh and Chris Albright will be cast into a volcano. Sorry, Chris.
TYH

Here's the Marie Claire article that started it all.

American Revolution, Part II

Ok, King George is back from the dead and he’s trying to quell yet another American revolution. His troubled spirit is taking the form of various British journalists … British journalists, there’s an oxymoron.

In preparation for Becks arrival in the New World, the Mirror and the Guardian published stories that quoted Los Angeles Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas, as he watched his new acquisition finish his tenure with Real Madrid as a champion.

"The fact that a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business…There’s this delusion that if it’s English then it’s great. But a whole world exists outside of England. That’s reflected in the difficulties they had when everyone ran to the Premiership. Maybe it’s OK for the fan but, for the average development of the players, their game is struggling."

Was Lalas serious when he referred to the EPL as an "inferior product"? I guess it’s possible he was, but I think he was just being a good GM and selling his league. He is right about one thing. The sun has set on the British Empire. The top players in the world are not English, no matter what the British press expounds. That’s what Lalas is talking about when he says there is a "delusion" in England.

And this "delusion" is propagated by a British press that cannot present a story without building in layer upon layer of subjectivity -- a bias lasagna, if you will.

Check out this dish served up by an unnamed London AP writer:

Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey are among the American players in the Premier League, although they play for modest Fulham. None of the American players in England are stars of the caliber of those at teams such as Manchester United and Chelsea.

It is blatantly self-contradictory. How can the EPL be the best league in the world if the only two teams getting high caliber players are Man U and Chelsea? Fulham, who also features another American, Carlos Bocanegra, as a regular starter may not be the cream of the crop, but to belittle the American impact in the EPL by mentioning only two players on a "modest" team is misrepresentative. And need I remind the British of their former colonies’ cry, "No taxation without representation."

First of all, the writer chose to ignore the contributions of Tim Howard at Everton (and before that ManU, where he was named EPL goalkeeper of the year in 2004). Tony Burns, ESPNsoccernet’s voice of Everton, called Howard, "An excellent signing and up there with Nigel Martyn as one of the best keepers we’ve had post Neville Southall." The AP hack also ignored contributions of fellow keepers Marcus Hahnemann (a mainstay at Reading) and Brad Friedel (a veteran at Blackburn), not to mention the field players: defender John Spector (West Ham) and midfielders Bobby Convey (Reading) and DaMarcus Beasley (Manchester City).

The American player has always gotten a bad rap from the European press, and deservedly so 10 years ago, but Europe (and England is the biggest culprit of this) does not recognize the strides that the U.S. has made both in terms of its player exports and its domestic league. The media continues to misrepresent the U.S as a bunch of amateurs who can’t hold a candle to the superior play of the EPL.

But the character assassination doesn’t end with our players; look how the London AP writer misrepresents Lalas in his initial paraphrase:

Despite criticizing the Premier League for sloganeering and over-marketing, Lalas claimed that, when he arrives, Beckham will have a higher profile in the United States than Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan.


"The U.S. will never have dealt with an athlete who has had this kind of international impact,” Lalas told The Mirror. “Tiger Woods has that international appeal but, with due respect to Woods and Michael Jordan, David Beckham is at an entirely different level."

Lalas is discussing Beckham’s unprecedented international appeal, not his "profile in the United States." He is talking about the interest in MLS that will be generated in all corners of the globe due to the Beckham signing, not only among the U.S. fans.

The AP hack closes with "several" papers’ laughable criticism of LA’s win over Real Salt Lake. How does someone who refers to Fulham as "modest" compare Manchester United and Chelsea to MLS’s two worst teams at the moment?

The Guardian also tries clumsily to make this point by discussing Lalas’ belief that there would be "a lot of stars who would struggle [in MLS]." You can’t even call the response journalism:

However, given that many players, including the likes of Paul Dalglish, Ronnie O'Brien and Terry Cooke have left England and found a modicum of success in MLS, is Lalas really being fair with his criticism? Or is it he that is misguided regarding a league that did provide three of this season's Champions League finalists?

Paul Dalglish, Ronnie O'Brien and Terry Cooke? Really? That’s the best you can do. O’Brien and Cooke are solid, serviceable players, but Dalglish isn’t setting the world on fire. He had two goals in 11 games last season and no goals so far this season. And I thought Lalas was criticizing the EPL, not the Champions League. Last time I checked, no North or South American teams were invited to that party.

But with all that said, the comparison between the EPL and MLS is really unnecessary, and those doing so hide agendas of denigration of either or both. Our leagues, like our nations, can co-exist peacefully, but MLS should not allow itself to be tyrannized by a British press that sees itself as the sole proprietors of quality soccer. With the Fourth of July right around the corner, I’ll let our second president John Adams speak for me:

"The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."

AP Hack
Guardian Trash
Mirror Idiots

A Celestial Event: Galaxy turns into Cosmos

The obsessive-compulsive shut-ins over at bigsoccer (I say that with love) discovered this gem that seems to indicate that the LA Galaxy will soon be a Euro 2000 all-star team: Los Angeles Galaxy hoopt ook op Luis Figo. Now I don’t speak Dutch. In fact, there are only two things that I hate in this world: People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures and the Dutch. However, I assume that to “hoopt ook op” means that they are trying to sign the one-time Footballer of the Year or perhaps they just spit a loogie in his face. I know the phrase “epp op ork ah ah” means I love you (according to the Jetsons, anyway). For the sake of argument, let's assume it means the former.

No doubt Lalas and the other boosters attempting to turn MLS into European footballers version of Cocoon will begin to write stories with rote headlines like, “Another star to be added to the Galaxy.” But MLS should think seriously before adding yet another marquee player to the Galaxy roster. Becks, Xavier and now Figo? Has single-entity gone out the door and with it all the fears of MLS turning into the NASL? I’m certainly not against bringing an incredible talent like Figo to MLS, but shouldn’t another franchise get a nip from the world all-star whiskey jug? Juan Pablo Angel is already proving what a single marquee allocation can provide. Why not share the wealth? That was the original intention of single-entity, that and to pool resources, something that MLS still needs to do. Despite the financial windfall of Spice Boy (which may not fully materialize this year if England continues to call him up), MLS isn't out of the woods. Many teams operate in the red, lack stadiums and/or boast pitiful attendance. Does Commissioner Garber and all the owner-operators around the league really feel that MLS is strong enough now to withstand a blackhole. Galaxy ... Cosmos ... What's in a name? A lot apparently.