Recently in Rants Category

You know it's tough out there when the annual Daily Breeze ball drive needs a little bounce.

I'm also noticing a dearth of donated soccer balls, BTW, hence this appeal to 100 Percent Soccer blog readers. I already have calls out to Chivas USA and the Galaxy who are peering into their equipment rooms, but yet to make any firm commitment (hint, hint, folks). The Sol should feel free to jump in, too.

Conveniently, there's a Sports Authority store across the parking lot from the Breeze building at the corner of Hawthorne and Torrance boulevards.

In other news:

*MLS announced Thursday the initial list of 62 college seniors to has invited to its annual combine Jan. 8-12 in Florida ahead of the SuperDraft that begins just two days after the combine's conclusion.

Locals invited include UCLA goalkeeper Brian Perk, midfielder/forward David Estrada and midfielder Kyle Nakazawa (Palos Verdes Estates).

The full list is here.

The Women's Professional Soccer draft is Jan. 15, BTW.

*A slight schedule change to the InterLiga schedule Jan. 10 at Home Depot Center. The first game will now be Tigres-Jaguares (3 p.m.) followed by Monterrey vs. Puebla.

Carson code enforcement officer Glenn Miller confiscates the food - but not the cart - of a bacon-wrapped hot dog vendor outside last weekend's Chivas USA SuperLiga game. Authorities plan to crack down again tonight.

Daily Breeze photos by Sean Hiller

The tentacles of Los Angeles-based Anshutz Entertainment Group extend throughout not only Southern California pop culture and civic life, but around the globe to include such figures as dead pop icon Michael Jackson and nominal Galaxy midfielder David Beckham.

But AEG, always it seems unnecessarily heavy-handed given their increasingly powerful and visible corporate profile, are now going after bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors at tonight's Gold Cup doubleheader at Home Depot Center.

It's always more about money than astute public relations for AEG who should think about improving the quality of the food and service inside the stadium.

Even better: AEG should try legitimizing some of these carts by providing the required access to running water and restrooms and slapping on an extra 75 cent charge rather than give their (over) paying customers another reason to gripe about bad sports teams, price gouging and plastic public realms like L.A. Live.

Soccer fan Oscar Rodriguez is a bacon-wrapped hot dog devotee.

And so is former Daily Breeze food critic Chris Cognac:

His soon to be aborted American adventure with the Galaxy makes three.

The first came in 1998, when a petulant Beckham threw away England's best chance of winning the World Cup since its lone triumph in 1966, getting himself sent off with a childish, retaliatory foul in the second round against Argentina.

The second came in 2003 when Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson showed him the door at the world's biggest club, concerned his growing fame and celebrity was undermining the team.

And now Beckham has failed in MLS, playing no small role in transforming what was the league's flagship franchise into its worst. A player who was supposed to bring star power and credibility to MLS instead merely exposed the inherent weaknesses of a league with a relatively low salary cap and small squads.

In the end, Beckham proved he's no Pele or even a Juan Pablo Angel.

Beckham is a simple, uncomplicated chap. What you see is what you get.

I have no doubt that when he originally left on loan for AC Milan it was, as he said, to keep fit at his relatively advanced age of 33 during what is by soccer standards a long off-season.

In Milan, he was allowed to do what he could not in MLS; play a specific role that emphasized his strengths rather than expose his increasing fragility, surrounded by players as good or better than him.

Beckham has said he was surprised by how much he enjoyed playing for Milan. The bigger surprise is that he was surprised by that.

It became clear last season, playing for an abysmal team surrounded by average players, that Beckham was both increasingly frustrated and disinterested.

Some players are capable of making a team better, hauling less talented teammates up to their level, inspiring them and setting an example.

Beckham is not that kind of player.

At the Galaxy, it became clear with virtually every pass, every cross and every free kick Beckham made that he needed a competent and accomplished supporting cast. That safety net simply did not exist.

Beckham is a role player with a knack for sublime free kicks and long, accurate passes perhaps no other player in the world can duplicate.

But when Beckham continually sends in crosses teammates are unable to finish or make passes less talented players are incapable of reading, the predictable result is a disenchanted, dissatisfied player.

Beckham's inaugural, injury-plagued season was little more than joke - some might use the word scam - that saw him make just two MLS starts, despite drawing huge crowds wherever he didn't appear.

Last season was in some respects even worse, his mediocre output of five goals and 10 assists in 25 MLS starts serving largely to underline his, and the team's, lack of achievements.

The often maligned Landon Donovan proved last year that even on a horrific team a talented player can have the best season of his career, especially if he's motivated by the prospect of a lucrative move abroad.

Donovan deserves a move to Bayern Munich and the U.S. National Team is likely to benefit from a player turning out for one of the world's best teams in one of this planet's best leagues.

Beckham had no such motivation.

Commercially, he had already enriched himself and Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group merely by signing on the dotted line of his $6.5 million a year contract and adding even more lucrative commercial endorsements along the way in the world's largest economy.

MLS may be a second-rate league - as is every other in the world outside of England, Italy, Germany and Spain - but it is incredibly demanding.

On the field, MLS is a physical, tough slog full of young, strapping athletes if not overly-talented players. Off it, there are thousands of miles of air travel and frequent time zone shifts capable of sapping the stamina of all but the most focused players.

Beckham, it's clear, was never focused. Worse, he underestimated the demands of MLS. Beckham has more in common with failures like Lothar Matthaus than successes such as Darren Huckerby.

There are 45 days until the season begins.

Replacing players of the stature of Beckham and Donovan will not be easy in that short time frame. But it does give Coach Bruce Arena considerable latitude under the salary cap to find a talented playmaker capable of putting his mark on the team in a way Beckham never did.

Beckham has failed - again, again and again - when it mattered most.

His time has gone. It's time for the Galaxy and American soccer to move on.

Because the only thing worse than failing is not owning up to a mistake.

And Beckham has proved a colossal mistake.

It's safe to say many Galaxy fans won't be sorry to see Pete Vagenas - often derided as "Pass-back Pete" - leave for Seattle.

But journalists will.

Why?

Because Vagenas was coherent, articulate and often funny. Not many athletes are. And that's journalistic gold when you're on a deadline.

He's definitely a member of my all-quote team.

The departure of Vagenas breaks the last tie with the Sigi Schmid era of players who were smart, chatty and downright fun to talk to.

Chris Albright? Gone. Kevin Hartman? Ditto. Tyrone Marshall. Done.

Those were players journalists flocked around when they held court in front of their locker after a game. They had something to say and a way of saying it.

Edson Buddle is a nice guy, but he is terminally shy and downplays his achievements. Nobody wants another "I just stuck my leg out and got lucky" quote.

Landon Donovan (apparently all but gone from these parts) is valued by the press precisely for his openness. He takes his sweet time emerging to talk after a game (that's fine, he's doing the things he needs to do as a top class athlete such as dipping in a whirlpool and getting a massage), but when he does he'll talk until you have no more questions.

I can't count the times an interview has ended with a flock of journalists looking at each other going "got anything else?"

So Pete's gone. Seattle-area journalists don't know how good they have it.

Message to Chris Klein: do not leave.

Or we'll have no-one to talk to.