Beckham Plays and Other Stuff

I watched the first half of Los Angeles FC and DC United knowing that Beckham probably wouldn't play until the second half. Becks came in, made some nice passes, made a nice cross, and shit on the ref. He hates losing, hates refs, but is pretty gentlemanly in losing.

Good News

LAFC put Becks in a 10 role (creative midfielder) and he was pretty good. Becks couldn't defend for shit, but he moved alright and got the offense organized. He was the center of every offensive chance, and LAFC should have won 3-1. Instead, they lost 1-0 (see bad news). I expected to see Becks play his normal wing position dumping crosses, but he was actually surprisingly better in the 10 spot.

Bad News

The Galaxy suck. Bad. New signing Pavon missed two sitters (i.e. free goals) set up by Becks. That's pretty pathetic that you were picked up for goal scoring, and all you have to do is head that shit in and you can't. Battle missed two sitters as well from Becks. Donovan missed an easy chance, but he's a puss. The Galaxy need to learn how to score.

Overall, the Galaxy aren't going to make the playoffs this year (that's cool, as the announcers mentioned, Pele didn't get his team into the playoffs his first year either), but LAFC's offense will get better as Beckham plays.

Other News

A River Plate fan club head was murderer in the aftermath of in-fighting in the fan club. I like River Plate, but for Argentina, soccer is war. Fuck that noise.

Fifa 08 released the cover to the North American version. It features, Club America goalie Guillermo Ochoa, horseface Ronaldinho, and the New York Red Bulls' 17 year-old Josmer Altidore. Ochoa is the best goal keeper in North and South America, so that's cool. Ronaldinho is pretty much the face of soccer for the world sans someone else, so that's cool. But why the fuck is Altidore on the cover when there are still people in the world. Shit, if you couldn't put Becks, put a dog, it'd be the same shit in terms of face recognition of Altidore.

Power Rankings

1: Barcelona

Signing Henry, Yaya Touré, Éric Abidal, and Gabriel Milito forces me to.

2: Inter Milan

They dominated their league last year. They're pretty much the same team except the added former Roma defender Christian Chivu who was wanted by Real Madrid, Chelsea, and your mom.

3: Manchester United

I don't think they're that good because they had to beat a b-team Chelsea with their a-team on PKs, but Man U has Owen Hargreaves, Anderson, and Nani on the bench and West Ham United's reason for still being in the EPL, Tevez teaming up with Wayne Rooney up front to sit and take crosses and passes from Cristiano Ronaldo. They have to be good, right?

4: Real Madrid

As a fan, I wasn't too happy about them being linked with every player on the planet. The pick ups they did get, defenders Pepe and Cristoph Metzelder as well as former Barca player Javier Saviola, are pretty solid because RM's weakness was in defense (which is weird to say for a Capello team). From watching preseason, Real Madrid is still a second half team, which won't hack it this season if that's the case. Everyone in La Liga is much better than last year.

5: AC Milan

Champions League winners last year, they were able to convince Kaka to stay instead of going to Real Madrid, they have Fat Boy Ronaldo getting healthier, and picked up a young phenom in Alexander Pato. I have a feeling they are going to suck. They got lucky in last year's Champions League. This year, luck won't cut it.

The Rest:

6: Chelsea
7: Liverpool
8: Sevilla
9: Newcastle
10: Lyon

You're probably wondering why I placed Newcastle so high. I bet my former writing buddy Oli Porter they would finish 8th in the EPL table or higher. If I win, he writes a guest column here at Footfut. If I lose...I'm not telling what I have to do because it's so horrible.