By Jesse Fink
November 30th 2007 @ 6:06am
Shots across the Pacific
Well, this scribe takes his hat off to Becks. John Kosmina didn’t deploy Terry McFlynn until late in the piece in Tuesday night’s extravaganza at Telstra Stadium and to my eyes didn’t even get a touch on him (perhaps, like me, he was full of admiration for the guy for continuing on after being poleaxed accidentally by Brendon Santalab).
In fact the only bit of argy bargy involving Goldenballs worth description was Robbie Middleby’s half-hearted shoulder check early in the second half, which the Englishman responded to with a shamelessly over-the-top yelling and fingerpointing routine. (Such bad acting I have not seen since Dida’s extraordinary Strasberg-worthy performance at Celtic Park.)
Beckham’s subsequent retaliatory taking out of Middleby was equally crude, and under normal circumstances should have been a straight send-off, but there was no chance of that happening. Despite Los Angeles Galaxy thug Kevin Harmse’s indiscretions – nearly cutting Juninho in half with his foot and stamping on Adam Biddle’s wrist – the match was played in a convivial spirit and the crowd got its money’s worth.
Watching it at home I even managed to enjoy it, in spite of my natural cynicism about exhibition games and the appalling coverage by Channel Ten that deemed it unnecessary to replay at half-time Sydney’s three superb first-half goals.
Instead we got treated to every conceivable camera angle of Becks in action. Becks flashing his teeth. Becks clutching at his left foot. Becks arching his eyebrow. Becks scratching his goolies. If there were any doubt the supporting cast of 21 other footballers were there as scenery props, it was dispelled right at the end of the program when Ten’s voiceover guy informed us the sponsors had brought us the “David Beckham Special” and not Sydney FC vs LA Galaxy.
Now, mercifully, Becks has decamped back to the States with his tattoos and Juninho’s kid-sized shirt and we can all get on with our lives after being sprayed in his stardust and his eponymous eau de parfum, David Beckham Instinct.
It was nice to hear my old mate Rale Rasic rhapsodise after the match about the legacy the Beckham royal visit will have on Australian football for generations to come, and he’s probably right.
In my opinion, however, the real benefit will be felt in the annual four-team Pan-Pacific Championship of Major League Soccer, J.League and A-League clubs due to be launched in Hawaii today and staged in February 2008.
Beckham has his pawprints all over this event, too, mind.
With LA Galaxy guaranteed a berth each year, and MLS bankrolling the tournament, there’s no question that without Beckham the whole shebang would never have seen the light of day.
But it should go on to outlive him and has the potential to become as big a fixture on the Australian sporting calendar as State of Origin, the VB Series and the Super 14s. In fact I would venture it could eclipse all those events given enough time and so long as Australia gets a chance to stage it on home soil.
With the eventual inclusion of a Mexican Primera División side in train, it promises to be a tremendous showcase of trans-Pacific football and a big money-spinner for its backers.
That said, though, the omission of a Liga Indonesia entrant is a major disappointment.
One of the great eye-openers for me having watched the Asian Champions League and the Asian Cup for the first time was seeing the potential of Indonesia, in terms of its sheer quality of football, its massive fan base and its ability to serve as a bridge between Muslim and Western cultures in this period of great geopolitical tension.
Perhaps too much is made of the game’s healing powers beyond the pitch but all the same I feel the PPC is missing a golden opportunity to extend a hand of friendship and fraternity to one of the biggest, if not the biggest football market in the region.
Let’s hope that oversight can be corrected soon.
In the meantime, let’s rejoice at the great leaps the game is making and revel in that we are even talking about a PPC at all. The late Jim Bayutti, the Australian Soccer Federation boss who first proposed a similar event involving teams from Taiwan, Australia, Cambodia and Japan way back in 1965, only to have it come to nothing, must be smiling somewhere in heaven.
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Spiro Zavos said | November 30th 2007 @ 6:26am | Report comment
I like Jesse’s notion of the redemptive powers of football in Indonesia. Too often there have been football wars, the Celtic-Rangers divide being a nasty and classic example. But if football can help unite Christians and Moslems in Indonesia to a common cause around which they can identify that will a great thing for the region and for the image of football. The prececent is the Ireland national rugby side which is the only time, as i understand it, that thed island is united as Ireland.
Kazama said | November 30th 2007 @ 7:34am | Report comment
I admit that I too enjoyed the game Tuesday night. It gave us everything we could have asked to spark an interest for our great game in average Joe and Jane Aussie. I still think it is doubtful, though, that a large amount of the casual fans will start turning up to Sydney FC games (or any other games) as a result of this.
Channel 10 were hopeless with the telecast. I said in response to the last blog that they wouldn’t care about football ever again, and they certainly gave me that impression.
On the negative side, I think Tuesday’s game showed that we have teams capable of playing good attacking football, yet in the A-League it is bore draw after bore draw every week. I appreciate that the A-League is a tight competition, but playing defensive hasn’t done anyone any favours this season. Why do our teams keep playing like this? Sydney scored more goals on Tuesday night than all eight clubs combined last round. The casual fans that we might get from the impact of having Becks here won’t stick around if we have four 0-0s this weekend.
As for the Pan-Pacific Championship, I think it is a great idea. Europe has plenty of big name pre-season tournaments so we should have one too. I think once it proves that it can work (and if it doesn’t, football is surely doomed) we can start bringing in teams from more nations. I think Chinese and South Korean teams could also bring quality to the competition. As for Indonesia, maybe have their national team (or a ‘Select XI’) compete instead of a club side. That would give them a better chance of making an impression on the competition, and would be a better representation of the aforementioned unifying role football has played there.
Spiro Zavos said | November 30th 2007 @ 9:50am | Report comment
I watched the game to see if David Beckham’s fame justified the huge adulation he creates. Coming from a rugby perspective I decided that Beckham is a Jonny Wilkinson-type of football player. He doesn’t attack the gain line and the goal like say his hero Bobby Charlton. He is a brilliant kicker of the ball, with wonderful vision for where the play should go to next. His crosses, long balls and short passes were invariably immaculate (one missed, just, I think). Like Wilkinson he is a dead-eye from the dead-ball situation.
It is this genius from the dead-ball situation (marked by his wonderful goal against Sydney FC) which brings the spotlight on him.
Why is he a celebrity, though?
Football is a worldwide phenomenon and the ethic of the game is to create mythic figures. He is very good looking with Michael Parkinson noting that he is the most handsome man he’s ever interviewed. He is a metro-male, slim, tattooed (although my wife Judy found the neck tattoo unattractive). He seems like a nice chap. The film ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ confirmed his celebrity status. I noticed a young woman in the stand holding up a sign saying, ‘Bend Me Beckham,’ a sort of sexual signal I guess.
josh from canberra said | November 30th 2007 @ 10:32am | Report comment
One of the more interesting outcomes of Tuesday’s match apart from goldenballs was that the crowd really enjoyed the game because of all the goals that was scored. Being a friendly and not for points both teams attacked and played openly. To get anywhere near the crowd levels to A-league games attacking football needs to be encouraged.As this is the middle third of the season jesse what do you think of an idea that in the middle third of the season( rounds 8-14 )do you think the FFA should add bonus points for scoring 3 goals or more like they did in the pre season to help keep the crowds coming and keep interest in the season. Without the attraction of big name stars playing every week the only way to bring the people in are ’sexy football’ and because every team plays each other the points could potentially be evenly spread and could benefit all teams. As the galaxy game was a success it would be great for next pre season teams coming from europe to play a series of big games against melb., syd. and roar. The pan games could only benefit local clubs and make international friendlies more enticing for free to air(hopefully not ten)
Midfielder said | November 30th 2007 @ 10:42am | Report comment
I went to the game taken by a client with a rugby background. Being a supporter of the Mariners the through of saying come on Sydney ………………… ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, but on the night I saw and heard the cove, and they got my support.
On the match me thinks the Goalie for Galaxy was ……… eeerrrr. how do you say it …….????? crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Playing in midfield for more years than I care to remember, i watched him play to see / learn … nay observe the role of a midfield player. The off the ball work he does amazed me, we all know about his passing and dead skill, nay ………gift, ………..BUT his movenment to close play down or open it up by getting into key positions was awerson I was gobsmacked to be honnest. Vision of the right pass to the right player at the right time left in awe of his decision making abilities.
He is or never has been considered one of the all time greats of the game, but he is among the top of the next list.
From football view the Pan-Pacific Championship when combined with the four places in the new Asian Champions League will have an impact on sport in Australia that has not been realised yet by the main stream media. The Pan-Pacific Championship as you indicated with BECKS as the kick start will forever change sport in Australia.
In closing in spite of myself I enjoyed myself, and would do it agian.
TIMMO said | November 30th 2007 @ 11:58am | Report comment
I wonder if the MLS has ever considered having a team in Haiwaii? They make nearly 20 billion dollars a year in tourism alone. Could they sustain a team?
With regards to this tornument I do wonder if they will also eventually expand this initial four-team tornument to include teams from New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Korea and even perhaps Brazil and Argentina. Hawaii is centrally located?
Anyway that we can get our teams playing more competive matches the better.
Midfielder said | November 30th 2007 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
New Zealand is included by way of there A-league team, Korea is included in the orginal plan, Mexio along with Singapoure is stage two, Brazil and Argentina maybe a long way off. Canada not sure of the plans