Despite Apperances to the Contrary, I Am Not Joining the David Beckham Hype Machine

I'm just saying...prepare to be let down by the hype that's certainly on its way, if not already here.

If the mainstream US sports media knows how to do one thing with respect to soccer in this country, it's over-hyping things. I only need to point at the 2006 US World Cup team and the last four years of the Freddy Adu era to illustrate that point (although Adu has been playing out his damn mind at the U-20 World Cup in Canada, where the US plays Uruguay in the second round this week).

And it's happening again with David Beckham's arrival later this week. I seem to recall warning of this back in January.

With Beckham's arrival, even if you personally aren't watching, I imagine many ESPN-watchers will be tuning into their first MLS games ever with Beckham in a Galaxy shirt expecting to see world-beating performances. And perhaps that will happen. Colombian international Juan Pablo Angel has lit the league on fire (a league-leading 9 goals in 10 games) since leaving English side Aston Villa for New York. Perhaps Beckham will do the same, as he was arguably in top form leading Madrid to their first Spanish League title in 4 years in June.

But there's also a pretty good chance that you won't see some performances worthy of anything resembling top-flight soccer; and that's not Beckham's fault. At the All-Star Break, Los Angeles is currently mired at the bottom of the table with a record of 3-5-4, 13 points. That's a mark good enough for 12th place out of 13 teams. In the second half, it doesn't get any easier. In an effort to ensure tranquility among the league's owners, the schedule was structured this season to ensure that a healthy Beckham would visit each of the League's 12 other teams. As such, Galaxy still have to play 11 of their 15 road away games. Add into that fixture congestion with Galaxy's involvement in SuperLiga, the US Open Cup, and friendlies against Chelsea, Tigres, and Vancouver Whitecaps, and you end up with an overstretched team whose lack of depth has already been made quite obvious.

Even with recent additions like the signing of Honduras's Gold Cup star Carlos Pavon, the return of Landon Donovan from international duty, and the arrival of ex-Portuguese international Abel Xavier, the Galaxy are still not a very good team, and will face an uphill battle to make the playoffs. It's not an impossible task, but it's a tall order, and I think there's more bad soccer in front of LA before any kind of championship soccer. The hype machine will plow through every city Beckham visits, and if the Galaxy don't make the playoffs, the "Around the Horn" types will likely brand the move as a failure, a wild goose chase, and perhaps as "another reason why soccer will never make it in America."

Just letting you know now so you're not surprised later...