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Joe Cannon, the Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper, labelled the side that included David Beckham, the England midfield player, as no better than a pub team after the club failed to reach the Major League Soccer play-offs.
Beckham, who moved to the club in July, was unable to prevent a 1-0 defeat by Chicago Fire bringing their season to an early end.
Cannon claimed that their performance against Chicago was one of the worst he has known. “I felt like we were a second division or a pub team and they were like Chelsea,” he said. “I have not faced that many shots in a game for a long while.”
Galaxy’s failure to reach the play-offs means that up to eight players are likely to leave and the position of Frank Yallop, the coach, is in doubt.
Beckham, who played the final 33 minutes on Sunday, said that he would not be getting involved with any decisions on the future of the club. “If Alexi [Lalas, the president] does come to me with questions and advice with certain things, of course, I’m there and I will give it, but the decisions in the club are not down to me.”
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Have to say that I have yet to see one decent MLS game in the last two years.
The quality of football is diabolical and bringing in big name stars like DB is admirable but an act of futility if you ask me.
Living in Toronto I am astonished that 20,000 people pack BMO Field for every home game and in truth watching the fans enjoy themselves is more interesting than watching the games.
I would personally love to see the MLS become a great product but there is a long way to go before I would pay money regularly to watch all that the MLS offers.
Would rather spend the money to fly back to Glasgow to watch Celtic 4 - 6 times a year.
Tom H, Toronto, Canada
A pub team would not be too far from the truth. Having seen some of the Galaxy's performances I can say they are a LONG way from the standard of English, Spanish or Italian football (obviously, I guess). Beckham was brought in as a money making venture, not a football one. A team would not spend all their money on one player. They would spread the money out on several players and try to strengthen their weaknesses. LA Galaxy are going to need 5-6 new players to be the best team in USA. But with Beckham, at least they'll sell some shirts!
Andrew Duncan, Godalming,
Bye Bye Yallop
Joey JoJo Shabadoo, Long Beach, California