The Face of American Football

Since I arrived in the States, I have been baffled by some of the things in football that I have seen and Tuesday night was a reminder of one that has annoyed me for years . Tuesday was the season opener for the MLS involving David Beckham s LA Galaxy but the issue was not the game or even the refereeing for a change, it was one man who's views are as painful as a rod down the old japs eye. This man is.......

Meet Alexis Lalas, an ex footballer from America who last year started working for ESPN as an analyst whenever they broadcast games.  Before I carry on my rant about this man I want to make it clear that this post is not a hit on American soccer. I have been very surprised and quite impressed with what I have witnessed and see alot of potential to grow our game in this country.

Lalas was born in Michigan and started his playing career in college at the New Jersey based Rutgers University. After college he some how found his way to Italy and played for Padova in Serie A. He only played thirty three games for them, not suprising as his talent levels were hardly good enough for the early years of the MLS never mind one of the best leagues in the world. He came home and was drafted by New England  before moving on to Kansas, New York, and LA to go along with his ninety-six appearances for the US national team. As an inductee to the US soccer hall of fame most likely because he was a below average center back playing in an even worse US team, people look at Lalas as one of the players that built the foundations of American soccer. After his playing career he became General Manager at a number of teams before becoming an ESPN analyst as I mentioned before.

First of all you just look at the man and clown comes to mind. He has stupid long curly red hair, a dumb beard, along with one of those voices that makes you want to punch him. Not only this he thinks he was a world class player from the way he talks, no Lalas you played in one of the worst leagues in the world at the time and i bet strikers back then loved playing against you as they were guaranteed a good game. Lalas was commenting the other night on Beckham and how he should be more committed to LA and the MLS, probably still angry about his firing which was well deserved because you did a terrible job Alexis. How dare he speak about Beckham like that when the man went back home to train with a proper team to prepare for the MLS season. Beckham is not struggling when it comes to most things but certainly not money, he could of just use the four months off to relax and enjoy LA, instead he decided to go back to a cold and frozen London to train with Spurs.

During the World Cup America played England, ESPN brought Lalas and Steve McMannaman to be the guests for the game. Lalas was sitting next to a real football player who actually knows what he is talking about. The man played for Real Madrid and scored a volley in a Champions League final, a game that Lalas could only take part in if it was played on a video game. So what Lalas did was attack Steve because of his comments that England have underachieved with the talent they pocess but still should have beat the USA. Lalas blasted the England players, our league, and how dare England think they are favourites. The man is painful, biased, and clueless and I loved it when Manchester United crushed the MLS all stars because once again proved he talks utter nonsense. Before the game he was blasting Fergie for playing reserves and  Lalas stated the All stars should make a statement and show the MLS is not a league to be messed with, so what happened Manchester United scored within twenty seconds and shut the muppet up.

This man looks like a clown, talks like a fan, and is hurting the US game because people who see him see he was an ex international and think he must know what he is talking about. If people take on board what people like Lalas preach then America is in trouble, they should be listening to people like Beckham, Barton, McMannaman, or Brian McBride(a very solid pro who played in England for many years) not Lalas or Twellman. ESPN broadcasts Premier League games now and thankfully stopped putting him on the panel, instead he just does US and MLS games and the reason is because he has no right to analyze the Premier League players or call himself an expert.

Rant over and my final wish is for him to be fired along with Max Buetos(another terrible host) and the football world will be a better place.