The Beckham Experiment Review List

Phew! I finally had a chance to finish Grant Wahl's The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America last night. It's tough to find time for reading around The Best Eleven HQ these days. I had originally planned to write an extensive review of the book, but, now that I'm a month late to the party, there's not much new I could say about the book that hasn't already been said.

However, I will add that the generally positive reviews of the book are warranted, the book is an excellent read, especially for MLS fans, US Soccer Fans, Alan Gordon Fans, and world soccer/sports fans in general. It features very entertaining insights into the inner workings of the American soccer 'way' and is not necessarily a book solely about "Beckham", but a book about MLS, the LA Galaxy, and US Soccer in general.

If you're still on the fence, take the time to read some of the detailed reviews on the excellent soccer blogs I've listed here.



Pitch Invasion (Link)


Climbing the Ladder (Link)


The 24th Minute (Link)


Match Fit USA (Link)


The Offside (Link)


Soccer365 (Link)


Major League Soccer Talk (Link)


Down the Byline (Link)


Goal.com (Link)


Ollie Irish (BigSoccer Blog) (Link)


Never Captain Nicky Butt (Link)



This is American Soccer (Interview with Grant Wahl about the book) (Link)

MLS Players with 100 Club Appearances in Europe

This is a chart of current MLS players that have made at least 100 appearances for a single club in Europe. David Beckham, Raphael Wicky, and Claudio Lopez have all made 100 appearances for two different clubs in Europe.

I was somewhat surprised to see that players like Abel Xavier and Claudio Reyna didn't make the list, but they never stuck around a single club for very long, or maybe in Reyna's case, he was injured too often.

Quite a few of the players in the chart played for many other European clubs as well.

Player	Current MLS Team	Former Club in Europe	Appearances
David Beckham	LA Galaxy	Manchester United	265
Tony Caig	Houston Dynamo	Carlisle United	244
Dave van den Bergh	NY Red Bulls	FC Utrecht	184
Juan Pablo Angel	NY Red Bulls	Aston Villa	175
Tomasz Frankowski	Chicago Fire	Wisła Kraków	173
Carl Robinson	Toronto FC	Wolverhampton Wanderers	165
Raphael Wicky	Chivas USA	FC Sion	130
Laurent Robert	Toronto FC	Newcastle United	129
Raphael Wicky	Chivas USA	Hamburger SV	126
Claudio Lopez	Kansas City Wizards	Valencia CF	123
Jim Brennan	Toronto FC	Nottingham Forest	123
David Beckham	LA Galaxy	Real Madrid	116
Pablo Richetti	FC Dallas	Real Valladolid	110
Tom McManus	Colorado Rapids	Hibernian	109
Ante Jazic	LA Galaxy	Rapid Vienna	107
Claudio Lopez	Kansas City Wizards	Lazio	105
Marcelo Gallardo	DC United	AS Monaco	102

Here's a few more players that have made at least 40 appearances for a single club in Europe:

-- Carlos Marinelli (KC) - Middlesbrough
-- Danny Dichio (TOR) - QPR, Sunderland, West Brom, Millwall, PNE
-- Collin Samuel (TOR) - Dundee United
-- Gino Padula (CLB) - QPR
-- Abel Xavier (LA) - Benfica, Everton
-- Claudio Reyna (NY) - Wolfsburg, Glasgow Rangers, Manchester City
-- Kenny Deuchar (RSL) - Gretna
-- Ramiro Corrales (SJ) - Ham-Kam

Best Bending Free Kicks

The list starts with a kick from a Japanese High School Championship game, and ends with two very well known free kicks, the David Beckham vs Greece kick in injury time and the seemingly impossible bend of the Roberto Carlos kick vs France.


Player from a Japanese High School Championship Game
The kick is around the 45 second mark


Marcos Assunção - Real Betis


Mikael Nilsson - IFK Goteberg


Dwayne DeRosario - San Jose Earthquakes
Best View at the 56 second mark


Ronaldinho - Brazil
"Golaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzoooooo!!!!!!"


Juan Roman Riquelme - Boca Juniors


Alvaro Recoba - Inter Milan


David Beckham - England


Roberto Carlos - Brazil

Pan Pacific Championship Top Players

These are some of the top players to watch on the non-MLS sides in the PPC. I can't wait for the games, I'm suffering from MLS withdrawal, and I follow the A and J-League pretty closely throughout the year.

Gamba Osaka

EDIT: I had included Endo and Kaji, however they weren't included in the squad due to the East Asian Cup.

Satoshi Yamaguchi - The captain and a solid defender who leads the back line for Osaka.

Baré - One of the many Brazilians currently playing in the J-League. He had a pretty impressive run last season, knocking in 20 goals in 31 games. In 2005, Bare scored 6 goals in Ventforet Kofu's playoff promotion game, to earn them a spot in J1.

Lucas - Another Brazilian who was recently acquired from FC Tokyo. He's knocked in 48 goals over the past 3 years in Tokyo.

Sydney FC

Juninho - The Brazilian international spent time playing in England, Scotland, and Spain, and is Sydney's marquee player. A fantastic player, he has unfortunately had a ton of minor injury problems and, like another marquee player in this tournament, has spent a lot of time on the bench. I'm sure the Galaxy will remember how brilliant he can be, after their friendly with Sydney a few months back.

Tony Popovic - The big Australian defender spent the bulk of his career playing in the J-League and with Crystal Palace in England. He's been capped by Australia 58 times and is the captain of Sydney FC.

Alex Brosque - His first season with Sydney didn't go very well, but the young FW/Winger made a fine comeback this past season, leading the team with 8 goals in the regular season. He has been included in Australia's squad for their upcoming WC qualifier. The Galaxy will remember him as well, he scored two goals in the recent friendly.