Photo by Bill Wechter
Very, very casual soccer fan here, and you won’t see many futbol posts here on LobShots. I played soccer as a little kid all the way through high school. I know a little about the English Premier League but less about the MLS. However, when it comes time for the World Cup, you’d think I was a diehard lifelong fan, showing up to the local bars in Stars and Stripes screaming at the top of my lungs. So, last night, Showman, RyDogg, The Body and I went to the LA Galaxy vs. Tijuana Xolos at USD for an exhibition game. (Big thanks to XTRASports1360 radio for the tickets). Go somewhere else if you want a play by play of the game. I’m gonna throw down the awesome by awesome. The Xolos beat the Galaxy in a shootout after a 2-2 tie in regulation where the crowd got to see Landon Donovan score a goal and David Beckham with a perfect corner kick cross for an assist. We had front row tickets, and these crap pictures don’t do our seats justice. There was a sellout crowd of 6,124 in attendance.
Photos by BP: David Beckham corner kick, Landon frolicking, Landon pre-PK, Landon post-PK
Yes, I know those photos suck and they’re tiny, but they don’t deserve to be big… just trying to give you perspective of our vantage point.
Let’s just get this outta the way…David Beckham is still a pimp. Incredibly secure in my masculinity, I can easily say that Becks is gorgeous..way hotter than Posh Spice. Sorry Victoria. Love this freaking guy. Clearly he’s a shadow of his former self when it comes to all around soccer skills, but not his all around game. 
He’s 35 years old and definitely lost a step. But I tell ya what, there’s a reason the movie is called Bend It Like Beckham. (First time I fell in love with Keira Knightley, btw) Dude can kick a ball perfectly…not every time, but more often than not. We thought he’d play a few minutes, wave to the crowd, and then sit, but he played 74 minutes of the 92ish minute game. Not too shabby, old man. He got lippy with officials, and pissed at Landon for not crossing him the ball when he was wide open. I loved watching him.
Landon Donovan was fun to watch too. Scrappy, handsy, tough, and pretty clutch too. Not trying to make this meaningless exhibition game out to be more than it was, but for the casual soccer fan in San Diego… you just got to watch arguably the best soccer player to ever come out of the United States of America play alongside of arguably the most famous soccer player to ever live. Re-read that sentence. I didn’t say that David Beckham is the greatest soccer player ever, he’s not even close, but he is certainly in the discussion of the most famous. Like I said, casual fan here, but I can throw out names like Pele, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Messi, Maradona, or even Wayne Rooney as very famous soccer players. But man, when you’ve got billboards like this all over the world, and you’re married to Falcor from the NeverEnding Story… you’re famous.
On a not-so-fun local San Diego note… Frankie Hejduk, a Cardiff-by-the-Sea kid, who looked to be flying high when he almost scored a goal on TJ…went on to foul someone in the penalty box, handing the tie, and ultimately, the game to the Xolos. Whoops. I think he had about 50 friends and family in the stands. That’s rough. Not as rough as looking like a the lovechild of Michael Bolton and TeenWolf though. Sorry, bro, cut that mop if you don’t like the comparisons.
This was USA vs. Mexico just as much as it was Los Angeles vs. Tijuana. We had a crowd of about 100 pyschotic LA Galaxy fans screaming and chanting the entire game. They were cheer dueling or some crap with the Tijuana fan section that was much bigger. They’re like small organized cheer sections chanting crap in unison. NFL fans got nothing on soccer fans. Honestly, I know the game was in San Diego, but I got news for you folks, TJ is closer to San Diego than LA is and despite was the scoreboard said, this was NOT a home game for the Galaxy. The target audience for the promoters… were not speaking English at the game. The entire halftime show… some kids kicking goals at the stupid USD Seal mascot, was entirely in Spanish. Had no clue what he was saying. Slooooow dooooown.
How bout this guy? Killer poncho, bro. I thought he was gonna punch me when I took this picture…and by the looks of that middle finger, dude has been in a fight or two. So, if you haven’t picked up on it yet, the team name for Tijuana is Club Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente, Tijuana Xolos for short, pronounced CHO-LOs. Yep, Cholos, the same word that I’ve thought my entire life was some horrible curse word in Spanish. I always thought it was totally derogatory and when Mexican kids would yell it at me on the soccer fields growing up, I figured that was their version of a muthereffer. So, I looked it up, and Cholo is an ethnic slur, but Xolo is just some Mexican Hairless Dog. Way better, right? They named their soccer team after the dog version of Mr. Bigglesworth.
-bp