Final game brings out biggest stars for MLS
CHICAGO -- David Beckham is back, and so is the media circus that seems to surround him.
Reporters, photographers, television crews and a few fans who sneaked in crowded into a big presentation room at The W Hotel downtown Saturday for a news conference with Beckham and Cuautehmoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire, the MLS’s two highest-paid players. They will meet for the first time on a soccer field today at noon.
The turnout startled Blanco, who’s no stranger to the media or paparazzi.
“We look like rock stars,” Blanco said in Spanish. “There are a lot of cameras, a lot of people and a lot media.”
The game could be the year’s biggest, Chicago Chief Executive and President John Guppy said. It has star appeal, playoff implications, a sellout crowd, a national TV audience and teams that are playing their best.
“I’m sure if you ask the schedule-makers in Major League Soccer,” Guppy said, “very few people would have expected this game to have the significance that it will.”
Both teams bring in seven-game unbeaten streaks. The Galaxy has five wins and two ties; the Fire has two wins and five ties.
The Galaxy has the league’s high-priced player in Beckham, who is making $6.5 million a year. Blanco makes $2.49 million a year.
And, thanks to Colorado’s 1-0 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday, the Galaxy is still alive for a playoff spot.
If the Galaxy wins today, it will clinch the final spot in the playoffs, something that seemed impossible a month ago after lopsided losses to Chivas USA and Houston. The Fire needs only a tie to clinch the playoff spot.
The Galaxy needed help Saturday and it got it with Colorado’s loss. Most of the Galaxy players watched that game at the ESPN Zone.
As for today’s game, the Galaxy will have to do it without Beckham in the starting lineup. However, Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop said Beckham, 32, would play.
Since arriving on July 21, Beckham has played in only four MLS games. He has started two and played in only 220 minutes out of a possible 1,530.
Conversely, Blanco, 34, has started every game since his arrival on July 29 and has four goals and six assists while helping his team to a 5-2-6 record in his 13 games.
Nobody is more disappointed of Beckham’s lack of playing time, though, than Beckham.
“It’s always nice to keep everybody happy, but of course you can’t always,” he said. “We’ve created the buzz that we wanted to around the league, we’ve had full houses in most of the stadiums we’ve played in, so on that side of it it’s been a success.
“But on my side it’s been frustrating because I haven’t been able to go to every place that we’ve played in, but that will change next year. I hope.”
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TONIGHT
vs. Chicago, noon PDT, FSN West, TeleFutura
Site -- Toyota Park, Bridgeview, Ill.
Radio -- 1700, 830 (Spanish).
Records -- Galaxy 9-13-7; Fire 9-10-10.
Record vs Fire -- 1-0.
Update -- If the Galaxy wins, it would have 37 points, same as the Fire. The Galaxy holds the tiebreaker, though, because of its 2-0 win in Los Angeles on July 4. The Galaxy holds a 13-11-3 all-time series advantage, but is 6-7-0 in Chicago. A subplot: This could be the final game for U.S. national team and MLS legends Cobi Jones and Chris Armas.
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