It is being reported that David Beckham will be taking his playing talents to Los Angeles to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. Beckham, the former captain of the English National Team, had been playing in Spain for Real Madrid and was able to negotiate with any club. He had been trying to work on a contract extension with Real Madrid but he was unhappy that there wasn’t a starting position there for him.

Beckham’s wife Victoria, who was a former Spice Girl, has been spotted recently in Los Angeles looking for places to live. It is stated that she really wanted to be in Los Angeles to help further career and be closer to her celeb gal pals.

So how is the Los Angeles Galaxy able to circumvent the salary cap that MLS has? Well recently, MLS adopted the “Beckham Exemption” which allows teams to have a player whose salary is not governed by the cap rules. It was basically enacted for teams to pursue foreign stars such as Beckham.

For those of you who remember the late 70’s, Beckham could have the same drawing power as Pelé did when he came to the United States to play for the New York Cosmos of the NASL (North American Soccer League). With attendance lagging the past few years in MLS, Beckham’s presence on the Galaxy should help them and other teams boost attendance.

I think that this is great for the MLS and American soccer (futbol). With our recent struggles in World Cup play and soccer not being the number 1 sport here in America, this signing will definitely put a little more spotlight on soccer here. Will other players follow him over here. Well, us as fans can only hope that more stars follow the lead of the former English captain and come to the United States to play. Heck, we are in the middle of global warming right now, so we have some decent weather to offer.

1:00 PM UPDATE: Beckham’s deal is worth $250 million dollars over an undisclosed amount of time. The contract is for five years with the Los Angeles Galaxy. He will join the Galaxy after June 30th when his contract runs out with Real Madrid

Technorati: David Beckham, MLS, NASL, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, Victoria Beckham, Spice Girls, Pele

I apologize for all the video posts the past few days but it’s been a slow weekend around these parts. This video comes courtesy of The Mighty MJD, the weekend editor over at Deadspin.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
KhITzE7bT4M[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpN55n03ays

In local news today, the University of New Haven Lady Chargers soccer team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Women’s Division II soccer tournament.

The Lady Chargers were seeded 3rd in the Northeast region and will face Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who is seeded 2nd. The other seeds in the region are the host and #1 seed, West Chester Univ. and the 4th seed, Slippery Rock Univ.

The Lady Chargers come into the NCAA’s not having lost a game since October 7 when they lost to nationally ranked, Franklin Pierce College. While the Chargers did lose to Adelphi in the ECC tournament, it goes down in the book as a tie per NCAA rules.

The game time for this Friday hasn’t been announced but once it is I will update the post here. If your interested and want to listen, go on over to WNHU to listen to the game. Good luck to the Lady Chargers!!!!!

UPDATE 10/31: The game time has been announced. The Lady Chargers will play at 1:30 PM on November 3. The game will be broadcast on the internet at WNHU at 1:25 PM.

Fresh off the presses from Germany comes the 2006 World Cup Draw. The 8 seeded teams were Germany, England, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, France, and Spain.

The USA just missed out on being one of the top eight seeds by 1 point even though they finished higher in qualifying then Mexico. The USA (8th in the world) has a tough road ahead of them as Group E as the Czech Republic is the 2nd ranked team in the world and Italy is the 12th ranked team.

Also not in the USA’s favor is that Ghana will be their final first round game in Germany. This game could mean absolutely nothing for the USA because of their first two opponents.

My initial predictions from each group:

Group A: Germany, Poland

Group B: England, Sweden

Group C: Netherlands, Argentina

Group D: Mexico, Portugal

Group E: Czech Republic, USA

Group F: Brazil, Japan

Group G: France, Switzerland

Group H: Spain, Ukraine

More to follow later on once I have had some more time to evaulate the brackets.