L.A. Galaxy 2-2 Chivas
Well it wasn't exactly a win but I suppose it's better than a loss, specially considering all that is going on within the team management.

The tie of 2-2 to Chivas last Thursday marked the 7th win-less match.
Nonetheless the performance earned them the SuperClasico trophy. David was quoted as saying:

"It's been a tough couple of weeks," Beckham said. "We're happy to win the SuperClasico. Now we've got to put everything behind us and move on."

They play again this Thursday against Chicago Fire. Let's make it a WIN this time! Though, they'll have to do that without David who is in England.


Beckham in England

Ted Beckham's Birthday
( source ) ( source ) Beckham and family flew to England to throw a surprise birthday party dinner for David's father. His father was apparently upset ( though these sources are somewhat are leaning on the gossip side - coming from "close friends" without naming who - so take for what it's worth ) when he saw that David & Victoria didn't attend his 60th birthday party last month while they went to Kate Beckinsale’s 35th birthday party in LA instead.

This visit was a surprise and hopefuly will patch any feelings of resentment within the family. We remember that David's father suffered a heart attack last year.


Training with England
While he was in England he also didn't waste any training time, he was seen training with the England squad. See some pictures in the gallery here.

He is playing with the squad tomorrow against Czech Republic at Wembley Stadium for a friendly, the final before the world cup qualifiers begin. We wish him the best of luck as a good performance would help him to get chosen for these qualifiers.

( source )John Terry will wear the armband.

Capello said that Terry's "big personality" was the deciding factor.

"Rio, when he was captain, played very well - the same level as John," he said. "It was not easy for me to choose because they are very good players.

"The big personality of John was the reason I chose John, but Rio is very important to the team."

(source) (thanks Sita for the link ;) ) Here is the lineup for Wednesday's match:

England squad to face Czech Republic on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium.

Goalkeepers: David James (Portsmouth), Paul Robinson (Blackburn Rovers), Joe Hart (Manchester City)

Defenders: Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham United), Jonathan Woodgate (Tottenham Hotspur)

Midfielders: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Gareth Barry (Aston Villa), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), David Bentley (Tottenham Hotspur), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), David Beckham (LA Galaxy), Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough)

Forwards: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Jermain Defoe(Portsmouth), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Emile Heskey (Wigan Athletic)

Speaking out against Knife Violence
( source )David attended a press conference yesterday (monday) speaking out against knife violence along with coach Capello and other England squad teammates. David talked about how the brother of a close childhood friend was left paralyzed by knife thugs who stabbed him after he attempted to break up a street fight.

"No-one wants to see the devastation I saw my friend and his family go through. We have to lend our support to this campaign," ...
"You don't expect situations that are happening whereby people go to school in the morning and then you never see them again,"...
"We have got to help. We have got a voice that kids listen to. It is unfortunate it is part of life, part of culture, these days and this is why we want to get involved. We want to make a change." Said Beckham.

Present were also Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

See a video of the conference here.



Set for the Olympics
This weekend is when David will be participating in the closing ceromonies at the Olympics. He will be part of a segment to illustrate the handover of the Olympics to England for 2012. The closing ceremonies will take place Sunday the 24th. David is reported to be very passionate and proud about the Olympics being hosted by London. As a proud Londoner he was apparently very involved in the bid for London.
The spectacular ceremony will show him being driven into the Bird's Nest stadium on a double decker bus. He'll then kick footballs to children representing all the Olympic nations.


David sure is one busy guy these days! Whew, I need a nap just thinking about it :).


David Blogs

Post from August 14th:

Hi everyone
I know a lot has been written about the club this week but as a team we are determined to get back to winning ways and climb up the table. I'm sad to see Ruud and Alexi go, and I wish them all the best in the future.

We had a break from playing at the weekend, which gave us a chance to work with the coaching team on the training pitch. During matches we have shown the right attitude and character to come back when we’ve gone a goal or two behind, but sometimes we’ve lost a little bit of concentration late in the game or bit of composure, so having a week to concentrate on the game has given us a good opportunity to work on some tactics. We are focused on the Chivas game tonight and it's important we give our best for the fans and put in a good performance.

That’s all for now.

David


Arena: New coach & GM



It's official. Arena is hired as the new Coach and General Manager for the team. The former U.S. National team coach admitted his job was a challenge but was optimistic.

"As a coach, I look at this roster, we have Landon Donovan and David Beckham as a starting point. That's fabulous, I think we have a good group of players to join in and make this a good team."

"That the team is not about Landon Donovan and David Beckham; it's about all of us. It's we, it's us, it's not I and it's not me, If we work together as a group, we can achieve things."

On this last comment, he has his work cut out for him as he'll have to prove that and NOT make his first match about Beckham - he won't be there! :)

He has his work cut out for him anyways, Beckham-less or not. I can imagine that it won't be a stress-free job since he is in essence replacing 2 people that must have been quite busy individually before. Good luck to him!


David Look-alike
( source ) Here's a video of a David look-alike which showed off some skills at a mall in Wolverhampton in England. His name is Andy Harmer and he's been a professional Beckham double for 10 years.



Site Updates.
I'd like to apologize (again) for the lack of updates. Poor Dina has a ton of stuff going on in her life right now and has zero time to make updates and I'm caught in a time of immense work volume, having a bunch of project come in what seems-all at the same time - not to mention some security updates to the server that made it impossible to update the gallery for the last few days. Not that I'm making excuses for the lack of updates, there aren't really any, I should make more frequent ones.

I mean it's 1:05 PM and I've been up for 20 hours but I'm still writing this post because you were due one. If anyone would like to contribute, in ANY way whatsoever, please email me at franco@media-discounters.com, even if it's just adding pictures to the gallery or however, it would be much appreciated. We'll manage either way though but please bear with us if updates are even a little further apart than usual.

Labels: chivas, david beckham, knife violence, olympics, usa vs england