Alexi Lalas is Probably not the Ambassador MLS Needs

By: Bob | June 19th, 2007

There was a brief moment in time when it was almost possible to root for Alexi Lalas. The guitar strumming, goatee wearing, free spirited defender wearing one of those god-awful denim looking USA uniforms during the 1994 World Cup was a fun personality during a time when American soccer was trying to earn respect on the international stage.

Flash forward to today where American soccer is still trying to earn respect on the international stage and where the now clean shaven, corporate suit wearing Lalas has become increasingly difficult to support. Like Romario once quipped about Pele, Lalas is a poet when he keeps his mouth shut, something that he hasn’t been able to do at all since his LA Galaxy club signed David Beckham to a contract.

Speaking to the Guardian Tuesday, Lalas first defends MLS:

“That’s ignorance of the first degree because almost every one of those critics has not even seen a single MLS [Major League Soccer] game. It’s insulting to us and to our sport to say Beckham is on his way to Hollywood when he’s coming to play in one of the most competitive leagues in the world. There are a lot of stars in European football who would struggle over here. But Beckham has done his homework on this league, and his team-mates, and he recognises the merit of American soccer.”

Fair enough. You could argue that he is wrong about most stars in Europe struggling in MLS (see Juan Pablo Angel’s success at Red Bull New York), but if he had just stopped there Lalas would have done his duty.

But he did not.

“English football now has the haves and the have-nots, and even the top four in the Premiership may be narrowing down to two. But because of the structure of our league and the salary cap our competition runs deep. It’s just that the Premiership have become so skilled in presentation. They took a page out of American football and now have Saturday Showdowns and Super Sundays. I love it. This is high-calibre marketing: taking an inferior product and improving it through packaging.”

He laughs at the irony that an American soccer executive should accuse the Premiership of being all style and no substance. “You know,” he says with a mischievous glint, “there’s no accounting for bad taste. The fact that a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business. In England our league is considered second-class but I honestly believe if you took a helicopter and grabbed a bunch of MLS players and took them to the perceived best league in the world they wouldn’t miss a beat and the fans wouldn’t notice any drop in quality.”

Oh, Alexi. Slinging barbs at a UK audience certainly is one way to try earn respect for your league, but it is probably not the most effective, especially since the audience you are talking to remembers you as being that goofy guy with the funny hair who was only marginally talented as a player. Instead of criticizing the Premiership for improving its inferior product through packaging how about learning from it to improve your own league?

Even better, how about doing something that is against your instincts and try keeping quiet for a while? Instead, hire Steven Wells to do the talking for you.