Can Becks 最高の，を越す this? I 疑問 it

研究ing the story of サッカー in the U.S.A. yesterday I 設立する the moment when Joe Sixpack fell in love with the world’s favourite game.

Coast to coast, across prairies and 砂漠s, the football hating ignorance of the 普通の／平均（する） American male evaporated when Brandi Chastain whipped off her shirt as the U.S. team won the 1999 women’s World Cup in 前線 of 90,000 fans.

In one iconic instant, football became America’s No 1 sport for all of, er, 30 seconds, and Ms Chastain went on to spread the gospel in classic missionary fashion ― by 提起する／ポーズをとるing nude in the lad’s mag Gear, except for boots and a ball.

認めるd, the sight of a 勝利を得た woman footballer in her sports bra brought only (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing 人気 for the game の中で the poor and 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd 集まりs, but the tale will surely 供給する 激励 for David Beckham when he leaves Real Madrid to make a clean breast of it in Los Angeles.

Mankind has cloned sheep, walked on the moon and

eradicated smallpox but nobody has yet 設立する a 決まり文句／製法 to make Americans love the jogo bonito.

Now, from Spain, comes the new Don Quixote to 説得する the globe’s most powerful nation that a league with one superstar and dozens of other no-指名するs will 申し込む／申し出 better prime-time fun than

baseball, basketball or the ふりをするd 戦争 of the NFL.

によれば the 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある of AEG, the entertainment 巨大（な） bankrolling Beckham’s move west: "David is the only individual who can build the 橋（渡しをする） between サッカー in America and the 残り／休憩（する） of the world."

This laudable/laughable ambition (削除する によれば your 見解（をとる）) will now be 押すd on the American public by the PR 産業’s biggest 脅迫者s.

As the Boston Globe point out, for the first 10 years the total player 予算 for Major League サッカー was $250million ― and "now the LA 星雲 計画（する） to match that sum for one player, David Beckham".

This is the shock and awe approach to 達成するing something that was beyond even Georg e Best and Pele; a 永久の 転換 in culture to 融通する an activity that 否定するs the American need for high 得点する／非難する／２０s and constant 活動／戦闘 (have they never seen Liverpool play 兵器庫 in the Carling Cup?).

Beckham's 教祖的指導力, good looks and showbiz marriage （判決などを）下す him eminently qualified to play the proselytiser. And he's also the closest thing football will ever produce to a quarterback.

Think of all those long diagonal balls in England games. Nobody could 位置を示す a wide receiver やめる like Beckham, even if his passes often bounced off the 普通の／平均（する） English winger's 向こうずねs.

LA's wide boys had better 計画（する） for a 一斉射撃，（質問などの）連発／ダム. Posh and Bucks. End it like Beckham. Vend it like Beckham, yesterday's LA Times joked. Headline artists are having a ball. But yesterday’s New York Times gave us the opposite slant. Theirs asked: "Beckham to U.S: Do you care?"

At least one 回答者／被告 did. Stretching his metaphor, he wrote: "While the U.S.A. seems to put up a dam against football, one day these 塀で囲むs will break and football will flood America. Beckham's presence in the U.S.A. will not break the 塀で囲む, but it will 追加する about 275 million more トンs of water 圧力."

Spoken like a plumber, or a junior 圧力（をかける） officer for MLS. Beckham’s 切迫した arrival is fresh meat for Beverly Hills gossip columnists and sponsors, but will a succession of cameos in a mediocre league really turn blue collar America on to the joys of our own 国家の game?

In interviews this week Beckham について言及するd 'the kids' of America. Here we find the 手がかり（を与える）. The 控訴s hope he will be football's answer to Ronald McDonald, 手渡すing out 解放する／自由な balloons.

Catch 'em young is a mantra of modern 商売／仕事 and there is sense in this, because no 量 of celebrity gladhanding will bring the older 世代 of sceptics 負かす／撃墜する from the hills.

Brandi Chastain's 半分-（土地などの）細長い一片 aside, football's 最初の／主要な place in American culture in 最近の years has been as an 侮辱. Ten years ago a 右翼 demagogue 原因（となる）d a tremendous 動かす by attacking "bourgeois-自由主義の, Clinton-

supporting サッカー moms".

Football, you see, is a middle-class sport in America, played by three million children but few beyond school. This is another mystery. How can you play football from 10 to 15 and then abandon it in adulthood? To most of us, play once and you're （麻薬）常用者d for life.

In his yellow LA jersey with green sash, Beckham will look more like a 難民 from Aussie 支配するs than an American icon and the first call he makes could be to the 星雲’s wardrobe department. If he 形態／調整d the England team in his image under Sven Goran Eriksson, Frank Yallop’s 暴徒 should be a doddle.

But his bigger 使節団 is 巨大な and, you 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う, probably impossible.

A few hours before the U.S.A. （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Mexico 2-0 in the last 16 of the 2002 World Cup, 大統領 George W Bush called coach Bruce 円形競技場 to say: "A lot of people that don't know anything about football ― like me ― are all excited and pulling for you."

They call this trickle-負かす／撃墜する ignorance.

? A final thought on the Beckham move. That $250million 人物／姿／数字 has all the hallmarks of a sum cooked up during a good lunch on Rodeo 運動. One American commentator reckons the base salary is $50m with 可能性のある 追加する-ons 経由で 後援, image 権利s and 利益（をあげる） 株ing.

The 50 million bucks is mind-blowing by itself but, at this 早期に 行う／開催する／段階, Beckham is like a prizefighter entering the （犯罪の）一味 for a 保証（人）d purse, 加える a 株 of money yet to materialise.

One hopes Don King isn't in on the 取引，協定

No, you've wasted too much money already, Rafa

Rafa Benitez says he has been given too little to spend by the Liverpool board. An 代案／選択肢 解釈／通訳 is that he has been indulged too much, because he has 可決する・採択するd a scattergun approach to buying over-率d Spanish （衆議院の）議長s.

It baffled many on Merseyside to hear Benitez talking so dismissively about the 質 of his reserves at a club who have a noble tradition of bringing through young players. Steve McManaman , Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher are の中で the 卒業生（する）s and Liverpool are the 統治するing FA 青年 Cup 支持する／優勝者s.

Yet Benitez thinks the 6-3 Carling Cup 敗北・負かす by 兵器庫 was the board’s fault. It seems that £65million in 移転 spending in three seasons equates to parsimony in the 経営者／支配人’s mind.

On the other 手渡す, you could point out that he has a 疑わしい 記録，記録的な／記録する of buying players from Spanish-speaking nations who have failed to adapt, 顕著に: Josemi, Nunez, Morientes, Pellegrino, Gonzalez and Paletta, a £2m Argentine whose defending against 兵器庫 was abysmal. These are the 相続人s to Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou.

To this 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） should be 追加するd the ‘maybe players’ yet to make a 一貫した 衝撃: Pennant, Bellamy, Aurelio.

There comes a point in 移転 取引 when 手渡すing a 経営者／支配人 yet more cash 単に 招待するs him to make mistakes. Even Jose Mourinho has succumbed to this 誘惑, through Kezman, Wright-Phillips, Del Horno and probably now Kalou, Shevchenko (a Roman Abramovich buy, 恐らく) and Boulahrouz.

Sir Alex Ferguson has put Manchester 部隊d 支援する on 最高の，を越す partly by 訂正するing his mistakes around the time of Kleberson and Djemba Djemba, now bound for Burnley. Arsene Wenger has not slipped up since Pascal Cygan or Francis Jeffers. If Benitez 欠如（する）s 最高の，を越す 質 増強s to support Gerrard and co it may be because he has squandered so much of the kitty.

One other 観察: why was Chris Kirkland 許すd to leave Anfield when the 代案／選択肢 to Pepe Reina was Jerzy Dudek?

It's over and out from this pitiful bunch

England's cricketers are 深い into the seven circles of hell and have passed the point where 怒り／怒る or 失望／欲求不満 are any use to their 支持者s. They have reached that dreaded place in sport where an obliterated team 招待する only pity.

Their spirit was broken long before Kevin Pietersen’s rib. Yesterday’s 鎮圧するing one-day loss 完全にするd the unholy trinity of 実験（する）, 20-20 an d 50-over 敗北・負かすs. They have sunk so low that they are beyond 吸収するing the lessons of each calamity.

At the start of the one-day series, when fresh starts were 約束d, Andrew Flintoff 譲歩するd 11 runs off wides in the first over of Australia’s innings, thus evoking Steve Harmison’s wild 白人指導者べったりの東洋人 to second slip with the first ball of the 開始 Ashes 実験（する）.

Long gone is the precision and 侵略 that England 適用するd to the 仕事 of roughing up Ricky Ponting’s men in the 早期に 行う／開催する／段階s of Australia’s 2005 小旅行する.

To see a bowler of Flintoff’s calibre so enfeebled really gives the game away. England have taken so many 攻撃する，衝突するs that their minds are 緊急発進するd egg. You can see it in their 注目する，もくろむs.