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Ten things I learned from the L.A. Galaxy/Beckham press conference

I was just watching the press conference at which David Beckham was introduced as a member of the L.A. Galaxy.

It's about sixteen and a half minutes long, and was kind of entertaining. But, as I'm sure you're not really going to watch the whole thing, I thought I would provide ten things that I learned while watching.


1) Alexei Lalas seems well-groomed to play the role of booster for this team.
2) The sponsor of the L.A. Galaxy featured on the jersey is Herbalife. That's an odd choice for a main advertiser.
3) L.A. doesn't much care for their mayor. When Antonio Villaraigosa took the stage at the end, he was booed. The article goes on to say it may have been because the Mayor is a Chivas supporter.
4) Beckham almost called his sport "football" but corrected himself quickly. He said he'd get used to it.
5) Speaker after speaker makes reference to how this will build the sport of soccer in the future. I will likely watch a few matches. I also like how MLS teams seem to be building relationships to English teams. That's not really mentioned in this press conference, but the fact that the above video is from Sky Sports shows that they're going to cover MLS, at least in the short-term.
6) Really, Herbalife? It looks very odd. But according to Wikipedia, they have a "five-year deal worth between $3.5 million and $5 million a year through 2011."
7) The moment where the confetti comes out and Beckham gets his jersey is kind of entertaining, and happens after ten minutes. Dramatic. If this were a movie, we're soon going to enter the period where the team doesn't live up to expectations. Beckham clashes with the rest of the team, etc. Then there would be many montages, before they go on to win the U.S. Open Cup, or something similar.
8) Beckham said he was looking forward to the challenge. Will he last the whole five years?
9) There will definitely be a lot of culture clash, but I'm looking forward to watching to see how this will play out. I'm sure many of the games will be televised. ESPN is committing something like 20 cameras to the his first match next Saturday.
10) "Good luck and keep supporting us" Beckham told the crowd, who then erupted into chants of "One of us! One of us! One of us!"

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