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David Beckham has arrived to America and he brought Posh Spice along….oh no! not again, is there going to be another album by the Spices? We’ve had enough, let’s not let that happen again, please! Hopefully Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes keep her busy and away from the microphone. Or better yet, hope she has plenty to do in that twenty million dollar house they just purchased.

As for Beckham, many Hollywood stars came to welcome him in his MLS debut this past Sunday in Los Angeles. From the moment he arrived it was a circus. After final count, there were more media personnel than the Super Bowl…what?  Unbelievable! Packed Home Depot Stadium and a record media, for what? Read more

In a way Costa Rica self-destructed during its 1-0 loss to Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals at Reliant Stadium in Houston last Sunday.

The Ticos fell into a referee’s trap.

A good coach would have pulled his players aside and said, “Ok guys, we know this ref is trying to screw us. He wants you to overreact and lose your composure. Don’t buy into it. Scoreboard is still 0-0. Just play the game. We’re not playing great, but we are performing well enough to beat Mexico, even with this guy’s blatant bias against us.”

Out-manned much of the game due to player ejections, Costa Rica held its own until the extra period against Mexico. At full-strength, the Ticos pull out the win in spite of the questionable calls. Yes, this is conjecture, but as deplorable as Mexico played, it’s not unreasonable.

I’m not going to pose through prose as a soccer pundit because I’m not. I grew up thinking kickball was soccer, but I’ve watched enough sports to know that great teams guided by a good coach know how to win under dire circumstances. Dire circumstances equates to struggling offensively, alleged referee favoritism, and 70,000 crazy Mexicans screaming against you.

You can ‘t blame everything on the “American ref.” As a player and coach, you must look in the proverbial mirror and ask yourself, “How can I better control my own destiny in the midst of circumstances that are out of my control?” This lesson applies to life in general.

Overall, CR played better or at least not as bad as Mexico. The abbreviated squad just ran out of gas. If the players ejected practiced a little self-control, then I believe, we’re not having this discussion, the win is even sweeter for CR because of what it had to overcome, and everything is “Pura Vida.”

A CONCACAF Conspiracy?

I don’t know how widespread and legitimate the accusation is that CONCACAF plots a US-Mexico championship to fill stadiums, or if it’s just another lousy excuse. If the teams are so concerned, maybe they should boycott the next event. Then we’ll see how much plata Mexico and the U.S. could reel in on their own.

For all you CONCACAF naysayers. How did freakin Guadaloupe end up in the semis? Wasn’t Honduras supposed to be there? I would bet the Honduran fan base is larger than that of Guadaloupe, and wouldn’t a Honduras–Mexico match-up make better financial sense? Please tell me if this is an overstatement and if Los Chicanos would fill the stadium anyway, regardless of the opponent.

For all you US haters. You know and I know who you are. I think the US is playing well enough to deserve a spot in the semis, even if “United States vs. Mexico” was printed on the CONCACAF finals tickets three weeks before the event started. Wink. Wink.

Watching my beloved Costa Rica team losing to rival Mexico was sad and at the same time left a bad taste in my mouth. Not that I expected Costa Rica to win it all, but I was hoping for a good showing, which never happened. They stunk in every single game they played, even in that Guadaloupe win.

Same old story - we can’t make it past US or Mexico; no excuses. I’m used to it by now, and realistically, with our mentality and the shady governing of the National Soccer Federation, I don’t see our soccer moving at a level above the two North American teams.

As far as Mexico, they haven’t played any better than Costa Rica either. They are probably the biggest disappointment of the tournament. With soccer great Hugo Sanchez in charge, and a number of players with vast European soccer experience, it was a given that Mexico was going to run over rivals without a sweat…wrong!

There isn’t any chemistry among the players. Individually, the players look good on paper, but they haven’t showed it as a team on the field ever since Sanchez took charge. Going back to the game, it was a mediocre game. Costa Rica trying to counterattack Mexico whenever possible with more emphasis on maintaining a defensive wall to try to suffocate Mexico.

Desperation was shown in the Mexican players as minutes went by, and as the game went on, Costa Rica found several scoring chances. Early on, Costa Rica did a good job keeping Mexico from creating scoring opportunities, while causing trouble on Mexico’s right side of their defense. Allan Aleman, Costa Rica’s mighty mouse, was the one player being aggressive and giving a headache to Mexico’s defense.

The defining moment of the game, I believe, was Aleman’s unfair ejection in the first half. The American referee was clearly not a good choice to handle a game of this nature. From the beginning he seemed shook and not ready for such responsibility. A man down and without their most active offensive player, Costa Rica became more defensive and scoring chances were limited. Mexico, at the same time, was a little more aggressive, but they were not efficient in anything they tried to do.

A couple of clear chances in the second half but without any concrete results. Once again, the ref became a major player when he hastily gave Costa Rican forward Saborio a red card for “head butting” a Mexican defender. Replay clearly shows that the Mexican defender Rodriguez stood up and came to confront Saborio who said something to him. Saborio made a slight head butt move, without even touching Rodriguez, but once again, the ref makes a terrible decision and sends off Saborio. Costa Rica is now decimated and unable to compete with two men down. The game was very physical from the beginning, and at this point it became even uglier.

Soccer was definitely not played in this game. I think most people can agree with me that this was the worst game of the Gold Cup so far. For two such experienced teams who have been in the past two World Cups, they owed the fans and the sport a much better showing. And to top things off, the referee was the worst we’ve seen in years. I mean, he should not be allowed to handle international matches. And don’t say this because of the 3 red cards (2 unfairly) handed to Costa Rica.

I’m talking about overall performance, he couldn’t even run the field so that he wouldn’t interfere with the action. A couple of times we saw him in the way of Mexican players trying to make a play. He seemed confused throughout the game. He even came to the bench ref to double check to see if a player had already a yellow card. I mean, this is something he should keep track of. Come on!

Towards the end of the game he handed one of the Costa Rican players a yellow card after a good foul, but then turned around and showed the player a red card. The player was in disbelief, and the whole Costa Rican team started to complain. The ref thought the player already had a yellow card and came back to the bench referee to check again. After further examination, the verdict was that he did not have a yellow card, so the ref took back the red card given.

I think it’s safe to say that this ref is done with the Gold Cup, and we will not be seeing him in the near future. Costa Rica finished the game with 8 players and could no longer sustain Mexico, which ended up winning the game in extra time with a header by Javier Borgetti.

The semifinals are being played this Thursday. Mexico takes on Guadaloupe. US against Canada.
Let’s just hope the overall performance of everyone involved in this tournament improves. The fans and the sport deserve it!

Now that the NBA season is over, what are my plans for the next 5 and 1/2 months?

- Watch the rest of the Gold Cup. I’ve become a casual fan of soccer, especially of CONCACAF competition. Once upon a time, I had no interest in the world’s most popular sport, none whatsoever. It has been a long, gradual process. Go USA!!! Get your soccer tickets here.

- Look forward to the NBA Draft, June 28. The Seattle Sonics, my favorite team, will be SUPER again with the No. 2 pick. If we draft Greg Oden, we should keep Rashard. If we draft Durant, we should sign and trade Rashard for Clippers forward Elton Brand. Portland will draft Oden and Clippers won’t deal Brand so “I’ll settle for” Durant and Rashard. We should be a fun team to watch. Sonics hired hotshot executive Sam Presti as its new GM. Presti was the assistant GM of the San Antonio Spurs. We still need a coach, but I like our direction. Sonics tickets are selling like Red Sox tickets, and hopefully all of this excitement will translate to a new state-of-the-art arena and the team staying where it belongs - the great city of Seattle.

- See how the Houston Rockets, my hometown team, continues to reinvent itself. I think the coaching change will make them more versatile on offense. In this league you have to be able to run the floor and set up in the half court. Look at the Spurs. We just traded for Mike James, who returns to Houston after two seasons. He fits in well with the new free-flowing system. He is a slasher and can be a reliable three-point shooter.

- Get ready for football season. The Cowboys come in with a new coach, new offense, new defense and hopefully a new Tony Romo. As you know, last season, Romo became a Media sweetheart overnight. All the premature attention plus his love interest with American Idol’s Carrie Underwood distracted him and hurt the team. He botched a potential game winning play for Dallas against the Seahawks in the NFC Wild card playoff game. He’s good, but still has a lot to prove. Hopefully, Terrell Owens will be utilized more in this offense. Get your NFL tickets here.

- Watch Rafa Nadal and Rog Federer in the US Tennis Open and Wimbledon and hopefully against each other in the Finals of these tournaments. I normally only watch tennis when one or both are involved in the match. Get your US Open Tennis tickets or Wimbledon tickets here.

- Watch the MLB All-Star Game, MLB playoffs and World Series. I don’t watch too much baseball during the regular season. Can the Astros make another dramatic second half turnaround? I doubt it. Unlike the past few years, we don’t have the talent to do it again.

- Probably catch some WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown and Lucha Libre. OK, so I admit professional wrestling is not sports. I’m fully aware that the matches are pre-determined but the stunts, choreographed fights and many of the injuries ARE REAL. Professional wrestling, though scripted, is still more dangerous than ice hockey, rugby or American football. I enjoy Mexican wrestling for the acrobatics, offbeat characters and mystique. I even have a mask collection. The glory days for WWE, at least for now, are over, but every now and again, I still tune in. Get your wrestling tickets here.

All of this should keep me busy until November. And you? One way to keep busy is to buy loads of tickets for any of these events. Click Tickets of America to get your fix.

Hey folks, this is my first blog, not only for Tickets of America, but my first blog ever.  Not too sure how to get started but I guess I will start with what I like to talk about.  I like all sports but first and foremost I am a soccer fan.  Any and all leagues, international, national, MLS, college, European, the Americas, if it has two goals and grass let’s talk about it.  There is quite lot to talk about these days in the world of soccer, the CONCACAF Gold Cup is about to kick off in the U.S, La Primera division in Spain is about to finish its season with Real Madrid and Barcelona on top and qualifying matches for the Euro Cup 2008 are taking place all over Europe.  

The Gold Cup is set to kick off in Miami June 6 with two matches, Costa Rica and Canada and Guadeloupe vs Haiti.  Costa Rica is coming off a big win against Chile in a friendly on June 2nd, which should give them some confidence going in to the match against Canada.  June 2nd in Los Angeles the US men’s national team goes up against Guatemala in a match that should be fairly routine for our boys coming off a giant game against China.  This will also be the first CONCACAF series for the US team under new head coach Bob Bradley, it should be a good series and may help us to get an idea of how the national team is going shape up in the years to come.

Since this is only an introduction I will wrap it up for now, but let me know what you’re interested in, what you would like to talk about and what questions you have.  I can also answer questions and assist with getting tickets to any of these great matches anywhere in the world.  That’s all for now.   

David Beckham recently signed a jaw-dropping $250 million contract for five years with the L.A. Galaxy. I hate math, but I was curious to find out Beckham’s hourly wage and calculated it based on a 365-day calendar. Too much time on my hands, you say. Maybe, but here’s the breakdown on Beckham’s salary: $50 million per year, $4,166,667 per month, $134,409 per day, $5600 per hour, $93 per minute and $1.50 per second.

When told Beckham will make over $5,000 an hour, a jealous colleague of mine grudgingly responded, “Good for him.” 

This same jealous colleague, a native of Costa Rica and a diehard “futbol” fan, said the highest paid players in his country earn between 5K - 7K USD per month.

Is it possible that better soccer players in the world earn a bit less? You bet your minimum wage. I’m no soccer guru, but I’m smart enough to know that Beckham is passed his prime, that the glory days at Manchester United are over and out.

Obviously, the Galaxy is buying more than ability; they’re buying an image. An image Major League Soccer hopes will broaden its appeal in the United States. It’s true, over the last decade, soccer has grown by leaps and bounds in the U.S. When I was a kid, soccer leagues were virtually nonexistent. I was raised on baseball and basketball, and my heroes were Ken Griffey Jr. and Michael Jordan. In fact, I thought kickball was soccer. These days, little league and high school soccer are common, and kids even take it to the street.

Of the major sports in America, the world’s most popular sport still trails the big three: baseball, football and basketball, but Beckham could change that. The Englishman will become the poster child of American soccer.

Beckham is linked to glamour and glamour will be linked to soccer in the U.S. People, especially young men and women, will begin to associate American soccer with sex-appeal, movie star marketability, a hot wife, and of course the killer income. Beckham could revolutionize the sport in the U.S., or at the very least, give MLS the street cred it lacks among its European and South American counterparts. If any of this happens, he will have been worth every single penny. Okay, well almost.

To catch David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy next season, check out the Tickets of America page for MLS soccer tickets.