Tuesday's Column: Chivas USA's gringo
First off, hands up out there all those who thought David Beckham would don a Galaxy jersey this MLS season. No, me neither.
The more pertinent question: Will Becks be back for the fifth and final year of his contract? And does anyone still care? Moving on.
Back home Chivas USA's Jesus Padilla is nick-named Jesse or Gordo. On the soccer field he goes by a different name as I explain in today's column.
As you might expect, Padilla comes from a futbol crazy family. His father is a massive CD Guadalajara fan and naturally now supports Chivas USA, too. He has two sisters who have played for the Mexican national team and as many as 10 to 15 family members and friends routinely drive down from the Bay Area for Chivas USA games.
That's sometimes a mixed blessing:
"My friends in Guadalajara see the games so if I do mess up or something they right away call me and tell me: you did this wrong and this wrong. Even my sisters still do it. Before a game I get a talk from my dad about this and this. ... I heard this when I was young and I still hear it."
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Good thing he was born in California, because the idiot governor over here in Arizona would be trying to kick him out ...
Will Becks be back for the fifth and final year of his contract?
No. He'll be too obsessed with playing in the Euro qualifiers.
And does anyone still care?
HELL, no!