SI: Youri, Beckham, Love and Hate

Few publications frustrate me like Sports Illustrated. It's probably down to the fact that few outlets match their quality of content - reading Grant Wahl, especially, I get the sense of news broadcast direct from Olympus. That's the love, but that's also the fount for the hate: I can't count the number of days I visit the SI hungry for news, only to see they haven't changed the menu.....God, I'm sorry, no more metaphors. SI has, on average, the most interesting content, simultaneously solid and forward-thinking, but they don't get enough of it up there.

So, to the editors at SI: Any chance of expanding the stable? We're hungry for good work out here....

Moving on, I came across an interesting pair today. The first isn't going to read so well against the gush-fest that tops this post, but it's interesting enough: Grant Wahl echoes somewhat older calls to get Real Madrid's David Beckham to MLS ASAP. I barely agree with the Wahl's argument or the logic of the situation, but, unlike that earlier work, he provides a concrete reason as to why the future is now:

"For its part, MLS has plenty of reasons to act on Beckham sooner rather than later. For starters, the league's new eight-year TV contract with ESPN begins next season, and MLS needs a few big names to push the needle up on ratings."

If that's an argument to you, I can only say it's new to me. For me, it follows the familiar, panacea-fixated thinking that has so long played the league and soccer in this country in general and, as such, I don't think it will do much. Still, I'll happily grant it's worth a shot.

I appreciated the other effort a bit more - a pre-retirement interview with Red Bull New York's Youri Djorkaeff - mainly because it contained a pair of worthwhile quotes. The first hits, again, on something new-ish: when asked about whether European players are interested in coming to play in the States, Djorkaeff's answer points to a considerable ancillary appeal:

"A lot want to come here. You can't imagine. People prefer to come here in the later days of their career than to go to Qatar, Japan or wherever. They can get good educations for their kids and there is a great lifestyle here."

Let's run with this, people.

The other item is just a nice notion, a sensation that Djorkaeff manages to put into recognizable terms. Asked about his favorite moment as a professional, he responded:

"When you're first starting off as a soccer player, you dream about moments like that. And then one day, you're doing it -- things you've only seen on TV. For me, that moment was walking up the steps to the podium to accept the World Cup at home in Paris."

Ah, such a French answer, so wonderfully French...

One last thing about SI: if one can point to anything that gives them an edge over the competition, the words "access" and "reputation" should come readily to mind. A passage in a New York Daily News article about the Red Bull's must-win Saturday game speaks to that:

"If the Bulls don't prevail, the game will be the swan song for 38-year-old Youri Djorkaeff, who is retiring. The Bulls refused to make Djorkaeff available to the Daily News."

Yep.