Football and Music

Who’d have thought that a decidedly average defender would eventually be a big cheese in U.S. Soccer.

The most famous ginger footballer, outside of the Premiership of course, went from nowhere to playing in the 1994 World Cup.

The only player I know who before then had never actually played any professional league football and then bang - World Cup Finals.

Before the Finals there wasn’t a professional soccer league in the USA and this was one of the conditions set before FIFA awarded the tournament to the States.

At the tournament Lalas got the world’s attention because of his look back then and because of what he did in his leisure time.

After the World Cup the idea was that the MLS would start up and Alexi join the New England Revolution for the inaugural MLS season. But there was a one year delay and Lalas was loaned out to a then Serie A team Padova.
In 1993 they had finished 4th in Serie B and after winning a playoff, were promoted to Serie A.

Padova brought in the in-limbo Lalas on loan but they still struggled and at the end of their first season back in the top flight, were in a relegation playoff with Genoa. They actually won that game and stayed in Serie A for one more season but Lalas had to leave in Feb 1996 because the MLS was finally about to begin.

After his return to the Revolution he had a couple of average seasons before they loaned him Ecuadorian First Division Club Emelec for a month. When he came back Lalas found out he had been traded and for a few more years became a journeyman footballer in the MLS.

He announced his retirement only to un-retire a year later and play for the LA Galaxy.

During his sabbatical Lalas followed the usual route of becoming a laughable TV pundit before finally hanging up his boots and getting a job as the GM at the San Jose Earthquakes.

Eventually he transfered around the company (AEG own a number of clubs, as well as Derek’s contract) until he finally got the General Manager’s position at the media whoring LA Galaxy.

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To his “lee-shure” activities then…

Lalas has always had musical aspirations and a few years ago was in a band called the Gypsies.

This band were, like his footballing career, slightly successful and released two albums as well as opening a few shows for Hootie & The Blowfish on their 1998 European tour.

A couple of years later Alexi released an album called…wait for it…
Ginger and one single from it. Don’t know if either the single or album charted.

According to his MySpace page (where there are some new songs) Lalas still plays and his brother Greg is the bass guitar in his band.

–

Your audio samples today come courtesy of carrascus and his Blogin’ in the wind blog - Lalas did a cover version of The Primitives “Crash” :

» Alexi Lalas - Crash

… and a randomly selected track from his album, chosen because the title could be footie related:

» Alexi Lalas - Half A Chance

February 10th, 1998. The Rose Bowl. Pasadena, California, USA. The CONCACAF Gold Cup Semi-Final.

And beat them.

Sadly, because at the time there was zero interest by the American media (or the public) there are no reports to be found on the match. But it was a… I wouldn’t say a historic match but it was a noteworthy one because only a few months later Brazil went on to appear and lose in the World Cup Final.
(you remember it. Before the match Ronaldo had an “illness”)

Noteworthy too because of the outstanding performances of two journeyman American footballers who appeared in the Premier League. In fact one of them is still there.

The only and winning goal was scored by Preki, who Everton fans will fondly remember from his time with them in the early ’90’s. Also spent a season with Pompey before going back to the USA.

What a shot it was. Outside of the area, on his left peg, keeper didn’t get near it.
- Hey do you know what he’s doing now ? He’s the head coach of Chivas USA.

But this match was remembered more for the goalkeeping heroics of one Kasey Keller. After going a goal down and time running out the Brazilians took up target practice at the USA goal, none of them got in.

After their defeat Romario remarked: “That is the best performance by a goalkeeper I have ever seen. It was an honour to be on the pitch with him.”

– As mentioned I can’t find any reports on this game, but you can watch Preki’s goal here and some highlights here.

The members of the now defunct American band Barcelona (also known as Barcelonadc) watched this match, saw Kasey’s outstanding performance and were inspired to write a song about it…

» Barcelona - Kasey Keller

Other things are happening elsewhere which are stopping me from posting anything new on here.

Until I can find a decent amount of time - here’s some music:

Right at this moment it’s a bit of a dead zone footballing-wise. The teams are back in pre-season training and there are some friendlies being played, but the supporters give only a cursory glance and the goings on at their clubs and may attend a match if it’s at home and if there’s nowt decent on the telly that night.

But there are some leagues that are still playing and in the middle of their season.

- Such as the Faroe Islands, who’s current leading team EB/Streymur play Man City next Thursday in a UEFA Cup qualifying match.

- Plus there’s a Sunday League over in America known as the MLS…

Over the next few posts I’ll be featuring some American born soccer kickball players who have, as you may have guessed, combined music and football. Some songs by them and about them.

- - -

I want to begin by giving a shout out to South Bronx FC, who despite their name are actually based in Atlanta, Georgia.

South Bronx are somebody who really do combine footie and music. As they say in their About Me:
“…Just a bunch of mc’s, dj’s and various other folks from the Atlanta hiphop scene…trying to put a round ball into a net repeatedly. ….without having a heart attack first. ”

As well as playing the beautiful game they try to stage monthly musical events. I would love to see that.

I like the approach - I think this combination works. If the American soccer associations want to get people to take up playing football then I would suggest to them to follow South Bronx FC’s way of doing it. The way footie is in the UK …despite all the expensive imports… it is still grassroots.

Pub teams play, social clubs play, youth clubs, work teams and all local villages and towns play football. In the USA if there were more setups like South Bronx, which I see as the modern American equivalent of English grassroots football [they may disagree with this observation, this is the impression I get from their site] then more would take it up.

Grassroots is exactly where today’s featured player started. Clint Dempsey wasn’t a child of privilege, he and his family went through so much before he made it in the MLS and eventually to the Premier League with Fulham (or MLS London as I call them - they’ve had the most Americans at their club than any other).

Last season Clint (a midfielder) was Fulham’s highest goal scorer - with 6 goals. Which is one of the reasons why they skirted with relegation. His fellow American Brian McBride had an injury plagued season and has now left the club and might sign for MLS team Chicago Fire.

Clint was in the U.S National team playing in the finals of the 2006 World Cup and he appeared in a Nikesoccer.com promotional video in which Dempsey rapped…

Hey where are you going ?! Don’t worry this isn’t an Anfield or Arsenal-type debacle. He’s actually quite good.

From his Wikipedia page:

One of Dempsey’s passions outside of soccer is hip hop music. Using the alias “Deuce”, he, along with fellow Texas rappers XO and the late Houston rapper Big Hawk from the Screwed Up Click, are featured rapping the song “Don’t Tread” in a Nike football advertising campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup intended to showcase both the sport’s working-class roots and the United States team ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The song’s video is dedicated to his sister Jennifer and at Dempsey’s request, it ends with a shot of him placing a flower at her grave.

Video:

Audio:

» Deuce featuring Big Hawk & XO - Don’t Tread

- Before I forget I want to give another shout out to the newly formed Atlanta FC playing in the NPSL.
It was where whoever runs their MySpace page posted a link to F&M on South Bronx FC’s Myspace page, where I found the Clint Dempsey video. So thanks to the both of you. I wish you every success in your future footballing (and musical) endeavours.

All right this is absolutely, definitely, the last final ending post to end it all. Honestly. I’m not just saying that.

This is something I found, made a note of and then promptly forgot about until just now.

Should have got it out last month before the final whistle and I think the parties concerned with staging/promoting and selling the tournament wanted you to spend your hard earned on it, but will now be consigned to the bargain bin.

As with the game which in the adverts they tried to sell to us with the tagline: “Change the outcome…” (I saw the print advert in last month’s 4-4-2 but don’t have the copy here right now).

Try as they might to flog it not many people bought it because of the non-attendance. I’m sure all the big companies didn’t make as much profit as they would have liked this June.

Another one of the products they tried to push onto us was a soundtrack. Yes the tournament had an official song.. actually there was a few… but with the game (the video kind that is, not the footballing one) there was an accompanying soundtrack.

I’ve chosen at random two song from this plus there’s a bonus for those of you who click on the Read more.. after the tracks below.

Just like the CD’s released to tie in with the movies, this is “music inspired by..” type of thing but doesn’t feature any of the official songs. In fact none of the tracks on this CD none of them have anything to do with footie. They don’t even try to tie it in apart from this first one which has a slight link… well it mentions feet…

» Pete & The Pirates - Come On Feet - Official website

» Carolina Liar - I’m Not Over - video - Official website

+ => Don’t Forget To Read the rest of this entry »