Byline: TOM HOFFARTH, MEDIA
Put yourself in Alexi Lalas' flip flops for a few seconds of extra time.
The rejuvenated Galaxy's climb into Sunday's Major League Soccer title game is being explained by kickball experts everywhere as a situation where a group of international all-stars finally learned how to play as a team.
David Beckham and Landon Donovan aside, it's a roster a bit different from the one Lalas helped assemble in the years before he was fired as team president and general manager in August 2008. But the star-power blueprint still has his fingerprints on it.
Himself a former Galaxy star who helped the franchise win its first MLS Cup in 2002 and four years later was inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, Lalas attends Sunday's championship contest against Real Salt Lake in Seattle not as a team executive who helped navigate this summit, but in the capacity of studio analyst for ESPN's coverage.
They are flip-flopped emotions that the Manhattan Beach resident must feel is as comfortable as shaking sand out of his shorts.
'Look, I could BS you and say I've moved on, but I'm human,' Lalas said Wednesday from Bristol, Conn., where he was doing studio work on the U.S.-Denmark telecast.
In all honesty, Lalas' honesty is also what makes him a vibrant element of any ABC/ESPN soccer event.
'We went through a lot of craziness, and I made some mistakes, but all that was uncharted territory,' Lalas admits. 'I'm proud having gone through it even if it didn't always work out.
'People on the outside have their opinions of what happened, but no one really knows what went on there. We were really trying to figure it out as we went along. And only now they've come out on the other side.
'My personal situation aside, it's a real team now. That's something that was missing for a number of years. It's unfortunate, but in a strange way, they had to go through the process.
'It's too bad I'm associated with the negative part of that process, but all that matters to me, as a Galaxy alum, is that the fans get a good team and this one rivals some of the best in their history.'
Lalas was suited up in suit and tie at Home Depot Center on that strange day back in January 2007, when Beckham arrived to a surreal media celebration that came with a $250 million-plus financial package attached to it. But as egos clashed and victories didn't materialize, Lalas and coach Ruud Gullit were shipped out late last season when the team hit a seven-game losing streak, pointed toward another failed playoff appearance after having been there 10 consecutive years.
Lalas landed in a place where he'd always been welcome - the TV side. This weekend, he says it would be disingenuous if he didn't impart what he learned about this franchise when giving his insights to viewers about how this MLS Cup could shake out.
'When you talk about the changes the team made a couple of years ago before it got here, that's important because ultimately, that brought about this success,' he said. 'Maybe it's unfair about how all that was portrayed in the media, but I'm a big boy and in my current capacity, I have to make sure I'm fair to the Galaxy and the teams they're playing.
'I also know I can bring knowledge that others can't. I know both the good and bad impact that Beckham had, and what impact the changes had. The team wasn't on the right course. Now they are.'
Of course, there's a sense of pride in Lalas watching Sunday's game, even from a media seat. He's still preaching the gospel of soccer to a nation more in tune with it, a year before the next World Cup erupts. If it made you catch a glimpse of Beckham placing a free kick with a trademark bend to help set up one of the most important goals scored in team history - in overtime during the Western Conference title game last Friday against Houston that resulted in this MLS Cup trip - Lalas will work the drive-thru TV window.
Maybe if Lalas had been flawless as a Galaxy GM, he wouldn't be able to be on the talking end of Sunday's telecast.
'All this enables me to stay in the game and talk about the sport I love, working and building a brand every day,' said Lalas, who even made an appearance on Comedy Central's 'Colbert Report' to talk soccer a couple of months ago.
'Back when I played, a lot of us felt we were part of a generation of pioneers, introducing the sport to Americans. Now it's been a little easier to get the message out.'
Video game has everything, except 'One Shining Moment'
How many times do you wish you could turn on a sporting event and actually choose which broadcast crew came along with it?
It's virtually possible now, thanks to EA Sports' new 'NCAA Basketball 10' video game.
On the video console, users can pick either ESPN's Brad Nessler, Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews to do the faux broadcast, or CBS' Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery. It even goes as far as letting us pick which network theme music brings the game on and takes it out.
Just like in real TV land, the default setting for the season mode has ESPN guys on the midweek games and CBS on the weekends, plus the NCAA Tournament.
'We really tried to maintain that authenticity and true-to-life feel, which frankly aided in getting the licensing done,' EA Sports producer Connor Dougan told the Sports Business Journal.
'We're out there competing for dollars with a lot of other titles, including ones of our own like 'Madden' and 'FIFA,' and other entertainment, so we have to give consumers something that differentiates ourselves.'
There is one thing taking some of the shine off this, good or bad: CBS' 'One Shining Moment' isn't made available after the video game's national title contest. That would cost more in licensing fees.
At least there's no Clark Kellogg mucking things up.
