February 13, 2012
  • 2/18/09

    david beckham

    By Max J. Dickstein

    The Equalizer: The Red Bulls' Juan Pablo Angel is the anti-Beckham

    Photo credit: Game Face

    Photo by Getty

    By Andrew Keh

    The Red Bulls must be counting their blessings while they watch an unbridled stream of transfer speculation roil the preseason preparations of their Major League Soccer colleagues in Los Angeles.

    As David Beckham, the soccer player with the big-screen looks, dragged the Galaxy deeper into his personal offseason soap opera, the Red Bulls announced Monday that they had signed their own Designated Player, Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel, to a multiyear contract extension. (Each MLS team can sign one designated player whose annual salary is unrestricted by the normal $400,000 cap.)

    Other teams should be green with envy.

    Angel is an anomaly in a league that has struggled to attract big-name players looking for more than just a paycheck. By now, the league could field a full squad of international stars who, upon arriving here, seemingly lost their will to run.

    Even Beckham — whose effort, despite all else, is rarely questioned — allowed indifference to contaminate his play toward the end of last season, when the Galaxy was far out of the title hunt. Beckham’s public change of heart — a desire to return to Europe and play for AC Milan — has lent a new level of absurdity to all of the ballyhoo and expressions of mutual adoration that marked his MLS entry in 2007.

    Angel arrived that same season with much less fanfare, but he has since attacked the American game with twice the ferocity. While stars before him have sulked at the sight of inferior teammates, Angel seemed to grab them by their shirts and lift them to his standard.

    In the 2007 playoffs, Angel took a gruesome knock to the head in a match against New England. Though he begged to stay in the game, he was taken off with a concussion and the Red Bulls lost the game. Still, the moment made plain the resilience of his heart, and last year, Angel helped lead the club to its first appearance in the league’s championship match, the MLS Cup.

    In a conference call Monday, Angel said all of the right things, and reiterated, over and again, his motivation for the coming season and his long-term commitment to the team.

    “I’m excited that a couple of years into this organization, we were able just to get something going and to achieve something,” he said. “The future looks bright for us.”

    With Angel on board, in body and, more important, in spirit, it surely does for the Red Bulls.

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