It's turning into a summer of international football spectacles here in Los Angeles. Chelsea take on Inter Milan at the Rose Bowl while European Champions Barcelona and Italian giants AC Milan also stop by my neighborhood to take on the LA Galaxy. EPL club Burnley will also be playing in the LA area.

 

Interspersed with all of this high class (albeit exhibition quality) soccer, we have a bit of drama. David Beckham calling teammate Landon Donovan "unprofessional" yesterday, before watching the Galaxy's 1-0 victory from the stands.

 

While the global icon has yet to feature for the Galaxy this year, he did have the time to announce "Footprint Fields" yesterday in El Segundo, CA along with Zinedine Zidane. 

 

"Footprint Fields" is a new community initiative to help develop soccer fields in urban locations around the country - providing access to safe playing surroundings for communities in need in the US. 

 

So, putting all the drama aside, and the lack of success that # 23 has had on the pitch in the USA, the Beckham brand is still helping cultivate soccer in this country. Helping to grow the sport - and providing access to communities in need is just one great example, and one that is close to my heart.

 

As a youth soccer coach (of a U-17 boy's team) located in El Segundo - the same city where Beckham and Zidane announced Footprint Fields this weekend - I can see first hand the socioeconomic barriers that exist in US Soccer. 

 

The players that usually "make it," - whether it's to college scholarships, or the MLS, or even the USMNT, often enjoy an upbringing of embroidered Adidas duffel bags with their name and number etched in cursive, trips up and down the state (or country), expensive uniforms and entry fees to local and national tournaments, and relatives that can afford to pay for these luxuries.

 

What Beckham and Zidane are promoting - is bringing that same passion and some of those same resources to the underprivileged. And I'm not naive enough to think that this is their brainchild - or that there aren't dozens of other excellent grassroots initiatives in the US helping to build local soccer in communities of need - but it sure doesn't hurt when you have the Beckham (and Zidane) name behind you.