Wednesday, March 12, 2008

We’re hoping to do something special in connection with this year’s Dallas Cup...

Some people are familiar with the story of the Alcala family of Dallas. Back in the late 1980s, a young fellow visited as part of the Essex Schools team out of London. Back then, he was just another nice, young English lad. As part of the Dallas Cup’s home-stay program, this nice young man bunked with Sam and Christine Alcala. They had a son playing in the Dallas Cup and therefore happily obliged the call to house some of the foreign players.

The Alcala’s house guest that week happened to be a young David Beckham.

Newspaper accounts done in the last few years have recounted how well they all got along, how Sam Alcala had breakfast with “little Davie” each morning, how Davie left a few nice gifts for the family, etc.

Now, of course, Beckham is one of the world’s most recognized faces. And it just so happens that he’s playing at Pizza Hut Park on the night before the Dallas Cup begins. So, Dallas Cup executive director Gordon Jago has reached out to Beckham and the Galaxy, attempting to arrange a meeting of the long, lost friends.

Here’s what Beckham told Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl last year:

“I've tried to trace them (the Alcala family) in the last 10 years and I’ve not been able to,” he says. “I’d love to track the family down because it was incredible.”

Now, the Dallas Cup has done it for them. So far, we’ve haven’t heard back from the Galaxy about getting the old friends back together.

The Galaxy and Beckham arrive Friday.

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