The Beckham Tug-of-War

By: Bob | August 24th, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8_ZweDsCLA

It wasn’t very long ago when we were wondering when David Beckham would actually suit up and play for the LA Galaxy. Now we are left wondering whether Beckham is playing too much soccer. After going to full 90 on Saturday in New York, Beckham flew to England and played a full 90 for his national team on Wednesday. He then made the commute to LA and went the distance in the Galaxy’s 3-0 loss to Chivas USA on Thursday night. That’s a pretty brutal schedule for a player who still has a gimpy ankle and who isn’t exactly a spring chicken. That’s also a pretty brutal foul by Jesse Marsch.

Said Marsch the Beckham incident: “He had kind of gotten a piece of me quite before that. So it was somewhat a retaliation, somewhat a tactical foul because he was on a break. And like I said it was harder than I would have liked it to have been and I apologized to him. I told him I respect what he’s about. He was kind of done with me though.”

One can understand how Becks might have felt done with Marsch. The only thing worse then getting kicked when you are jetlagged is being taken to a karaoke bar in Tokyo and being forced to do shots of sake while people you don’t know sing the extended version of Thriller again and again. I speak from experience.

When the Beckham announcement was made last winter I cringed at the notion of having to read about him all the time and at the idea that he would become synonymous with American soccer. I’d always admired him as a player but despised him as a player celebrity.

That hasn’t changed, but what has changed is that I have sympathy for the guy. Putting aside the money he is making and the trappings that go with it, I feel sorry for him because he is in a lousy soccer situation. On the one side of the Atlantic he has a coach who is desperately trying to guide a wobbly ship that is under intense scrutiny to Euro 2008. On the other side of the Atlantic he has a coach whose team is nothing short of abysmal and who is under intense pressure from his league to play the guy that people are paying to watch even when he knows playing him is a bad decision.

Both coaches have turned to a guy who isn’t entirely healthy in the hope that he can make one pass or one play that will save their own bacon. What a tough position to put a player in.

Some Related Stories:

Category: MLS, World Football

« Daily Dose 08.24.07 | Home | A Name to Remember: Aaron Ramsey »

The Offside RSS Feeds

Marcello

It was just for the publicity.
Diane

Am I wrong, or do FIFA regulations dictate that Beckham has to go when called up by his national team unless he formally retires from international competition?
Peter

I doubt Beckham needed to play 90 minutes in a second rate friendly against Germany to win a spot with England. The larger issue is the way MLS schedules its games. It is absurd for the league to have games during the international period. It is unfair to teams that have the most international players on their rosters. They shouldn't have played the game in LA a day after there were internationals.
chris

I think the point being missed here is the 90 meaningless minutes weren't in the friendly against Germany, the meaningless 90 were for the Galaxy last night. Winning a spot for England is infinitely more important than filling sitting seats in the states. A Three Lions friendly against Faroe Islands if it means David winning a starting spot in the future will always take precedence over even the MLS championship game. I don't like England, but even I support that. The MLS is a non-factor.
Blue Devil Brad

I agree with Chris. One week Beckham doesn't make the strenuous arduous journey from LA to Dallas because travel aggravates the injury, and the next he's crossing the pond to play the full 90 in a meaningless friendly? Brand Beckham got poo-pooed for bailing on Dallas and now he's not going to miss anything just in case. Steve flew out here to check him out - he didn't need to prove himself. I sympathize with him on some level - he's doing everything he can, and when his coaches tell him to jump, he says "how high?" - but it's hard to sympathize if he's going about it all like a ventriloquist dummy. Stop letting McClaren and the MLS pull all the strings! Get healthy! I don't hold it against you that you didn't play in New England!
Chris

I don't have any sympathy with Beckham, he's putting himself in this situation solely to promote David Beckham. Why on earth did he come back for that meaningless friendly, everyone including Steve McClaren knows what Beckham can do and Beckham said before the Germany game that he wasn't 100% fit and was playing through the pain. What for? Just to collect international caps for the sake of it as far I can see.

He could easily have said 'Steve I need to sit this one out, my ankle's not right and the Galaxy have a big game but I'll be ready for the Israel qualifier', end of story. You can tell how much use the game with Germany was for McClaren, Peter Crouch is suspended against Israel and who comes off the bench to play upfront, Peter Crouch, while Jermaine Defoe who is eligible never got on.

Either Lalas or Yallop need to tell Beckham you're not playing friendlies during the season because blockhead McClaren is too weak to say don't come and Beckham's ego won't let him say I'm not going.
Laurie

Good summary. Now I can just link to you without thinking. Thank you yet again for doing my work for me.