In Defense Of David Beckham

At the recent Rose Bowl friendly between FC Barcelona and Los Angeles Galaxy, the visiting European champions' every touch of the ball was hailed with cheers and applause. 

In contrast, whenever Galaxy’s own David Beckham even went near the thing he was booed, it seemed from all parts of the 93,000-plus packed stadium.  To my surprise, I found myself joining in.

After another couple of good touches from Beckham and another couple of boos from the crowd, I began to wonder why exactly we were booing.

The recent Beckham saga is well documented.  At the tail end of last year's Galaxy season Beckham went on loan with AC Milan, ostensibly to maintain fitness during the MLS offseason.  After training with Milan over the winter Beckham found himself in their starting lineup, and somewhat surprisingly perhaps, instantly making a difference on the pitch.  Making crisp, accurate crosses and corner kicks, he provided assists and rapidly notched up a couple goals of his own.  Suddenly Beckham was back and playing class football on the world stage once more.

Months later the MLS season began without Beckham.  He played out the Italian season, took a short break and rejoined the Galaxy only a few weeks ago. 

That’s when the real trouble began.

At a friendly match between Galaxy and Milan, orchestrated as part of his extended loan deal, Beckham got into a verbal altercation with one fan, who attempted to confront Becks on the pitch, appearing in video of the scene, to have been provoked by Beckham, himself. 

Beckham was fined $1000 and the fan received a lifetime ban that was later rescinded.  A week or two later Beckham was again heckled by a fan in an England jersey at an away game against the Kansas City Wizards.  Describing the incident and the horrible things the fan had said about Beckham’s wife, Victoria, Golden Balls speculated that “maybe (the fan) wasn’t really English.”

Then of course there was the book.

“The Beckham Experiment” by Grant Wahl interviewed Beckham’s Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan, who essentially accused Beckham of phoning it in while the Galaxy management bent over backwards to make any and all accommodation for Becks, regardless of the effect on the team as a whole.

But in the midst of all the noisy Beckham bashing something else has been happening.  The Galaxy, after a string of draws, have begun to win games.  They even managed a draw against AC Milan. 

For the first time in many seasons there’s talk of the Galaxy entering playoffs this year.  Even at the Rose Bowl, against Barcelona, Galaxy appeared threatening.  Late in the second half, under a storm of boos and jeers, Beckham fired a free kick over the wall and under the crossbar to equalize.  There were much fewer boos in the second half it should be noted.

Barcelona went on to triumph 2-1.  But throughout the match Beckham provided assists, aided in defense and in general lent the kind of class play needed to compete against a side like Barcelona.  To say Galaxy are getting his “leftovers” would seem wildly inaccurate. To say the Galaxy would be better off without him at this point would sound foolhardy.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that Beckham's' Galaxy co-star, Landon Donovan had his own offseason “fitness” loan last winter to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.  But after failing to impress then coach Jurgen Klinsmann as being more than “interesting,” Donovan found himself back in L.A. in spite of saying that playing for Bayern was “my dream,” and going back to Galaxy, “would be sad.”

So Becks is back, along with his pop star wife, underwear ads, cologne brand, and ill conceived tattoos.  Yet along with that, he’s brought some top European class to MLS that perhaps could only be acquired from a successful stint at a club like Milan.  I, for one, am glad we have him and hope we have not worn out the man's good graces.  From the look of things, we need him now more than ever.