No one-man show
Eight time zones east of his totally major house in Beverly Hills, David Beckham alights to an England national soccer team amid a bit of national media melodrama.
That’s in contrast to the national media melodrama of this spring, when England’s team struggled with Israel and Andorra, or the national media melodrama of last fall, when England lost at Croatia and drew with Macedonia, or the national media melodrama of the summer of 2006, when England limped dully to the World Cup quarterfinals.
None of that should be confused with the national media melodrama of recent years when the dour Sven-Goran Eriksson served as England’s coach, or the national media melodrama of much of the 41 years since 1966, when the birthplace of soccer last won the World Cup.
It’s hard to make a sideshow of Beckham, but England has the knack.
It’s really hard to make a sideshow of a soccer diva who played for the Galaxy in New Jersey on Saturday on artificial turf on a wonky ankle, then flew to London, then jogged and practiced with the England team, then might play tonight in Wembley Stadium in a friendly against Germany, then will fly to Los Angeles, and then might play Thursday night in Carson against Chivas USA.
England can.
It’s got this whole big mess with primo striker Wayne Rooney injuring his foot again, as in 2006, and it’s got a whole lingering harrumph about Steve McClaren as the manager reaches his one-year mark, and it’s got a fresh rash of dings that omitted four more players Monday from the Germany friendly, and it’s got a whole issue about how the mighty English Premier League, the top sports league on Earth, saps vigor from the national team.
For connoisseurs of melodrama, that still leaves a bit of room for some doubts, quibbles and blasts about Beckham.
Sir Bobby Robson, a Rushmore figure in soccer -- hence the “Sir” -- and the England manager from 1982 to 1990, hailed Beckham’s commitment to England but forecast he’d wane because of -- warning: gentle put-down ahead -- MLS.
“In the short term, he looks OK,” Robson told the BBC, “but the longer he plays in America, with respect to the football being played there, the less competitive he will become.” With MLS “not the greatest level of football,” Robson said, “he will lose the match sharpness he needs to play at the top level with England.”
With derision less delicate, columnist Brian Reade of the Mirror chimed in, “I’m slightly concerned at the over-the-top reaction to David Beckham’s debut goal for L.A. Galaxy. Perspective time. He’s scored one free kick against DC United at a part-time Motocross track they call the Home Depot Center, past a goalkeeper called Troy Perkins. Yes. Troy Perkins. Half wooden horse/half rockabilly singer. Croatia, Russia and Israel will not, repeat not, be quaking in their boots.”
Only in Beckham’s singular case, however, could a player invite pooh-poohing in the global minor leagues while inviting resentment for jetting around treating England as a global minor league.
Intoning that the “circus is coming back to town,” Jeff Powell in the Daily Mail dubbed Beckham “the clown prince of star-spangled football” and wondered “why is he being allowed to fly halfway around the world on a wonky ankle for, at best, a cameo appearance in a game which, even though it is against our old German friends, is still only a friendly?”
Having asked the question, Powell answered: “Again, our whole national team is being used as a billboard for Brand Beckham.”
The England national teamsits fourth in the Group E qualifying for the quadrennial Euro 2008 hoo-ha in Austria and Switzerland. With five qualifying matches remaining, Croatia and Israel have 17 points each, Russia has 15, England has 14, and Euro 2008 has only two spots for the four. England hasn’t won any of the previous 12 European championships, the world’s second-biggest men’s national tournament.
The Germany friendly predates two qualifying matches that count, both in London, one against Israel on Sept. 8 (the same day as Galaxy vs. Colorado) and one against Russia on Sept. 12 (the day before Galaxy at Chivas). Not that a horde of England players will get the tune-up together. Monday’s injury updates robbed McClaren of the chance to employ Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard, Manchester United’s Owen Hargreaves, Tottenham’s Darren Bent and Portsmouth’s Sol Campbell.
Two of those players plus a batch of English nationals participated last weekend in Sunday matches. In bygone days of golden yore, English club football held all matches simultaneously on Saturdays, but then along came the insistent king of the world, TV, and after that came its mammoth global contracts with the Premier League, and after that players on Wednesday still tired from Sunday, with time for only one full practice before a friendly with Germany.
“It’s not helpful,” McClaren said.
Paul Wilson wrote in the Observer, “It is simply not possible to have the most entertaining league in the world and expect the national team to perform with the same panache.”
With England having vigorously invited the world’s players into its league -- 64 nationalities last season alone -- and then invited the world to watch -- 207 countries -- Wilson noted that “far more TV viewers and the world want to watch Liverpool vs. Chelsea or City vs. United than will ever care about England vs. Israel.”
In a conversation-starter on Sunday, Manchester City, the veritable Clippers of England (unknown to many foreigners, an afterthought in their own city), upended the dynastic Manchester United, 1-0. Man City’s new manager? Why, if it isn’t Eriksson, the hot story of the new year with his team atop the league after three matches.
His face looks strange. It’s smiling. His successor and former assistant, McClaren? Less so. He’s low on players, especially midfielders, so some opportunity could beckon here for one very midfielder McClaren briefly jettisoned in 2006, provided Beckham can surmount jet lag.
