Beckham on Friendlier Ground
England Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson will find out this week whether David Beckham’s tumultuous $40-million summer move from Manchester United to Real Madrid and his subsequent triumphal tour of Asia have hurt his playing ability.
England plays Croatia in a friendly in Ipswich, England, on Wednesday, and Beckham returned to London from Spain on Monday, having been booed at Mestalla Stadium in Valencia and criticized in the press for his lackluster Spanish debut the day before, albeit also in a friendly.
“The game could have gone better,” Beckham said of Real’s 0-0 tie with Valencia on Sunday. “I know I can play better than that.”
The Spanish press was harshly critical of Beckham’s contribution, which consisted of little more than earning a yellow card and picking up a back injury that will limit the England captain’s playing time on Wednesday.
“Mediocre Start for Beckham,” wrote El Mundo. A “dud,” ventured the sports paper AS.
Spanish champion Real Madrid opens the season in two weeks.
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Friedel Focus
American Brad Friedel, the former UCLA star who last season was voted the top goalkeeper in the English Premier League, says Blackburn Rovers’ acquisition of Australian midfielder Brett Emerton could be the best buy of the summer.
Rovers opened their season with a 5-1 thumping of Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Emerton scoring one goal and creating another.
“It’s not just his energy levels that are impressive, it’s the quality of the service at the end of it,” Friedel told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
“He can strike a free-kick or a dead-ball like David Beckham because of the amount of swerve he puts on it, and that’s going to make it very difficult for any goalkeeper to deal with.”
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Leverkusen Revival
Coach Klaus Augenthaler, recruited by relegation-threatened Bayer Leverkusen with two games to go last season, not only won those two matches to keep the team in the German Bundesliga but has it off to a 3-0 start this season.
“He found the right balance [of players],” said goalkeeper Hans-Joerg Butt. “There is no room for euphoria, but if we continue to play with such concentration, we can beat everyone.”
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Angry Scot
David Taylor, the chief executive of the Scottish Football Assn., called on courts to be tougher on fans who invade the field during matches.
There were two such incidents over the weekend, with police in Aberdeen arresting a man for running onto the field and kicking at Rangers defender Fernando Rickson on Saturday and another fan being collared by police in Edinburgh when he tried to confront referee Stuart Dougal during Sunday’s Hibernian-Hearts match.
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Italian Opera
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi brought the weight of the Italian government to bear on the financial scandal surrounding four Italian clubs, including AS Roma of Serie A and Napoli of Serie B.
Berlusconi’s government today is expected to issue a decree ruling that sports tribunals, not civil tribunals, have the final say in conflicts involving sports teams.
The scandal, involving the four clubs’ financial fitness to continue operation, had threatened to force postponement of the season openers.
“There is zero percent possibility that the championship will be postponed,” Adriano Galliani, the league’s president, told the Italian news agency ANSA on Monday. “I don’t know the details of the decree, but surely it will clarify [who] is competent to handle questions concerning sports justice.”
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Times wire services contributed to this report.
