Beckham won’t travel to Denver
David Beckham, physically drained by playing three games on two continents in six days and with his left ankle again causing him problems, will not travel to Denver with the Galaxy today and thus will not play in Sunday’s match against the Colorado Rapids.
“We have to focus on healing David’s injury,” Alexi Lalas, the team’s president and general manager, said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
Also on Friday, the Galaxy elevated assistant coach Paul Bravo to the newly created position of “director of soccer” and announced that the club had won a Major League Soccer “weighted lottery” and thereby had acquired U.S. under-17 national team forward Israel Sesay.
Sesay, 16, was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and has lived in Gaithersburg, Md., since he was 11. He will join the Galaxy as a developmental player on Monday, start training with the team Tuesday, and could be on the bench for the SuperLiga final against Pachuca of Mexico on Wednesday night.
“He’s dynamic,” Bravo said. “He’s very good running at people one versus one, so he brings a little bit different element. Exciting. In one word, that’s how I’d characterize him.”
The injury-riddled Galaxy could use some help. The setback to Beckham was hardly surprising considering he played more than 180 minutes in consecutive appearances for England against Germany on Wednesday night in London and in a 3-0 loss to Chivas USA on Thursday in Carson.
After the latter match, Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop admitted that it would have been better to rest Beckham.
“It wasn’t the intention to play him at all,” Yallop said. “But he said he felt OK and obviously in our [3-9-5] situation in the league we need points.”
Despite feeling “dizzy” in the first half, Beckham stayed on the field for the full 90 minutes in a physical game as Yallop hoped for “one bit of magic by David” that never arrived. After the game Beckham limped off the field and his ankle was visibly swollen.
“Right at the end, he looked hobbled,” Yallop said. “I used him tonight and I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t like to put any player, not just David, in jeopardy of getting injured. That wasn’t the intention. I feel bad for him.
“He’s going to be sore. I think his body is sore from what he’s done over the last 10 days.”
Meanwhile, the 39-year-old Bravo, in his new role, will “oversee all technical and business issues related to the senior team,” according to the Galaxy, and will report directly to Lalas.
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