Whether Beckham can still bend it is the issue
Overlooked in the rush to lavish $250 million and 250 million words on David Beckham are the raw statistics of his Real Madrid career.
Over the last 3 1/2 years, in 148 league and cup matches for Real Madrid, Beckham has scored 19 goals -- or about one goal for every eight games.
So perhaps Galaxy fans should not be looking for their new multimillion-dollar man to bend it into the back of the net with any sort of regularity.
Since his teens, Beckham’s trademark has been the ability to send swerving kicks to precise locations from all sorts of distances and angles.
But can he still do it, especially since he turns 32 in May and will have somewhat less skilled and considerably less wealthy Major League Soccer opponents lunging at his shins and ankles on a weekly basis?
Bob Bradley, interim coach of the United States men’s soccer team, estimates that Beckham is about 80% of the player he was at his peak, but that he should do quite well in MLS.
“A lot has been written about David over the past two years, that he’s washed up, that he’s finished,” Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop said. “I think he’s playing as well as any Real Madrid player at the moment.
“Because he’s not playing as much, people seem to think he’s not playing because he’s not very good. It’s so far from the truth. I watched the last six or seven Real Madrid games before Christmas and he started two or three of them. I thought he was outstanding. Excellent.
“His shooting was great from distance. His set-plays [free kicks and corner kicks] are obviously fantastic. His work rate and his fitness was incredible.
“So we’re getting a player who is in the top of his form, raring to go over here. He’s a great teammate. He’s a leader on and off the field. You look at what he’s done for the three teams he’s played for -- England, Manchester United and Real Madrid -- and every single player has never said a bad word about David Beckham.”
Coaches, sportswriters and one particular club president have not been as kind.
Former England coach Bobby Robson suggested this week that Beckham was moving into “semi-retirement” by going to MLS and that he had lost his appetite for the game at the highest level.
English newspapers, especially the tabloids, have long delighted in pointing out Beckham’s allegedly declining skills.
On Tuesday, Ramon Calderon, Real Madrid’s beleaguered president, added his voice to the chorus, claiming Beckham’s move to the Galaxy was done out of desperation because no other club wanted him.
“He’s going to Hollywood to be half a film star,” Calderon said in a speech to university students that was recorded without his knowledge and later broadcast on Spanish radio.
“Our technical staff were right not to extend his contract and that has been proved by the fact that no other technical staff in the world wanted him except Los Angeles.”
All of this has not gone down well at the Home Depot Center, where Galaxy President and General Manager Alexi Lalas rose to the bait. “There’s a thinking that if a player is coming to America that he’s being put out to pasture, that any hopes of an international career are gone. That comes much more from a lack of knowledge of what goes on in the U.S. than it does from any real assessment of the quality in MLS,” Lalas said.
“For those of us that have been around for a long time, it’s irritating to say the least, and certainly offensive, maybe even insulting, to everything that we have over here.
“I have absolutely no problem in saying that, given time, David Beckham could wake up one morning in Los Angeles and say, ‘You know what? I’m playing better football than I’ve ever played before. The level, whether people want to believe it or not, is as good and at times even better.’ ”
Beckham has spent much of his career on the right flank, but Yallop says he intends to play him in central midfield.
“In our league, we need him on the ball as much as possible,” Yallop said. “I can’t see him being stuck out wide. We need to build a team around him that he can slip straight into and really enjoy playing with these guys. We’re trying to do that.
“I want to give him the freedom to just play and not have the shackles on. When the other team has the ball, I don’t want him worrying about needing to get back and defend.
“He will do his defensive duties, but as soon as we win the ball, I want him to enjoy himself.”
Some have questioned Beckham’s speed. As a schoolboy, he was a talented 1,500-meter runner, not a sprinter, but Yallop dismissed suggestions that he has slowed.
“I’ve seen him play since he was 19 and he looks the same to me,” Yallop said. “He’s never struggled with that before. David needs half a yard to deliver a ball of precise quality, to cross a ball. And obviously on dead balls he’s got all the time in the world to do that.
“I watch him play and I think his work rate and enthusiasm will absolutely rub off on all our players, especially our young guys.”
Beckham claims he still has what it takes. “I believe there’s at least four or five years left in my legs,” he said before last summer’s World Cup.
