Injury slows Beckham as he heads to LA
(AP)Updated: 2007-06-19 08:45
LONDON - After winning a Spanish League title for the first time, David Beckham hobbles toward Major League Soccer hoping to bring similar success to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Someone should tell him it won't be that easy.
 Real Madrid player David Beckham waves goodbye to his fans after the Spanish League soccer match against Mallorca in Madrid, Sunday, June 17, 2007. Beckham is leaving Real Madrid to join Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. Real Madrid won their 30th Spanish League title. [AP] |
Nursing an ankle injury, Beckham sat on the bench watching his Real Madrid teammates turn around a deficit to beat Mallorca 3-1 Sunday for the club's 30th league title. It was his last game after four frustrating years with the Spanish club.
Don't expect him to bring immediate MLS success to the Galaxy.
While Beckham was still celebrating in Madrid, Los Angeles ended a five-game winless run with a 3-2 victory over last place Real Salt Lake. That at least put the Galaxy three points ahead of Salt Lake, which is last in the Western Conference and hasn't won in 15 games.
It was only the second victory of the season for the Galaxy (2-4-3), playing without Landon Donovan, with the U.S. national team at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
"We have a lot of work to do in certain areas," coach Frank Yallop said. "I'm happy all around but now we need to regroup and get ready for our game next Saturday. It's nice to have a smile on my face for a change."
Beckham will have a scan on his injured left ankle to determine exactly what's wrong with it. He is due to join the Galaxy next month, but if there is a fracture or a ligament tear, he will be out for a long spell.
"I felt it snap again," he said after the title-winning triumph at the Bernabeu Stadium. "There was a lot of pain."
Beckham picked up the injury playing for England against Estonia on June 6. Despite limping for much of the game, he set up two of England's goals with trademark crosses in a 3-0 victory that revived its chances of reaching next year's European Championship.
He then played through the injury in Real Madrid's 2-2 draw with Real Zaragoza and it flared up again against Mallorca. When Beckham limped off in the 65th minute, it seemed like a throwback to his departure from the World Cup a year ago.
Struggling with knee and Achilles' tendon injuries, Beckham trudged off early in the second half, shook the hand of coach Sven-Goran Eriksson on the way to the bench and sat there to watch England lose to Portugal on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals.
With his team losing Sunday, Beckham took his seat on the bench. But the player who replaced him, Jose Antonio Reyes, scored twice as Madrid won the game 3-1 to capture the title.
Beckham had hit the crossbar and several times came close to scoring before he limped off. Although he wasn't on the field to contribute to any of the goals, he can be satisfied that, without his contributions in the past two months, Madrid wouldn't have made it to the top of the Spanish standings.
Some of the loudest cheers from the Madrid fans went to Beckham as he walked onto the field with his three sons — Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz — to celebrate the title triumph.
Beckham's celebrity fans Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes hugged and kissed each other in celebration of Madrid's last two goals.
Sitting a few feet away was Beckham's wife, former "Posh Spice" Victoria, holding youngest son Cruz and bouncing him up and down. In the television pictures, she wasn't even smiling. Maybe her mind was already in LA.
|
||
|
||
|
|