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Becks Making a Hash of Things

July 21st, 2009 · 2 Comments · soccer

Ah, the poor simple-minded King David. He seems to believe he can run his version of events out there and it will overpower every other telling of the tale … even over what, apparently, is the true story of July 19, 2009.

Some of the fans in and around the Riot Squad — hardcore Galaxy supporters — have stepped up to give their version of events Sunday night at the Home Depot Center, and their accounts are wildly at variance with events as David Beckham described them.

Clearly, he was surprised by the negative reaction, didn’t react well to it and, in fact, exacerbated the situation by challenging fans — which any professional athlete with an ounce of sense knows you never, ever do.

Here is the espn. com version of the story, essentially a rewrite of what was in the Los Angeles Times today.

The LAT version of the story is longer and has more detail. Including the suggestion that Beckham himself was using profane language during the commotion.

And here is the video clip from an unknown (but on-field) source that certainly seems to show Beckham motioning for someone (or several someones) to come out of the stands and onto the field. The Becks version is that he wanted the fan to come down so he could shake his hand. Fans say that was anything but his intent, or his invitation.

Anyway, a couple of days later, and this story still has legs … and Becks’ reputation locally continues to take a beating.

At this point, maybe his best course of action of to fake an injury, and soon, and scuttle off to Italy as soon as possible. Either that, or resign himself (and prepare) himself for lots of abuse every time he plays in Los Angeles for the rest of this season.

And his first priority, if he chooses to stick it out through October, is to keep his head in the game, rather than the stands. He has to play hard, play well and above all he must stop agitating fans.

To get a sense of fan reaction, check the comments under my blog post from Monday. Not many fans rising to his defense.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Joseph D'Hippolito // Jul 24, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    Paul, Don Garber fined Beckham $1,000 for his actions during the Milan game. Of course, it’s a token amount given Beckham’s wealth but Garber had to do something; otherwise, he and MLS would be seen as nothing but lapdogs for European stars.

  • 2 soccer goals // Jul 24, 2009 at 3:52 PM

    I am tired of DB.

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