Lalas: Beckham Shouldn’t Have Played Against Chelsea

By: Laurie | August 8th, 2007

The British tabloid The Sun may not be the most credible of sources, but it’s not as if they’re saying anything surprising here, right? They’re merely quoting Lalas saying what we’ve all been thinking.

Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas admits Becks should not have played against Chelsea last month and is paying the price for his 16-minute debut appearance.

Lalas said: “There was a tremendous amount of pressure but we shouldn’t have done it.”

Yup. Kinda sucks when the right thing and the $$money$$ thing conflict, doesn’t it?

(Anybody who watched the Toronto game on ESPN2, was this part of the halftime interview that I missed by watching the game on the Canadian channel? Or another interview altogether?)

Also part of the article is Beckham saying he has no regrets about playing with painkilling injections in his final Madrid game, despite the fact that the worst of his ankle injury happened then and threatened not only his first month with the Galaxy, but also his possible callup for the next England game.

“Maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do long-term but I did it and I am glad I did it. I have never agreed with injections or anything unnatural. I have always preferred to feel naturally fit going into games but we were going for the league title and I’d have done anything to play in that game. I played for 65 minutes and we ended up winning the league. It has not done me much good but I did it and that’s it.”

I can understand that. It was a big game. What frustrates me is that Beckham made the decision, but it’s not just Beckham paying the price.

(Thanks to MissV for the link.)

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Category: Player News, Team News

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Diane

Thanks, Andy, this is probably the most intellectually uplifting post in the history of blogging. Philosophy, vocabulary...and all of immediate use. I am in complete furious agreement and hope that it is only six weeks.
Andy

Diane - a 'bottler' is someone who wouldn't not stand up to the paymasters......... (Lalas and Yallop). As I said earlier they have F****d up England for the next six weeks!!!!!

KTBFFH
Diane

p.s. what's a "bottler"? p.p.s. Laurie, I loved your bit of philosophy so much that I came back to read it again...your lines are better than Star Trek's and I think you should work it into a masthead :-) .
Diane

Sighhh...loose threads, untidy parts...how can I focus on serious questions after such scintillating (did I mean titillating? no? ok) allegories.
Let's see, on the one hand I guess all injuries and send-offs due to acts of passion are a waste...BUT you are exactly right, if that's held back everything else we like is too and we might as well just go out and buy one of those games for the TV with buttons (that some people know how to push) to make one dimensional animated players do things.
Handy to have Zidane to count on to keep us perpetually reminded of why we watch football and why we love it. Ta.
Laurie

Diane, I'm not being critical of Beckham. To say he shouldn't have played the last game for Madrid is similar to saying Zidane shouldn't have delivered the headbutt: to take away that one act would be to take away everything that makes/made them the players they are. If he hadn't played, he wouldn't be Beckham.

I've used this quote (from Star Trek, believe it or not) elsewhere to describe Zidane, but it's equally appropriate here: "there were loose threads... untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads... it had unravelled the tapestry of my life."

If he hadn't played, he might be healthy, but he wouldn't be Beckham. Does this make it less of a waste? I don't know.
Andy

Shame Lalas and Yallop didn't have the balls to stand up to the U.S press, TV, Sponsors and Owners to say Beckham shouldn't have played against Chelsea in the first place. A bit late now to admit what he should have done a few weeks ago. Seems these so-called 'bottlers' have f****d up England for the next six weeks!!!!

KTBFFH
Diane

Also remember how much that last match meant to Beckham and the team he made it there with. He, and they, had been through such club hell, come from so far behind, that the season had become emotional to the point of insanity. There probably wasn't a Real Madrid player (or fan) who wouldn't have taken to the pitch with one leg by then. Beckham was a huge motivating factor in spurring the team to rally after they were counted out, then in helping them stay charged and giving the younger kids confident...and of course he was also at the top of his game in feeding the attack once he was brought back from banishment.
He did take an uncharacteristic chance by playing on the ankle, but he'd done so for the past week and not injured it further so this wasn't the inevitable outcome (to a desperate to play mind anyway).
I know it doesn't help much now but, on the other hand, it does show what a passionate player (and cheerleader, something I've long considered Beckham's main unheralded talent) the Galaxy has acquired.
Todd Pounds

My concern is that 60 Minutes or national news (cbs, abc, nbc) does a story on the advertising/sale of 4 game packs of "Beckham packages" inspite of the injury! Could become an ugly story on major news. Luckily overall the MLS seems to be flying below the radar on this one in terms of major media outlets.
Laurie

Yes, the irony of this has not escaped me. But, y'know, the boy was playin' in some furrin team, so that don't count.
Todd Pounds

Irony: US Sports fans love atheletes playing through injury! Beckham played through injury to win a major title in Spain and rightfully so (something American fans would love!). Now he is irking American fans due to the fact that he is injured, while most American fans have no clue that he won the Spanish league title and was injured in that game!