SEATTLE: David Beckham’s American dream died in Seattle after yet another wretched penalty shoot-out disappointment for the England star saw LA Galaxy lose 5-4 in the shoot-out to Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup final at Qwest Field after a 1-1 draw.
And though Beckham, who had three painkilling injections before the game, did his utmost to battle through injury, assisting on Galaxy’s first-half goal and also converting their first penalty in the shoot-out, it spelt an end to his hopes of becoming only the second Englishman ever after Trevor Steven to win a title in three separate countries.
He was left looking distraught in the centre circle as the Salt Lake players cavorted with joy, an experience Beckham has become accustomed to in big match shoot-outs. He wasn’t quite as distraught as his captain Landon Donovan, though; the league’s most valuable player was guilty of an awful miss in the shoot-out.
In Euro 2004, Beckham missed one of the penalties in the quarter-final shoot out against Portugal, reminiscent of the previous year when he had ballooned a spot kick in normal time during the key qualifying game with Turkey. He was also on England teams which lost shoot-outs in the 1998 and 2006 World Cups.
“It’s quite a few times I’ve lost on penalty shoot outs now. It was Russian roulette, not a nice way to lose, but we can be proud of ourselves for getting to this point,” said Beckham afterwards. “But that’s the way it is in soccer.”
He reckoned his sore ankle, which effectively reduced him to limping around in extra time, now needed as much rest as possible before he sets off for Milan just after Christmas for Serie A action and the big final push to persuade Fabio Capello to include him in England’s World Cup squad.
Here, Becks was the star attraction of an FA Cup final, US style. Los Angeles, with their superstar duo of Beckham and Donovan, were obviously masquerading as Chelsea while the blue collar lads of Salt Lake were pretending to be Bolton.
We had corn dogs and brass bands, ticker tape and cheerleaders. Oh, and latte – courtesy of one of the 490 Starbucks coffee houses Seattle is home to. Fun for all the family; shame about the soccer, though. For the large part it was pretty dismal on the sort of chilly, damp night in Seattle that Frasier Crane used to moan about.
The quality of the opening exchanges on Qwest’s artificial pitch was execrable, almost as appalling as Beckham’s hairstyle which had been most memorably described in one of the LA fans’ chat rooms as a cross between the last of the Mohicans and a teenage runaway rough trade rent boy.
Frankly, it was almost surprising to see Beckham out there at all, considering that just 30 hours earlier he had been seen hobbling off after training with an ice pack encasing his badly bruised right ankle, Like a good old Hollywood trouper though, he had told everyone the show must go on.
Starting on the right flank, he made little impact early on, except for one clumsy, late-ish challenge on Javier Morales which left Salt Lake’s key midfielder chuntering away at his Limey foe on and off for several minutes until he eventually had to leave the field, limping. And bursting into tears too!
This early boost for Beckham – he gave his departing Argentine opponent a farewell pat on the shoulder while doubtless feeling satisfied at having made him cry – was followed by rather more positive contributions, including a curling corner from the left which caused havoc and probably should have been converted by Gregg Berlhalter’s head.
Then the moments of class the game was screaming out for, initiated by LA’s – and the league’s – two most garlanded players, Beckham and Donovan, the pair who were at daggers drawn only a few months ago over Beckham’s supposed lack of commitment to the Galaxy.
Beckham surged forward and a neat ball freed Donovan on the right and his precision cross was slotted home at the far post by Mike Magee, who had earlier just shot wide. This was Beckham’s fourth assist of the season; they do love a good stat in the MLS.
The ticker tape poured from the Seattle sky again but the idea that LA’s star quality would now take over was quickly dispelled after the break by a stirring fightback from Salt Lake, accompanied by their noisy fans who put Los Angeles’ more urbane bunch to shame.
Soon after the break, Robbie Findley should have equalised but overran the ball, enabling the LA keeper Donovan Ricketts to make a brave save as he collided with the striker.
Yet after Beckham had spurned a perfect free kick opportunity from 20 yards out – he ended up moaning at the referee that the wall had not retreated enough – Findley made no mistake in the 64th minute when, following LA’s hapless failure to clear their lines, he shot past Beckham and keeper Ricketts.
It was no less than Salt Lake deserved and Yura Movsisyan could have won it for the Utah side, only to be betrayed by lack of composure as he blazed over when one-on-one with the keeper.
Beckham, unsurprisingly, looked to have more composure than anyone else on the pitch and one beautifully flighted free kick was criminally wasted. Yet nothing quite came off from him and, clearly, he was struggling with his injury by the time the final whistle went and he slumped to the ground before limping towards the bench.
Findley came closest in extra-time as well but there was an inevitability about the shoot out. Or as the MLS official in the press box put it gravely “The match will be decided by the traditional kicks from the penalty mark tiebreaker.”
In only the second MLS Cup final to go to a shoot out, Beckham took the first penalty, and offered a fist pump after he sent keeper Nick Rimando the wrong way, hammering the ball low to the keeper’s right.
Man of the match Rimando, who had made three saves in a shoot out last week in the Eastern Conference final against Chicago, proved the hero again, saving two from Jovan Kirovski and Edson Buddle.
With Donovan hammering one over the top – “It was partially to do with not concentrating and having tired legs” – it ended up with Robbie Russell smashing home the 14th penalty of the night to take the trophy back to Salt Lake.
But Beckham, whose commitment to the LA cause could hardly be questioned here, admitted: “I’ll definitely be back to win that title.”