Galaxy may resist England calls for 'hobbled' Beckham
Saturday, 25 August 2007
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With unfortunate timing the Football Association yesterday arranged another match for the national team, against Austria in Vienna on 16 November.
The fixture will be useful preparation for the final Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia five days later, and provides a look at one of the finals venues – Austria are co-hosts. However, the announcement came just hours after Los Angeles Galaxy expressed concern about David Beckham's workload for the first time.
Beckham played the full 90 minutes of Galaxy's 3-0 defeat by Chivas USA on Thursday, just 30 hours after playing throughout England's loss to Germany at Wembley. However, Galaxy's coach afterwards admitted Beckham should not have played.
"I wasn't going to play him at all," Frank Yallop said, "but he said he felt OK. At the end he looked a bit hobbled and he should have been rested. I did not want to leave him on but, at 2-0 all it needed was maybe one bit of magic by David. He's sore now. His ankle's still not 100 per cent and I don't like to put players in jeopardy of getting injured."
Beckham's main impact on the game was his angry response to a rough tackle by Jesse Marsch. It sparked a brawl which concluded with a player from each side being dismissed.
Beckham also played last Saturday, in New York and is due to play in Colorado tomorrow. This schedule is just a foretaste of a gruelling autumn in which the 32-year-old will play, if fit, at least 23 games and travel nearly 80,000 miles. He will spend nearly a week airborne in the next three months.
"There comes a point when your body can't do it anymore," said the Galaxy president, Alexi Lalas. "If at any point we felt it was detrimental to his health we would take action. We would never stand in the way of a player representing their country," added Lalas, "but there will be moments when we need to do what's best for our organisation and him. There are Fifa dates we have to abide by, but if it is a friendly that doesn't fall on a Fifa date we will have to discuss it.
"We have spent a tremendous amount of money to retain his services. We want to make sure we get our money's worth."
Beckham's spokesman, Simon Oliveira, said: "We are not worried. David is very confident he will be in peak condition – both for England and his club."
The Austria fixture does fall on a Fifa date, but it is also two days before the MLS Cup final. Perhaps fortunately, LA Galaxy look unlikely to make the season's finale as they are 12 points adrift of qualifying for the eight-team play-offs.
More problematic may be the build-up to Euro 2008. England may wish to arrange friendlies outside Fifa dates. First they need to qualify,
