Beckham, already a disappointment!

Thats what happens when you sign an aging gimpy player with a history of recent injuries.

I hate to say I told you so... Nice to see one error though - I frequently write Manchester Untied, instead of Manchester United... It's good to know I'm not the only one!

Short hand it. Man U.

I just got an idea for my new article. Who will be the bigger disappointment- Beckham or Brady Quinn?

Beckman was a disappointment to me the first time I heard him open his Shepherd's Piehole...

He voice does not fit him. Beckham vs. Quinn is not a fair comparasion. Beckham has captianed the English team and seen success in the EPL. Quinn never reached the top of NC2A football.

Why is Jose Reyes a red link? =)

Beck will be the greatest sports bust in North American history.

That article is idiotic drivel.

1. The only reason that Real Madrid was in a position to win the title was because of Beckham's run of form down the stretch. Real Madrid are kicking themselves that they let Beckham leave, but they can't be bothered to even make a decent offer for Reyes. He also went off injured in the final game, not ineffectiveness.

2. His best attribute is his right foot, "passing" is a bit of a generic term. He does two things better than pretty much anyone else in the world. One, he is great at set pieces, and two he is extremely accurate at lobbing crosses into the box. Neither of these is dependent upon "free space" whatever that means. He never was particularly fast and that isn't part of his game so why would that be relevant?

3. No one at ESPN has claimed that he is the best player in the world. Not one analyst. Not one commercial. Not even Lalas claimed that. He is not the best player in the world, but he is the biggest star in world soccer. He has the most news coverage, he has the most endorsements, and even in commercials in Europe with Ronaldinho etc. Beckham is featured most prominently.

4. He is going to miss a friendly match. No one is claiming that is the end of the world except you. What are you ripping him for exactly? Getting hurt playing for England? Being honest? Not risking his health for the rest of the season for the sake of an ESPN commercial?

5. I am glad that you were able to look up Beckham's stats on wikipedia. Why don't you check up on how many goals he created. Since he is a midfielder who isn't necessarily a goal scorer, that might be a relevant statistic. Perhaps also he saw the ball a lot more at Man U when his fellow infielders were not Zidane and Figo.

6. There is enough space in the American marketplace for everyone. You can write a xenophobic article like this and get a bunch of sycophants who don't like soccer to agree with you, but what does that really prove? Why don't you stick to writing about things you actually have some knowledge about?

SSreporters

1. I said "pretty much" to leave it open to debate that he was the best at free kicks and crosses into the box. One could maybe make the argument that Ronaldinho is better at them, but that is like picking apples and oranges. Cristiano Ronaldo is not better than Beckham at set pieces, and despite his flair his crosses and decision can still be erratic. In those two areas, I think it can be argued he is the best player in the world, but I left it open to debate.

I didn't say that speed was irrelevant to the game. I said that it was relevant to the type of game he plays. He never relied on his speed, so the fact that he is not fast does not really indicate that he has declined. Similarly, Tom Brady doesn't rely on his speed (which isn't much) so it is not important to his game, though speed is important in football.

It is xenophobic to dismiss something foreign and that one knows little about with no rational reasoning behind it. If you want to make a compelling argument for why soccer won't be successful, that is fine. But just saying it won't and that American's don't like it A. simplifies the definition of Americans tremendously and B. is just circular logic.

Also, the washed-up argument is just re-spewing out misinformation. He was a key player for perhaps the biggest club in the world and just got re-called to the England squad. He was not bought by Real Madrid to win them titles, but primarily to enhance their brand. They made 300m GBP off his merchandising revenue while he was there, so I think that that was pretty successful. He was also a fan favorite at Real Madrid because he was seen as hard-working, humble, a consummate professional, and in many ways an antidote to the problems that plagued the club. Don't just spout off something you heard on ESPN and take it as fact.

How can anyone make a statement about best in the world actually.

Despite the wild rumors, I am here to report that Chicago did not indeed burn to the ground (at least yet anyways) in protest over the news that David Beckham will not be playing soccer this weekend.

I couldn't get past the first line of the article. "David Beckham shocked americans everywhere..." it's been reported for over a week that he had a bad ankle and probably wouldn't play. how is this a shock?

I'm an American soccer fan, I'm not shocked.

No use for beckham to be in that team first of all, now he has to prove he can help the team out, now since he's injured lets see how they go when playing against Chelsea that got players better then beckham himself 10 times. Its gonna be rape.

I agree with you, for perhaps the first time, SSReporters that McClaren knows absolutely nothing about football. But, it was his choice to drop Beckham in the first place. Only because his job was on the line and he was under immense pressure, did he call Beckham back. He set up goals in both matches and got them two needed results. Again, take a deep breath and read what I wrote, I did not make any statement saying that Beckham was the best player in the world. I specifically said that he was not. What I said was that he is a gifted technical player and one could argue that he is the best or close to the best player for taking set pieces and lofting crosses into the box. I don't think that that is a controversial statement, and even the most ardent Beckham-hater would admit that. If you have an argument against that refuting his technical ability, I would love to hear it. But to use philosophical arguments about how one can never objectively claim anyone as "the best" is ducking the question and stupid.

1. The best way to avoid typos when writing out Manchester United is to abbreviate it properly to Manure, or you can take the dyslexic approach of the joke name Man United SC (Soccer Club), and simply call them S.C.U.M.

2. I'd bend Keira Knightley

3. Beckham's best ability was setting up other players, but apart from that I've always seen his other abilities as slightly above average. But that was in his prime, but it was also in two very good leagues. MLS is a joke league (the Beckham fiasco proves it) and who knows how he'll do. Honestly, though, I think non-soccer fans will be unimpressed by crosses and free kicks. Beckham himself is not an exciting player. Beckham with two good scorers in front of him is exciting.

4. The news that ESPN is shamelessly promoting something is an absolute shocker to me. I'm sure it must be a mistake, and I'm going to drive to Bristol, CT to tell them about it so they can reverse it immediately.

5. Jose Antoniooooooooo, Jose Antoniooooooooo, Jose Antontiooooooooooooo, Jose Antoniooooooooooo. I hate Real Madrid, but I still have Jose's song stuck in my head from his Arsenal days.

Does anyone else find it really annoying that Ty always bullets out his points like this is some sort of presentation? This guys power point on my article is really stupid. Let me count the ways. A) Who cares if David Beckham is good at free kicks? Is that going to attract Americans into watching soccer, NO. B) How can you compare Tom Brady and David Beckham? Brady does a three or five step drop 90 percent of the time. Beckham, as all soccer players, runs up and down the field the entire game. The longest sprint Brady recently made was into the arms of Gisele Bundchen (Great Decision!). C) Keep using the word xenophobic, you’re really impressing me. D) How can you say he was a key player on Real Madrid when he played in half of their games this season? And of course Madrid bought him to help them win a title. The fact that he sells jerseys and tickets is an afterthought for these clubs. They care about winning first and foremost. Now Ty do you see how stupid it is bullet your information. It really doesn’t do anything to help your argument so PLEASE stop A) Now or B) Now.

You are right. Using paragraphs to distinguish your point when making an argument is a ridiculous concept. I should surely be put to task for attempting to articulate myself clearly. Thank you.

If you actually took the time to read what I wrote before feverishly typing, you would have realized that I was not comparing Tom Brady and David Beckham. I was making an analogy.

Also, xenophobe is not a big word. It is three syllables. When I used it, I could not use a smaller word because it is an exact term, there isn't a simpler synonym for it. In the future, I will make sure to use only monosyllabic terms so you can understand me.

Also, Beckham did miss a number of games for Real Madrid. He was dropped from the squad in the first half of the season. However, he was brought back into the starting lineup in the second half of the season, and I am sure that it was a 100% coincidence that that was when Real Madrid really started to play well and fought their way back. He also missed some time in March with a knee injury. But thanks again for looking up his stats on wikipedia and enlightening us with your obviously astute analysis of Real Madrid. Yeah, you're right. Making hundreds of millions of dollars is an afterthought for European football clubs. I am entirely cynical for believing that that might have been a big deal.

I feel sorry for the guy, his wife is seemingly enjoying the camera flashs she did not have since her curry girls days. but he is here playing in a league equivalent to the english 3rd division(am being generous) while he could have at least still played for aston villa, or manchester city or any mid table premiership club for couple more years. ps ESPN is insulting all football fans .biggest star my arse-nal