EPL Talk » David Beckham

Why I Love Football Vol. 1 – Last Gasp Goals

Liam Jarvis — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:57:03 +0000

Hi Guys, I’m here with my first post. I’m going to be doing a weekly post on the reasons why I love the beautiful game so much. This week I will be starting, ironically, with last gasp goals.

It doesn’t matter how they are scored, whether it’s a tap in like Aaron Lennon in last seasons dramatic 4-4 in the North London Derby and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer winning the treble at the Camp Nou, or beautifully crafted like Beckham lighting up Old Trafford once again to send England to the 2002 World Cup and Gerrard smashing home against Olympiakos in the 86th minute, giving them the 2-goal lead they needed to progress past the group stage of the 2004 Champion’s League, a competition they would go on to win.

A late goal is what’s beautiful about football, and highlights how quickly a game can change. You just drift away from the real world for that split second and find yourself in a state of ecstacy with no control over your actions. Andy Gray’s commentary during the Gerrard goal illustrates that so beautifully.

There aren’t many moments that give me goosebumps 8 years on after countless times of watching, but Beckham v Greece is one of them. It was almost poetic, and there was only ever one person who was going to carry us through to the World Cup Finals. It was the turning point in his career after the controversy of the 1998 World Cup, and had that goal not gone in, how different could David Beckham’s career have turned out.

So never give up hope, and never leave a game early. No amount of traffic can ruin that perfect moment.

Last gasp goals are why we all love football.

Replacing David Beckham… (Bend It Like Walcott?)

Ethan Armstrong — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:02:03 +0000

Until Fabio Capello took the wheel at England FC, I had this vision of an England World Cup qualifier 40 years from now:

England are facing Croatia (who else) in a must-win fixture. The Three Lions are playing with ten men, though nobody’s been ejected. On 25 minutes, Luca Modric III goes in for an ugly slide tackle. The whistle blows. Play stops. England win the kick.

That’s when the medical staff roll him out. The crowd erupts in a fevered cheer. As Croatia compose their wall, the attendants park him three feet from the ball. The crowd becomes silent. The legend rises from his wheelchair, the wind rustling his gray mohawk. Standing, he seems to regain the stature and strength of his youth. He looks at his target, strides to the ball, then scoops it powerfully into the crisp London air. It arcs over the jumping Croatians and sails toward the target. At first it seems like the ball will go over, but at the last minute it dips into the top corner as the keeper flails in vain.

1-0 to England.

An attendant rushes to grab Sir David Beckham’s arm as the 74-year-old winger loses his balance. The attendant helps him back to his chair and they wheel him back to the sidelines to wait for the next set play.

I really thought they’d never stop playing Beckham. Even as his endurance faded and younger, faster players grew restless on the bench, no one would push this great talent from the team. For England’s Operation Get To The Next World Cup to succeed I thought they’d need to drop David Beckham. Especially after they failed to qualify for the Euro. Yes, he still had gas in his tanks, but it was more important, I thought, to season the next generation than to cling to the old stalwart. Don’t play him just to get him to the 100 match landmark, I thought.

England needs its young wingers to have considerable international experience to really make an impact on 2010. But it’s been so hard to ween England off Beckham and give the younger men their pitch hours.

I can see why.

Beckham can still airmail that ball right where he wants it, whenever he wants to. A million yards out and he’ll tuck his foot into just the right spot and the thing swerves across the pitch and ends up a foot in front of Rooney’s head or it bounces off Gerrard’s chest or it bounces off the goal post and in. We’ve seen it for so many years you’d think we wouldn’t be impressed any more. But it’s a thrilling thing of beauty every time. It’s the skill that makes him a legend. Nobody does it better. At least not for England. After seeing it millions of times, it is still amazing to behold. Like the first two Godfather films.

I really didn’t think he’d last this long. Whenever he got called up, I’d think: Why are they still playing him so much? He’s not going to be going strong at the next World Cup! Get the next generation ready! He wasn’t going to have the pace to keep up with the young internationals coming up through the other countries’ teams.

But what he misses out on in pace at 34, he makes up for with the fact he doesn’t need to get deep down the wing to launch the ball into the danger zone. He can lose his defender in shallower regions of the pitch and curl the service into the attackers with deadly precision.

He’s not going to fit into the playbill in every situation. But in Capello, England finally have a manager who sees that and who will give the likes of Walcott, Lennon and Wright-Phillips their chances each to make Beckham’s place their own. This is the time to ease him out without discarding him totally. Beckham still has something invaluable to give, but the others have a mark to make and need the time to do so. Capello seems to get this and strives to keep the balance. He won’t play Beckham for the sake of playing Beckham as McClaren so often did. He’ll follow the needs of the situation.

Still…

Bend it like Walcott? Bend it like Lennon? Bend it like SWP?

These boys have pace and skills and one of them can blossom into England’s next legendary wide right man. But the Three Lions will miss that one particular artistry that only David Beckham brings. Bending it like himself.

We’ll see a few more of them arc home yet, though. Before his curtain falls.

Nerves Will Destroy Stewart Downings England Career

Paul Bestall — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:48:12 +0000

Why can’t Stewart Downing show us the form that makes him such a sought after player when he pulls on the England shirt? There is no doubting that at Premier League level, Downing is one of the most dangerous and creative players in the country but after Saturdays performance against Slovakia, it’s clear to see that the lad doesn’t feel comfortable in his own skin when he’s around the England squad.

Yet, now the situation is surely set up for him to succeed on the left hand side of England’s midfield. With his main positional rival, Joe Cole, injured, he’s really got a free run to install himself in Capello’s mind and make a strong case for a run in the team. He’s no real other rivals for the left wing slot, Kieran Richardson has really fallen off the radar England wise and Ashley Young is bang out of form right now. It’s the perfect time for him to put a marker down yet he seems to be suffering from the same malaise that affected England’s best left winger of the last 25 years, John Barnes.

Barnes was majestic for Watford and Liverpool but never transferred his sublime skills to the international arena on a consistent basis. I remember watching him in the 1987-88 season destroy Sheffield Wednesday on his own at Hillsborough, even simply walking the ball at his leisure down the left flank, jinking past the full back in the blink of an eye. It became such a consistent issue, that toward the end of his England career, Barnes was booed again and again with fed up fans at a loss to explain why he simply couldn’t cut it.

Maybe it was the lack of serious continental competition that blighted his international career. With English clubs banned from 1985 until 1991, Barnes was almost 29 when he started playing regular European club football, too late to bring a change in his fortunes in the white shirt of England. Yet Downing doesn’t have that excuse as Middlesbrough have had several European games that he’s featured in, especially the incredible run to the UEFA Cup final of 2006 including that incredible semi-final against Steau Bucharest.Downing’s deliver that game was in a class of it’s own.

Yet Saturday saw him look hurried, putting himself under pressure time and again and trying to pass the ball almost before he’d received it. Time and again his passing was way off target and he began to withdraw more and more. So what can he do to sort himself out? He needs to realise he’s in the England squad on merit, not by luck. If Fabio Capello thinks he’s good enough for the England set up, who are we to argue? That alone should show him that he deserves to be in the company of Gerrard, Beckham, Lampard et al.

I don’t think it’s got anything to do with playing for Middlesbrough as some “pundits” will have you believe, though there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll not be there next season if Boro fall into the Championship. Downing just needs to believe in himself more when he wears the three lions otherwise he’ll see his England chances disappear, which would be a crying shame. A bit more belief would also give England another avenue of attack and one that Downing can make his own.

England Respects David Beckham, Why Can’t We?

Richard Whittall — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:35:55 +0000

Say what you will about David Beckham, but at least the man isn’t on Twitter.

Too bad in a way, because Beckham epitomizes the Internet age. Thirty years ago, football’s ignominious sideshow used to be known only to players and pub owners; today, David Beckham has made the 24 hour netnews tabloid periphery the main event. Or rather, he hasn’t per se. Had he married a twenty-six year old accounting executive and never dropped by the hair salon, it’s very likely we’d view David Beckham much in the same way as we view any aging England star—nice that he’s still chugging away, but when will he secure that TV pundit deal and drop out already?

And no, this isn’t just another David Beckham harangue. The man is on the verge of breaking Bobby Moore’s venerable record of 108 England caps. John Terry has openly spoken of giving him the armband if he gets subbed on against Slovakia. This after he’s already quieted, if not silenced completely, his critics by playing well with AC Milan after a dubious pair of seasons with the LA Galaxy. Even though, like the late George Best remarked, the man can’t score, dribble, or mark to save his life, all he’s got is that right foot.

But what a foot! Many fans under twenty might think a player like Beckham would be inconceivable playing for the fluid, short-passing United of the late naughts, but as Rob Smyth pointed out today, his partnership with Scholes, Giggs and Keane was for a time the most effective midfield in English football. His foot brought qualification to England for WC 2002, and, via Shearingham and Solskjaer, won Manchester United a European Cup.

So why all the animosity? It can’t be because he’s been overrated; certainly no one worthy of attention has or will ever call him one of the all-time greats. Some ‘real’ fans hate him because he is the face of ’sah-ker’ for the unconverted, even while the Leonel Messi’s and Dani Alves’ of the world play a much better game at a much younger age with relatively little outside regard. To others, he simply represents everything wrong with modern football—sponsorship, ad deals, money, his b-list celebrity wife and chavish looks, fame without the once requisite talent to justify it. They regard him as soccer’s Paris Hilton.

Perhaps. To them, I would only say that in thirty years time, no one, outside of some nineties/naughts retrospective, will care about Victoria or sunglasses or 100 million dollar transfer deals to North American bush leagues. They will remember the football. It wasn’t always great, but whether it was or it wasn’t, at least the man was dedicated.

And didn’t feel the need to Tweet about it.

Stewart Downing: The Enigma

Michael Timbury — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:21:39 +0000

I’ve wondered for a long time what it is that managers see in Stewart Downing, particularly England managers. Since his first call up in February 2005, Downing has been pretty much been a regular in the England squad, but why? I don’t understand how one player can have gained 22 caps without ever making an impact in any of those games. People criticise the manner in which David Beckham has accrued caps in recent years to tie him level with Bobby Moore but at least he has made an impact for his country at some stage of his career. In his ten minute cameo appearances, David Beckham provides more goal scoring opportunities than Stewart Downing could ever dream of.

For his club, Downing is undeniably a good player but as soon as he puts on an England shirt he seems to lose the ability to take on full backs and get crosses into the box. There is a reason though why Tottenham wanted to buy him. At Premiership level, he scores and creates goals on a regular basis and has one of the best deliveries in the league. Although his form in front of goal hasn’t been as good this season, he is still a class operator down the flanks and can give the best full backs in the world a torrid ninety minutes. He must be exceptional in training as well, why else would Fabio Capello openly say that he has been most impressed by the winger?

Downing has all the natural attributes to be a top player but let’s face it, he only gets into the England squad because he is left footed. It is well publicised that England have always struggled in that position and a naturally left footed winger is hard to come by. But that doesn’t justify continuously playing someone in that position who has had numerous opportunities and never really impressed. Not when Ashley Young is looking on from the bench, or worse, watching at home on his television having been overlooked yet again. From Young’s point of view he must be wondering what more he has to do to get a game for his country.

Granted, Downing had a decent game against Germany last November but one performance in twenty two is just not acceptable. Not when Andorran and Macedonian full backs are marking him out of a game. If Downing was right footed, he wouldn’t get a sniff. He would find himself in the wilderness with the likes of David Bentley. If Downing replicated his ‘Boro form for England then by all means he should be considered but after four years now, each time he has played for England it has become increasingly clear that he just isn’t up to the job. This has been shown up by the manager’s choice to not play him in crucial competitive matches as he is too inconsistent compared to someone like Joe Cole who can be relied upon. But surely his consistent inclusion in the squad is only giving him the false perception that he is producing the standard of performance that is required.

Capello has stated that he only picks players who are playing regularly and more importantly playing well so this would explain why Downing is constantly selected but I for one think it’s time to leave him out for a while. There are other options that haven’t been explored and the only thing that Downing has proved in my opinion is that he is not the answer.