The L.A. Galaxy has certainly fallen victim to bad luck — bad luck that goes beyond even the series of injuries sustained by David Beckham, but that, more or less, is what you get when you bet the success of an entire league on one player, says ESPN’s Steve Davis. By Murphy’s Law, Becks was bound to have his season curtailed by injury; the league is lucky to have gotten 310 minutes out of him by that logic. Too bad it cost $6.5 million.
That’s not to say the Beckham experiment won’t or hasn’t already proven to be a good return on investment. With Becks in town, MLS crowds averaged 35,000-plus, while his jersey continues to fly off shelves. Indeed, interest in the global superstar will never go away, though it may have hit a pause with his six-week injury. And as the England international proved with Real Madrid last season, it would be unwise to rule out the possibility of a Beckham comeback, even as the Galaxy’s chances of making the playoffs move closer to zero. Indeed, L.A. would have to put together a near unprecedented number of wins without him to make that a possibility.
Meanwhile, Chicago’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the big name Mexican star who might be considered Beckham’s Latino foil, has been stupendous, but the media, instead of watching Blanco tear defenses apart with exquisite passing and deadly finishing, has fixated itself on “a guy [sitting] on the bench.” Salt Lake, Kansas City, Columbus and Houston, all red-faced about the Beckham no-show, should market the arrival of the league’s second biggest star instead.