World Soccer columnist Paul Gardner recounts the year in Beckhamania, a feature article that also appears on SI.com. Looking back at the year that belonged to David Beckham might best be described by the question, “When is a fiasco not a fiasco?” because 2007 was and was not a disaster for Becks.
Indeed, Beckham the player experienced countless on-field problems, from zero regular-season wins, to two games in two days on two continents, to two long-term injury layoffs. Off the field, of course, Becks was an instant success, drawing tons of media hype wherever he went, not to mention record crowds at stadiums where he often sat on the bench or in the stands. Whether the media cared more about him than the soccer “hardly matters,” says Gardner: “Getting MLS talked about, especially when the talk involves lots of money, is the important thing.”
That said, the Los Angeles Galaxy under Frank Yallop was “a decidedly awful team.” Despite that late season run, L.A. couldn’t manage to make the playoffs in a 13-team league where all but the bottom five head to the Big Dance. However, Yallop’s departure following the 2007 fiasco also turned into something like a success, as L.A. brought in its next star, new head coach Ruud Gullit, whose promises of “sexy soccer” will be scrutinized in full next season.