by Sean Heffernan

The storm over David Beckham’s return to America came to a head in an awkward moment during a press conference prior to the LA Galaxy’s match with the New York Red Bulls last Thursday. Beckham responded to a question from Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl by asking if Wahl’s question was for his second unofficial book or his magazine. The unofficial book Beckham referred to was Wahl’s The Beckham Experiment, which has been the biggest source of negative media coverage that has met the midfielder since he’s returned stateside from his loan deal with AC Milan. ...Wahl’s book included comments from Galaxy captain Landon Donovan criticizing the way Beckham handled himself the past few years in Los Angeles.

To add to the media fire during the half time of last weekend’s friendly between the Galaxy and AC Milan (the game was negotiated as part of Beckham’s loan deal) Beckham almost got in a physical altercation with an angry Galaxy fan who had jumped onto the field.  Yet, despite all the hullabaloo surrounding the international star, on the pitch things have turned around for Beckham and the Galaxy. L.A. is the hottest team in MLS at the moment, riding a three game win streak into this weekend’s clash with the Kansas City Wizards. As for the controversy, Beckham and Donovan met with each other in a meeting set up by Galaxy manager Bruce Arena upon the Englishmen’s return and worked out their differences. Still, as much as the Galaxy may want to put the disturbances aside and focus on soccer, I get the feeling that the rest of the season in L.A. won’t go drama-free.

When David Beckham first came to the Los Angeles Galaxy from Real Madrid, the Englishmen arrived in a media whirlwind as a soccer missionary to the United States. The American public underwent Beckham-mania leaving a lot of people wondering “Who was this extremely famous soccer player who talks like the GEICO gecko?” Beckham increased America’s awareness of soccer and the MLS, but the league was unable to fully capitalize on Beckham’s marketability as the midfielder’s first two years in the league were marred by injury and losing.

Beckham had come to Los Angeles with his tenure with England's national team seemingly on its last legs following his involvement in the 2006 World Cup. Then his former manager at Real Madrid, Fabio Capello, was hired as England manager following the Three Lions’ failure to qualify for EURO 2008. Capello began to call Beckham back into the England roster, but made it clear that if he wanted to be a part of the World Cup in 2010 that he needed to be playing at a top level European club. Bunkered in the terror that was last season for the Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham made the decision to honor his Capello’s request and go overseas to super-club AC Milan on a loan deal.

Upon the Englishmen's arrival to Milan, Beckham answered his critics quickly earning a spot in the starting lineup chock full of elite players. Beckham’s playmaking abilities meshed well with the world class finishing of Alexander Pato, Filippo Inzaghi, and Ricardo Kaka helping the Italian club rediscover its form after a disappointing start to the season. Enjoying his success in Milan, Beckham announced that he'd like to stay beyond the original loan deal infuriating some Galaxy fans back across the pond. Was Beckham abandoning his American expedition?

His aspirations to lead the great conversion of America to “the beautiful game” had fallen to the wayside with his revised personal goals forging a new future for the world famous footballer. However, the LA Galaxy refused to topple over in negotiations when many European pundits thought the MLS club would cave in quickly to Beckham and mighty AC Milan’s demands. The Galaxy awarded Beckham an extension to his loan deal on the condition that returned for the second half of the Galaxy’s 2009 campaign and forked over a healthy amount of his own money to finance the loan.

 The debate over Beckham’s act of self interest was on display in his return to the Home Depot Center against AC Milan as the Galaxy’s supporters’ club the “LA Riot Squad” waved banners calling Beckham a fraud and a traitor. In the game of soccer playing for your country is everything. The World Cup is the biggest stage in the world of sports and you can't really fault any human being for wanting to be a part of that. If Beckham went against Capello's advice and thrown away his national team chances he would have been thrashed in the U.K. for turning his back on his country. The fact is that despite being in the latter stages of his career, Beckham’s skill set hasn’t deteriorated with his age. Beckham has made his living making his teammates better with his intelligent, deadly accurate passing. Prior to coming to America, Beckham should have known that his England days were not quite behind him yet. He’s guilty of underestimating himself, but Beckham doing what he needs to do to make it to South Africa next year isn’t something that should keep Galaxy fans up at night. However, there may be a few inebriated “Riot Squad” members that just think it’s too much fun to not harass Beckham now that he’s challenged them to a fight once already.

In the first half of Saturdy's friendly whenever Beckham touched the ball an amalgamation of cheers and boos cascaded onto the field from the stands evocative of the spilt amongst American soccer fans over #23. At half time Beckham approached the “Riot Squad” to make peace, but his efforts seemed to only encourage the section’s taunting of the superstar. Then uncharacteristically Beckham lost his cool and attempted to hop the barrier to confront the “Riot Squad” member. Thankfully security and the players on the field got a hold of Beckham before the situation got completely out of hand.

Earlier in his career Beckham had flicked off raucous soccer hooligans, but never had the former England captain lost his cool to the point of almost getting in a physical altercation with a fan. In the second half Beckham had the last word, rifling a hurling corner kick off teammate Bryan Jordan’s head and into the back of the AC Milan goal. Beckham turned around to find most of the Riot Squad cheering for the goal, a sign that in the end winning cures all. The Galaxy are a better team with Beckham is on the field and I don’t think it will take long for the fans to realize that.

Does this incident show that Beckham does care about salvaging something from his time in L.A. and even willing to go blows over it? I don’t blame Beckham for going to Italy, but I do think that he does owe an apology to Galaxy fans for the team’s poor play the last two seasons. The Galaxy invested a fortune in him and the least he can do is apologize for his mistakes and other commitments and move on. It doesn’t matter if leaving the Galaxy was the best option for Beckham, it matters that he takes responsibility for his actions. Honesty goes a long way with people.

I can see why Galaxy fans would be upset over not having Beckham for the first half of their season, but I think the fans have a lot more to gain by embracing Beckham than they do booing him. What does turning Beckham into a backstabbing villain do for the growth of soccer in this country? Nothing. All it is cannon fodder for Beckham haters and soccer haters.

MLS has learned its lesson in that one player can’t turn America into a soccer nation overnight, but at this juncture the best thing for this league is to get the most out of Beckham as they can before he leaves for Europe on another probably loan deal. Hopefully, the Galaxy will do everything in their power to secure Beckham’s return following next summer’s World Cup. His family will be settled in Los Angeles and Beckham can finish what he started in America.

Running the most marketable soccer player in the world out of the league is not a good business strategy for the MLS. The best thing for the development of soccer in America is for the Galaxy to continue to play the way they’re playing and make a run deep into the playoffs. It might even be ideal that LA comes up just short in the playoffs so that Beckham has additional incentive to return in 2010 and claim the MLS Cup.

We may not know what the future holds for the world’s most well known footballer and his foray into the American sports landscape, but the coming months will certainly help to define what David Beckham’s legacy will be in the United States when all is said and done.

Greatest mustache of my life.

Reciever Dante Stallworth is suspended indefinitely by NFL Commish Roger Goodell

The Cleveland Brown wide out received a controversial sentence for killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol. 30 days in jail. A person dies and he gets 30 days. Michael Vick was in jail for like two years and his crimes weren't even people related. Did Stallworth bring back Johnny Cochrane from the dead for his guilty plea. Jaysus.

So now begins the "How is Goodell Going to Straighten Out This Bad Apple" debate on ESPN that will last forever. Way too many people think it's Goodell's job to turn these troubled players lives around. Say I'm a professional football player and I get into legal trouble. Do you think me walking into a room with some guy I've never met before is going make me see the light and turn me into a boy scout?

The first day of the US Open was rained out.

You know its a slow news day when precipitation is the top story.

How about Phil's hair? Sorry, that's all I got. Wake me up when John Daley makes a comeback.

On a more personal note the Heffernan men will venture out to golf course this Father's Day for a day of lost balls, divits, curse words, broken tees, ketchup stains, slices, and swass. A lot of swass. Seriously, I have a problem.

Confederations Cup: US Gets Owned By Brazil. Italy is Upset by Egypt.

Being the soccer nerd I've become I found a way to watch the U.S. get walloped by Kaka and company. Depressing to say the least. The team looked lost.

But a lighter side the Pharohs took down the defending World Champions Italy in a huge 1-0 victory. Now all the U.S. needs to do is beat them by at least 3 goals and hope the Italians get spanked by Brazil.

After that horrific of a performance I hope U.S. coach Bob Bradley shakes up the starting lineup quite a bit. C'mon boys give me some hope!

I hit my eight year old brother Brendan in the lip playing catch with a hard ball

While I've been in Columbus I've been working with the little guy with his baseball skills everyday and I think I've made him worse. Momma Hef says only rubber balls from now on. Probably a good idea. Kid was ok. Little blood, front lip the size of Angelina's. Credit to my buddy after he took it right in the kisser he came back out and started playing catch again. It reminded me of the Adam Sandler CD bit where he's in right field praying to God the batter doesn't hit it to him. Big game for the little guy on Saturday. Let's hope there's no tears.

Cubs Win!! DLee goes deep

Derek Lee is on a 14 game hit streak! His eight inning 2-run home run helped the Cubs beat the Southsiders 5-4. Kevin Gregg picked up the win actually. Jaysus.

One online soccer website has even instituted a “Rossi Rule” which asks posters to refrain from making derogatory statements about Giuseppe and his family. Nevertheless, after the Azzuri’s 3-1 defeat of the U.S. this Monday in their opening game of the Confederations Cup  in which the Italian-American scored two magnificently taken goals I’m sure those soccer forums are on fire again.

The Americans were fortunate Italian head coach Marcello Lippi didn’t start Rossi because prior to the young forward’s entrance the Yanks surprisingly had most of the momentum. The game was altered in the first half when U.S. midfielder Ricardo Clark received an unjust red card for a late tackle on Gennaro Gattuso. The foul likely warranted a yellow card, but did not justify Clark’s ejection forcing the Americans to play the rest of the game down a man. Even Gattuso after the game said that the foul was not a red card.

Despite their misfortune the U.S. battled on taking the lead in the 38^th minute when 19-year-old striker Jozy Altidore (and teammate of Rossi at Spanish league club Villareal) was fouled in the penalty box by the Italian defense setting up captain Landon Donovan for a well taken penalty goal. The U.S. went into the locker room with the lead, but I’m sure fully aware of how hard the rest of the game would be playing against the World Champions with one less player.

In the second half fatigue began to become an issue as the Italians dominated possession and hammered down on the American defense. U.S. central defenders Oguchi Onyweu and Jay Demerit did a solid job of clearing the ball away from their goal, but with Rossi’s introduction the game changed. After Rossi intercepted the ball in the midfield, Demerit retreated backwards allowing the 22-year-old enough room to launch a world-class strike into the corner of the American goal. Another long distance shot got past Yank keeper Tim Howard as Italian Danielle Di Rossi gave the Italians the lead with twenty minutes remaining. Not having a closing midfielder like the red-carded Clark left room for the Azzuri’s long distance attack to wreak mayhem in the second half.

The closing minutes gave the U.S. some hope as they had a few opportunities to tie up the match as substitutes Charlie Davies and Sacha Kljestan gave the team a boost in the attack. Swedish based striker Charlie Davies got loose from his defender on a corner kick, but missed the header only a few yards from the Italian goal. Kljestan in his short spell on the pitch ripped a hooking shot that just flew over the crossbar. In the end it was their fellow countrymen Giuseppe Rossi again who would put the U.S. out of their misery with an extra time volley to finish the game 3-1.

It would have been interesting if the game hadn’t been wrongfully altered early on with the red card, but regardless of the officiating U.S. soccer learned the lesson of how losing their homegrown talent to other countries can come back to haunt them.

All the United States can do is not worry about what that can’t control and get focused for the next game on Thursday against another world class opponent. On Thursday if the Americans can pull of a historic upset against the Green and Yellow of Brazil U.S. soccer fans might just take their celebration out of their dirty pubs and fan forums.