If McFlynn takes out Becks, I’ll buy the drinks

 

Roar Guru

By Jesse Fink, 22 Nov 2007 Jesse Fink is a Roar Guru

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Maybe I’m just having a rotten week – divorce proceedings getting nasty, house sale falling through, general all-round misanthropy settling in – but I’ve yet to feel that speedball of adrenalin I’ve been expecting in the countdown to the November 27 Sydney FC vs Los Angeles Galaxy match at Telstra Stadium.

Fantastic that Channel Ten has made space in its dross-filled program schedule to promote the game to “middle Australia”, but make no mistake – its commitment to the sport begins and ends when David Beckham arrives in the country and when he leaves.

Though Goldenballs was something to behold, even treasure, in his prime, his unfathomable celebrity long ago eclipsed his contribution on the football field.

These days he’s used more to sell shirts than score goals. And, in Channel Ten’s case, to sell ad space.

The fixture has CYNICAL CASH-MAKING VENTURE written all over it, conspicuously so because there are contractual clauses that stipulate the match will be “postponed” should Goldenballs be injured.

Given the Englishman’s just-closed season in Major League Soccer in which he played all of five matches, this is a very distinct possibility.

(Certainly England coach Steve McLaren, who rescued his own career by bringing Becks back into the international football fold, saw fit to drop him this week for the crucial Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia because of concerns over his fitness.)

So “postponed” for just how long? What are the chances of the Galaxy roadshow, least of all Beckham’s APEC-like entourage, coming back at all if the game doesn’t go ahead?

Remote is being generous.

My understanding of the deal is that Beckham must come on at some point to fulfil Galaxy’s side of the bargain, but there are no conditions in place to set down how many minutes he will play.

Which, if I were a betting man, should be 20 minutes to half an hour.

Galaxy would have rocks in their head to risk their $250 million-dollar man for an exhibition match with nothing at stake.

Coming off two consecutive league seasons in which the California “franchise” failed to make the playoffs and parted ways with two coaches, in USA coach Steve Sampson and Canadian Frank Yallop, the club’s owner, the huge Anschutz Entertainment Group, needs Galaxy to bounce back in a big way under new coach Ruud Gullit for the 2008 MLS campaign.

A fit and firing Beckham is absolutely fundamental to those plans, especially when Galaxy is asking its fans to cough up US$3300 for a premium season ticket for the privilege of seeing the 32-year-old midfielder in LA’s Real Madrid-inspired kit.

So expect to see him used sparingly on Tuesday night.

For me, the most interesting aspect of the match is how Sydney FC coach John Kosmina, an unreconstructed hardman schooled in the blood-and-gristle approach of Frank Arok and Eddie Thomson, chooses to handle Beckham.

If Kossie was on the pitch himself, you can bet he’d be giving Becks no love. He’d be trying to put the pretty boy in his place.

So does he dispatch his freshly returned Northern Irish hound, Terry McFlynn, to do a “negating” job on Becks or does he let the former England captain have his run of the pitch, which is precisely what the event organisers and the lion’s share of the crowd will be coming to see?

It will be fascinating to see what decision Kosmina makes – or, rather, is allowed to make.

My own hope, as crass as it sounds, is that he opts for the former. I hate to see gifted players clamped down by the so-called tradesmen of the game – McFlynn did as much, incidentally, with great aplomb against my favourite player Nicky Carle in the final weeks of Version 2.0 of the A-League – but equally I have a instinctive aversion to matches that are organised just so one player can “turn it on”.

I’d much rather see the match played in true competitive fashion with Beckham shut out by McFlynn than at half pace and with Sydney’s defensive line sitting back, letting the showy Englishman do what he likes.

In that scenario, football becomes panto.

But, as we all know, Becks has been playing a whole different game to the rest of them for some time now.

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