Eight weeks ago, David Beckham was at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, unhappily but willingly receiving three injections in his painfully sprained and ligament-damaged left ankle.
It was the final game of the Spanish season, the league championship was on the line and Beckham was determined to be on the field for Real Madrid no matter what the cost. "I would have done anything to play in that game," he said.
North American soccer fans are now paying the price.
One month after his much-ballyhooed arrival with the Galaxy, Beckham has played exactly 37 minutes in two token appearances over eight games. Stadiums have been sold out in Los Angeles, Dallas, Toronto, Washington and Foxborough, Mass., and fans have snapped up tickets that Major League Soccer once could hardly give away.
But Beckham's ankle injury has disappointed them all.
Unfairly perhaps, the tide is turning as Beckham mania is losing some of its gloss. Four weeks ago, there was nothing but hyperbole; now criticism is creeping into stories about Beckham.
Here, for instance, was how the Associated Press began its story from Foxborough over the weekend after Beckham had spent another game on the sideline: "English megastar David Beckham resumed his tour of American soccer benches on Sunday. . . . "
Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy's president and general manager, was more or less forced to promise FC Dallas a future friendly game with Beckham in the lineup, to make up for his not traveling last month to Texas for a SuperLiga match because of his ankle injury.
Despite that, MLS teams continue to sell tickets based on Beckham's being available. The New York Red Bulls have sold 55,000-plus for Saturday's game, yet Beckham might not play.
As recently as Sunday, the Galaxy was still running TV ads touting Beckham's suggested participation in Wednesday night's SuperLiga semifinal against D.C. United at the Home Depot Center. Yet Beckham might not play.
This is not unique to soccer. The San Diego Padres, for instance, recently attracted a sellout crowd hoping to see Barry Bonds hit his record-breaking 756th home run, but Bonds did not play.
Caveat emptor applies in sports as in any other enterprise. But it is particularly galling for soccer fans when they must buy tickets for a block of MLS games simply to see one player and then that player does not play.
