Knowledge is power

David Beckham is having what can only be described as his worst year ever! After a successful and at times turbulent career in European soccer pitches, he decided to cross the Atlantic ocean and play in America for the Major League Soccer team Los Angeles Galaxy.

Galaxy owner Philip Anschutz placed much hope on the Beckham acquisition to both improve his team’s performance on the pitch but also make money from the Beckham brand; it is speculated that he paid nearly $250 million to sign Beckham for 5 years. So far, neither of the two goals have materialized for Anschutz.

Beckham arrived in LA suffering from an ankle injury that kept him sidelined for the first few weeks. In the meantime, the Galaxy had trouble wining points and enjoyed last place in their group. When Beckham finally made his debut and scored his first goal off a nicely taken free kick, his team continued to lose.

As if that was not enough, last week Beckham suffered another injury this time involving damage in his knee ligaments. The injury happened during the SuperLiga trophy final against Pachuca in Carson; Galaxy lost the game. Because of this new injury, Beckham won’t be able to help his club escape from their current predicament for at least another 6 weeks; but by then the MLS season will be essentially over and his first year in LA could easily be considered a major failure.

Moreover, he will not be able to play for England in early September Euro 2008 qualifying games against Israel and Russia. And to add insult to injury, he is very doubtful for the October games against Estonia and Russia once more. This is very bad news for the soccer superstar who lost the captain’s position on the English squad after a sub par performance during the World Cup in Germany. In addition, many speculate that missing these games will also be the end of 32-year old Beckham’s England career; if England does not qualify for the Euro 2008 competition, Beckham will be too old to help his country in the next World Cup.

David Beckham’s American dream is currently on halt and he will have to wait until next year to help his LA team and earn once again the favor of English fans back home.