Beckham Booed By Own Supporters As Galaxy Tie AC Milan In Friendly
// July 20th, 2009 // Football
David Beckham came back to LA to play football last night for the first time since leaving for AC Milan over the winter break on a loan deal.
While he was on away Becks publicly derided the quality of play in the MLS and tried to engineer a permanent transfer to AC Milan. Galaxy ultra groups The Riot Squad and Angel City Brigade took the opportunity to let Becks know exactly how they felt about the behavior of the self proclaimed “Ambassador of MLS”.
Funny enough all this went down during a friendly last night between the Galaxy and the very club “Golden Balls” was angling to escape his most terrible life in LA and oppressive 5 year $250 million contract.
David Beckham confronted a fan sitting in a section where negative banners about the Los Angeles Galaxy player were displayed during Beckham’s first home game of the season Sunday night.
As Beckham left the field at halftime, he went over to the section where one of the team’s support groups holds court and appeared to shout something. The fan jumped down from the seating section and was subdued by security before being escorted off the field.
Fans in the L.A. Riot Squad section were holding up Beckham’s jersey and beating it. One of their homemade signs read,”Go home fraud” while another said,”23: Repent.”
It was all part of a rough reception for Beckham, who missed the first half of the Major League Soccer season while he was on a five-month loan to AC Milan, the team that played the Galaxy on Sunday.
The English star was booed more than cheered during introductions, and he was booed for a while the first several times he touched the ball.
Boos were mixed with cheers when Beckham assisted on the Galaxy’s game-tying goal in the 30th minute.
He will only play six more home games this season.
Earlier this year, Beckham said he wanted to remain with the Italian club rather than return to the Galaxy because he believed the level of play was much better in Europe .
Well done LA!
Edit-3:30pm pst
LA GALAXY STATEMENT REGARDING HALFTIME INCIDENT
CARSON, Calif. (Monday, July 20, 2009) – The following statement is from LA Galaxy General Manager and Head Coach Bruce Arena regarding the incident that occurred at halftime of the LA Galaxy’s international friendly against AC Milan on Sunday night at The Home Depot Center.
“We regret the incident that happened at the end of the first half of last night’s friendly at The Home Depot Center. While it is important that our fans remain free to voice their opinions, they must do so in an appropriate manner. We appreciate our players (sic) and fans (sic) passion for the team and the game, but we all must aim to hold ourselves to higher standards.
We have a very good relationship with the LA Riot Squad and have already reached out to them to set up a meeting to discuss moving forward together in a positive direction. In addition, the LA Riot Squad has informed us that they have issued a lifetime ban to the fan that went onto the field of play.
We want to move in a positive direction as an organization, and ask our fans to support our players and our club as we look to return to the playoffs for the first time in three years. We need the support of our fans to continue providing an amazing home environment at The Home Depot Center as we look to reach our shared goal of qualifying for the playoffs.”
[S.I - GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images]
11 Responses to “Beckham Booed By Own Supporters As Galaxy Tie AC Milan In Friendly”
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These wannabee hooligans should be banned from all future matches in Los Angeles. This is just a game, you morons, and you’re in the United States, not Ireland. It’s soccer, not football, and Beckham is just another high-paid celebrity athlete who kicks a ball around. YOU people buy tickets to watch this nonsense, then get all worked up about it to the point that you’d risk committing a drunken felonious assault to express your beer-saturated, post-adolescent feelings. Get a damn job. When these “spectators” start hanging hateful, incendiary banners up at games, they need to be escorted out of the stadium, if not the country. It’s stupid and sickening, considering what else is going on in the world today.
blow it out your ass John! Go blog more about MJ
Hey, Adam. Go munch on some athlete’s ass. Then get a job.
Why even come to this site?
You are a fucking clown!
What? you gonna tell me to get a job again?
John not much of a “soccer” fan are you? Well real quick Beckham is paid handsomely to play for the Galaxy. This winter he decide he wanted to go back to play in Europe which is fine but he made the mistake of going public and deriding the level of play of MLS and the quality of his team.
Naturally fans of the Galaxy are upset and feel betrayed and David as a professional should have done his best to avoid confrontation with angry fans and let his play on the field do the talking. Unfortunately he lost his cool. In the end the fan was wrong to leave the stands and Beck’s was wrong to challenge him to do so.
As for the ultras the have the right to express their displeasure over Beckham’s behavior over the MLS off season and he needs to know that the club matters to a lot of people even if it means naught to him. More power to LARS and ACB.
Furthermore let’s be honest American sports are no picnic either. Try wearing a Chargers jersey to a Raiders home game.
The LA Galaxy fans’ reaction is counter intuitively a good indication of soccer getting traction in the US. The fans may hate the designated ambassador, but they feel the passion it takes to take a sport to prominence.
Beckham has been trying to get away with things in the US / MLS that he knows he could not get away with elsewhere in the soccer world. He’s been treating the MLS like a Hollywood party. It’s no party, ask around.
Anywhere else in the world a problem player could not get on a roster; but then Beckham knows that and doesn’t try to bend AC Milan to his wishes, does he?
The folks calling Beckham out are right: he should serve the team or leave. For all Beckham’s good personal qualities, he is treating the USA like a poor homeless child begging for rice. No thanks, sir
The middle age ladies will love him and his abs no matter what he does, but lets not confuse that with sport.
Good points! I think most casual fans are missing the back story to the Beckham Experience and don’t quite understand the frustrations of the Galaxy fans.
I’m a sports fan, not a sports idiot who paints his face and waves banners at games. The Galaxy fans who are whining about Beckham are forgetting one simple fact: Beckham is just another human being who is looking out for #1. Sports teams in the 21st century are corporations and the players are employees trying to get whatever they can from the system in the few years that they’re playing. Beckham’s inability to keep his cool in the face of belligerent teenagers in the stadium is irrelevant. if you’re not a fan of Beckham and don’t think he’s contributing to the team, then boo the management of the team who gave him the deal. Picket their offices. This crap in the stands is just coming from a bunch of drunken, testosterone-soaked fanboys who have no life. First of all, all their screaming has zero impact on Beckham and, second, it takes attention away from the other players who are just trying to win a game. People like to pick on celebrities because it makes them feel important. If Beckham were a lower profile player and he had said the same exact things in Europe last winter, nothing would have happened.
The quality of the crowds at sporting events in this country have gone down hill steadily over the last 30 years, thanks largely to the sale of alcohol at these games and the permissiveness of stadium security.
“First of all, all their screaming has zero impact on Beckham”
It obviously has an impact if he goes out of his way to call out a fan….
I came to this site because the link was provided by CNN at the end of an article about Beckham’s incident with the crowd. Then I came back because of the fruitcake who made the juvenile remark. Now, I’ll refrain from coming back because it seems that regular visitors here have no sense of proportionality. Beckham is a quality player and he has the right to play wherever he likes in the off-season and express his opinion about the quality of play in this league. People who take that too hard need counseling or rehab.
Let’s keep it civil gentleman (at least until someone pisses me off). I enjoy reading the different views on Becks.
I tend to side with the supporters and I don’t think the protests will be an ongoing issue at HDC. It sounds like the SGs are going to ease up on Becks unless he starts to dog it like the second half of last season. What’s good about all this is the fact MLS is getting so much coverage.