Back of the Net!

The message from a BBC article this week is that Major League Soccer would have gone the way of previous US soccer leagues if David Beckham hadn’t moved from Real Madrid to LA Galaxy .

Apparently, the league didn’t need him as some great educator or champion of the game - consecutive World Cup qualifications (from one of the World’s less challenging groups)  saw to that.  The Beckhams took their glamour to Los Angeles as  an act of consolidation.

We have a very patronising view of American “soccer” here in Europe - we’re convinced its only played for a bit of a laugh, and that MLS is made up of ex South American and European internationals earning a pension.

Yet a Quarter Final placing at the last World Cup indicates that fitness levels are good, and skill levels have come on leaps and bounds since the 1970.

Whatever his professional reasons for moving (and let’s face it England looked a lot more settled when he came on as substitute on Saturday) what the Beckhams have done by moving to the USA is escape the European press intrusion - their places in the tabloids have been usurped by Mr and Mrs Ashley and Cheryl Cole and Mr and Mrs Wayne and Coleen Rooney.

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