Big-Shot Beckham Wimps Out In Houston Debut

David Beckham made his Houston debut Sunday afternoon at Robertson Stadium, as the Los Angeles Galaxy came to duel it up with the Dynamo. Although neither team scored, the game did have some intrigue.

In the 81st minute, Beckham slid into a reckless tackle on Dynamo’s Ricardo Clark. That led to an altercation between both clubs, and ended with the ejection of Dynamo forward Brian Ching.

“It is just poor management of the game [by the referee],” Clark told Hair Balls. “I think it if it was any other player, they would have been yellow-carded earlier. If he gets a yellow card on the second time he [tackled] me, then that doesn’t happen and Ching doesn’t get a red card.”

Becks did earn a yellow card for his third rough tackle on Clark (guess third time’s the charm). The altercation following the foul was mostly between Ching and Becks. Essentially, Ching gave Becky an earful, and the referees do what they always do in games involving the Galaxy, protect Beckham.

Ching then received a second yellow for pushing another player in the
face, which meant he was ejected.

For his part, Becky tried to wash his
hands of the situation by saying he wasn’t involved in second yellow.
“It had nothing to do with me. He pushed someone in the face, but it
wasn’t me that he pushed, but you can’t do that in the game. Like I
said, it had nothing to do with me, I wasn’t involved.”

I don’t know what they call that in England, but in America, when you
start a fight and don’t see it through, it’s called being a bitch. I
guess it’s true what they say: you are what you sleep with (yes offense
Posh).

Unfortunately for the Dynamo, Ching’s ejection makes five MLS league
games in a row that the Dynamo had a player ejected during the match.
Head coach Dominic Kinnear has stressed the importance of keeping a
level head on the playing field, but ultimately it comes down to the
players to make the right decision.

“The more you talk about it, it
doesn’t mean anything if the guys don’t take it upon themselves to be
responsible,” he said. “It was bad and [Ching] deserved a red card. It’s important that we stop punishing ourselves by having players
unavailable for reasons that we can control. I can’t put an ear piece
in their ear during the game and say, hey, walk away from that
situation.”

With the result, the Dynamo are in a three-way tie with Galaxy and
Chivas USA for first place in the Western Conference. The Dynamo will
travel to Los Angeles next Sunday to take on the Goats in the season
finale, with home-field advantage in the first round of playoffs on the
line.