In the Five Things you need to from MLS Week 7 at SI.com – appropriately named “Five Things You Need to Know about Week 7” – you’ll see where the Galaxy were hard done. Again. According to the Galaxy, at least.
Beckham, Galaxy have an old fashioned Texas conniption
The boys from L.A. were hopping mad, burning up like BBQ at a drunken tailgate. They thought there was a foul on Todd Dunivant on Dallas’ first goal. That seems to happen a lot doesn’t it, Galaxy players pitching a fit after getting scored on? We may explore that another day.
You couldn’t see it unless you were at the stadium (nice work by the camera crew and producers on site), but David Beckham and Landon Donovan were still a’huffin’ and a’hollerin’ at referee Alex Prus on a Dallas corner kick some 60 seconds later. Why Prus didn’t tell both of them to shut it and move on, only he could say. Anyway, there’s more about it all on the SI.com piece, including Bruce Arena’s non-response response to it all.
I didn’t have room for it, but here’s something interesting Beckham had to say about the scene afterward. “The referee has done it to us before, I’m sure he’ll do it to us again.”
What? Conspiracy? What say you, exactly, Mr. Beckham? Read on …
I had to verbally elbow my way into the questioning, posting up against the pretty people there from local TV stations bent on asking Beckham about the royal wedding, about Victoria and such, to seek a necessary clarification. Are you saying, David, that referees have something against the Galaxy? (In honesty, I thought he said “referees” had done it to them before, etc., and that would have been a mightier accusation. Either way, the responsible thing was to seek clarification … assuming we were done talking about Princes and the fabulous crowds in London and such.)
His thoughts: “No, this referee has done it to us before,” Beckham replied. “I’m not suggesting he’s got something against us or the Galaxy. I just think he made another mistake in one of our games. Nothing against us. Nothing against any individual. But I just think he made a bad decision again, and again it’s cost us points.”
I said in the SI.com piece that L.A. did get a bit unlucky. They were the better team. But hard done? It wasn’t the most flagrant foul missed on the night. There was contact, and perhaps there could have been a whistle, but it wasn’t egregious. Bottom line in a weird game like this, stuff happens. It’s a cruel game. But blaming the referee for this one. Hmmm. Doesn’t pass the smell test for me.
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