England calls David Beckham
Correction: Apologies I posted earlier today that David Beckham had departed Vancouver for Minneapolis per captions on photos of Becks passing through Vancouver airport from flynet. However, Becks attended practice with the new LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit, who was officially presented in LA today, and posed for photos which are in the gallery. Cobi Jones, who retired as a LA Galaxy player this season, was also presented as assistant coach, which is good news as he will be able to help Ruud Gullit acclimatize to MLS's unique challenges.England manager, Steve McClaren has named David Beckham in the England squad to face Austria in a friendly on Nov 16 and for England's final Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia on Nov 21 at Wembley. McClaren told reporters, "He's an important player for England. He always has been over the years. I think he proved in his comeback in the summer against Brazil and Estonia he was one of our best players and unfortunately he got injured."
"I flew out and spoke to the medical people, and the injury is fine, his fitness is fine," McClaren said. "He hasn't played games, but he is included in the squad because I believe with the likes of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry out of the squad we're lacking experience and big game players. David Beckham is one of them." Congrats to Becks! The full squad list is online here.
Becks in Minnesota
David Beckham and the LA Galaxy team departed Vancouver yesterday and headed to Minneapolis ahead of their Copa Minnesota game against the Minnesota Thunder this Sunday. There are photos of Becks passing through Vancouver International airport, where he stopped for a spot of duty-free shopping and also signed autographs for some fans, in the gallery. The game will be held at the Metrodome and will kick-off at 5.30PM local time which is 6.30PM ET and 3.30PM PT.(Source) Becks will attend a benefit party Saturday night at Temple in downtown Minneapolis, to help out two children's charities. Other LA Galaxy players will be there, too. Tickets can be purchased at www.metromag.com. (6-9 p.m. Sat., 1201 Harmon Pl., Mpls.)
Also, there is a good article on the new LA galaxy coach Ruud Gullit, online here, that provides more background on his experience as a Manager.
posted by rpm at 4:06 AM
21 Comments:
That's great! I'm so happy for David! Can't wait for the 21st. I'm so there!!! Now we just need Israel to draw with Russia next week. Come on Israel!!
4:28 AM
So happy! Great news :-)
4:51 AM
Syd, thanks for the reply regarding Becks in center v right. I've leaned toward right too but wondered if it was just what I was used to. You're right about one thing, in the Galaxy's current "set-up" it seems like it wouldn't matter if he was set in the box undefended all day...his deliveries are wasted.
Gullit will have a task with acquisition so limited. Maybe his old "Dutch School" training, applied during pre-season, can bring out some hidden potential, or at least improve sharpness, in a few existing players. It's a hope.
5:07 AM
Thanks for the Gullit article. I'm an optimist I think he may be just what the doctor ordered :-)
I'm glad hes back for england. I do hope he makes it to 100!
5:15 AM
is david going to the Mall of America in Minneapolis Minnesota?
6:16 AM
Ciao to everybody1.Happy that David could help his country at a crucial time. We wish good luck to Gullit, will succeed him as coach. Thanks to all for Gabriel. Hugs, Loredana, Samuele, Gabriel.
6:52 AM
hi, my internet was out for a few days. Loredana, its good to hear that Gabriele would be okay :) and Beckham in the England squad is such good news too :). I like how Beckham is still shy in speaking Spanish to the media, but I remember watching some training videos from Real Madrid and he speaks fluent Spanish to the other players :)
Marie
8:33 AM
Any word on video broadcast of the MN game?
I'm very pleased he was called up for England...didn't have too many doubts he would be, but you never know!
9:22 AM
Oh, so he was called to England.
Good Luck Becks and all the other boys!!!
Total Football at LA Galaxy...hehe!
Hope they play 4-3-3. :-D
I´m serious.
10:26 AM
Sorry Dina, at this stage I haven't been able to find anything on TV or radio even but I'll keep looking.
Hi Marie glad you got your internet back! I go into withdrawal after just a few hours lol
I don't know if Becks is going to the Mall of the America - but he does love to shop! I know it's where I would be going lol
Diane, I probably lean that way too but I can understand Becks wanting to be more involved in the centre - especially in that team and also I feel like I have to give him a chance to play in that position for a few games at a 100% fitness and gel with the team before I decide I'd rather he was on the right wing so I'm keeping an open mind on it :)
12:05 PM
thankx 4 pix!! =)
12:23 PM
Hi,everyone....Ok .... is it just me or does Becks' look a 'tad' thin?!!....I've gone back and looked at old 'Real' matches from 07' and I'm worried.....Ah...forget it maybe it's just me....."always waiting for the other shoe to drop".....things are going his way for once...regaining his spot on the National team, getting 'fit' even changing managers'...maybe 'Lalas' will quit or 'mutually part ways with the club aka being fired' & all will be right again.....but, I just can't shake this feeling ...thats' somethings wrong...maybe..when he returns 'home' in December for the holidays' his Mum can put some 'meat on those bones' ....I mean even his 'six pak' is gone....
Robbi
the worrier!!
1:35 PM
Me too, Anna. The critical issue, is, Marie, I've always wanted to hear Becks speak Spanish when he wasn't on the spot! Great accent for the one sentence bits but its not the same.
BTW, is Spanish spoken in something posted here? My media player isn't working so I haven't been able to listen to any interviews in any language :( .
2:11 PM
I'm so happy for Becks! I keep my fingers crossed for a win of Israel on Saturday.
@Marie: Yes it is to cute, that he is to shy to speak Spanish. I love it when he speaks Spanish. Is there a possibility to watch the old training vids?
Thanks & Regards,
Nadja
3:19 PM
Thanks, I'll keep an eye out and let you know if I see anything televised too...I did watch the Vancouver game on internet PPV so maybe something like that will come up. I can't believe media buzz is so dulled as to not even try to pick these events up, but, the way they've been pushed back means they're up against all the "big" American sports now so I guess it's back to who cares but us. :P
7:13 PM
Here come caps98 & 99 and no matter what some negative press wanna say I am sure Cap 100 too! GOOOO David!!
11:18 PM
@Robb: I have the same feeling as you something is wrong. Very often he looked unhappy. Maybe it is only because he is/was injured and could not train with the team and play, so the start was not very good. I think he misses European football and competions like the champions league. But who knows....
Regards,
Nadja
1:11 AM
'unique challenge' is that we are calling Lalas these days?
4:18 AM
Hi Diane - Not really in the Vancouver press conference one of the journos tried to speak to Becks in Spanish but he said he preferred english so i think there's maybe one line of spanish but that's about it :)
Nadja, I'll try but Youtube deleted a whole lot of my videos and it's very time consuming to have to put them all back but I'll get to it when I'm finished my Christmas cards project :)
5:45 AM
Anna, if you have web space and bandwidth for it you could stream them on your site--I do a lot of that--obviously it's easier to let YouTube do it for you but with a free .flv converter and a bit of html code to embed in a page you could be good to go hosting them yourself. Photobucket also hosts videos, probably at same or slightly less quality as YouTube, and I'm not sure how strict they are about copyright (policing it). Anyway if you can stream them yourself & want a hand or more info let me know.
5:55 AM
Hi Anna,
this would be great - Thanks.
Wish you good luck with your christmass-card thing!!!
*Kiss*
Nadja
5:18 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home