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Canales Daily: Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Fans Of War
David Beckham versus Galaxy fans was bizarre theater that still revealed an important truth - supporters should care about the teams.
Jul 20, 2009 6:41:22 PM
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Landon Donovan can probably identify a bit with David Beckham.
After all, it was four years ago, back in 2005, when he was booed and heckled mercilessly by fans of the team he had helped to two Major League Soccer championship.
That didn't matter much to San Jose Earthquakes supporters when Donovan returned from a short stint in Germany to join the ranks of the hated team south of San Jose - the Los Angeles Galaxy. They felt jilted, and they didn't take it lightly.
When the Galaxy made the I-5 trek for the game in Northern California, the fans were waiting to voice their anger and frustration. Besides booing non-stop Donovan's every touch, they also yelled a number of derogatory expletives, usually attached to words like "traitor, Judas, sucks, primadonovan."
Donovan's teammates only a year earlier, people who were still friends with him, reveled in the obvious passion of their fans. They channeled that energy into their play, winning 3-0.
Even Donovan admitted that the electric atmosphere of a match where fans seethed with hostility was memorable.
"As much as it sucked for me, it's pretty damn cool we're at a point where people care this much,'' Donovan told reporters at the time. "It felt like a foreign place, and give the fans credit for that. It's really a good thing."
Granted, in some ways, Beckham's situation was a bit worse, because Donovan was heckled by his former team, while it was the fans of Beckham's current team that were expressing their displeasure.
Yet with Beckham lining up against AC Milan, the squad he hopes to return to, for long-suffering supporters of the Galaxy's recent playoff drought, it's a bit like a girlfriend showing up for lunch with the guy she cheated with and asking if everyone can be friends now. The feelings are raw, and reconciliation won't be that neat and easy.
It's unclear exactly what the fan said to Beckham to set off the confrontation.
"I responded because I thought they overstepped the mark at one point with something they said," Beckham explained after the game.
While the rowdy supporters at that end of the stadium aren't known for their decorum, the group has a longstanding policy that while a player is fair game, his family is not, so it's likely that Beckham's own personal honor was attacked.
His teammates sympathized.
"I don't think it's fair on him," said goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.
Yet, as one of the signs condemning Beckham said, "Here before you. Here after you. Here despite 23," many Galaxy fans have had to put up with losing out on the playoffs longer than most current Galaxy players have been on the squad.
Many of these die-hard followers can recall the days when Donovan was the despised whippersnapper from the Earthquakes, not the proud captain leading the Galaxy charge versus AC Milan.
Some people at games, especially last season, were clearly Beckham fans before they were Galaxy fans, but there remained a core of people who cared about the team and the success of the club more than any individual player.
It may not seem logical for them to boo a player on that club they care about, but emotionally, it makes perfect sense. They clearly feel that Beckham abandoned the Galaxy right when the going got tough, and if the idea has been for ages that a captain goes down with a ship and that a crew sticks together, then Beckham absconding to Italy revealed him as a poor captain and teammate.
That's simplistic thinking, to a degree, but a few beers doesn't facilitate the appreciation of nuance and the particular circumstances Beckham is dealing with.
The beer, does, however, fuel the outrage and discontent fans were expressing. It's a primal reaction, on a level that fans around the world can relate to, but that often has been absent in American soccer stands.
When strong emotion exists, it can easily whiplash from hate to love and back again. Beckham can't doubt now that fans care. Perhaps he didn't feel that before, with some fans cheering his every touch, even the poor ones.
Part of what makes soccer exciting is the interchange between fans and players. Whether good or bad, there's an honesty in the aims both usually have - to make the club better.
Therein lies the route for Beckham to reclaim the affection of even the most disgruntled fans.
Ricketts believed it could be done.
"He'll be winning them over by the end of the season."
Alan Gordon saw it happening even sooner, as the people in the stands responded to Beckham playing well.
"They turned around and got behind him by the end of the game. That's what's important."
Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com North America
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page
After all, it was four years ago, back in 2005, when he was booed and heckled mercilessly by fans of the team he had helped to two Major League Soccer championship.
That didn't matter much to San Jose Earthquakes supporters when Donovan returned from a short stint in Germany to join the ranks of the hated team south of San Jose - the Los Angeles Galaxy. They felt jilted, and they didn't take it lightly.
When the Galaxy made the I-5 trek for the game in Northern California, the fans were waiting to voice their anger and frustration. Besides booing non-stop Donovan's every touch, they also yelled a number of derogatory expletives, usually attached to words like "traitor, Judas, sucks, primadonovan."
Donovan's teammates only a year earlier, people who were still friends with him, reveled in the obvious passion of their fans. They channeled that energy into their play, winning 3-0.
Even Donovan admitted that the electric atmosphere of a match where fans seethed with hostility was memorable.
"As much as it sucked for me, it's pretty damn cool we're at a point where people care this much,'' Donovan told reporters at the time. "It felt like a foreign place, and give the fans credit for that. It's really a good thing."
Granted, in some ways, Beckham's situation was a bit worse, because Donovan was heckled by his former team, while it was the fans of Beckham's current team that were expressing their displeasure.
Yet with Beckham lining up against AC Milan, the squad he hopes to return to, for long-suffering supporters of the Galaxy's recent playoff drought, it's a bit like a girlfriend showing up for lunch with the guy she cheated with and asking if everyone can be friends now. The feelings are raw, and reconciliation won't be that neat and easy.
It's unclear exactly what the fan said to Beckham to set off the confrontation.
"I responded because I thought they overstepped the mark at one point with something they said," Beckham explained after the game.
While the rowdy supporters at that end of the stadium aren't known for their decorum, the group has a longstanding policy that while a player is fair game, his family is not, so it's likely that Beckham's own personal honor was attacked.
His teammates sympathized.
"I don't think it's fair on him," said goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.
Yet, as one of the signs condemning Beckham said, "Here before you. Here after you. Here despite 23," many Galaxy fans have had to put up with losing out on the playoffs longer than most current Galaxy players have been on the squad.
Many of these die-hard followers can recall the days when Donovan was the despised whippersnapper from the Earthquakes, not the proud captain leading the Galaxy charge versus AC Milan.
Some people at games, especially last season, were clearly Beckham fans before they were Galaxy fans, but there remained a core of people who cared about the team and the success of the club more than any individual player.
It may not seem logical for them to boo a player on that club they care about, but emotionally, it makes perfect sense. They clearly feel that Beckham abandoned the Galaxy right when the going got tough, and if the idea has been for ages that a captain goes down with a ship and that a crew sticks together, then Beckham absconding to Italy revealed him as a poor captain and teammate.
That's simplistic thinking, to a degree, but a few beers doesn't facilitate the appreciation of nuance and the particular circumstances Beckham is dealing with.
The beer, does, however, fuel the outrage and discontent fans were expressing. It's a primal reaction, on a level that fans around the world can relate to, but that often has been absent in American soccer stands.
When strong emotion exists, it can easily whiplash from hate to love and back again. Beckham can't doubt now that fans care. Perhaps he didn't feel that before, with some fans cheering his every touch, even the poor ones.
Part of what makes soccer exciting is the interchange between fans and players. Whether good or bad, there's an honesty in the aims both usually have - to make the club better.
Therein lies the route for Beckham to reclaim the affection of even the most disgruntled fans.
Ricketts believed it could be done.
"He'll be winning them over by the end of the season."
Alan Gordon saw it happening even sooner, as the people in the stands responded to Beckham playing well.
"They turned around and got behind him by the end of the game. That's what's important."
Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com North America
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page
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