The day after England lost on penalties to Portugal, David Beckham stood down as the England captain. Beckham stated that he felt it was time for someone else to wear the (captain’s) armband. I believe that the criticism he has been receiving all tournament for his poor performance has to have played a part in his decision to step-down. Personally, I believe that without Beckham in the lineup, England would not have progressed as far as they did in the World Cup. In England’s opening game against Paraguay, Beckham’s free kick resulted in the game’s only goal. In the second game against Trinidad and Tobago, the game was still 0-0 in the 82nd minute - that was until Beckham crossed a ball perfectly to Peter Crouch who found the net. Finally, in England’s round of 16 game against Ecuador, Beckham scored via one of his trademark freekicks - bending the ball perfectly over the defensive wall and squeezing into the net, just beating the outstretched hands of Ecuador’s goalkeeper.

Hopefully the media will cease with their unfair criticism of Beckham now that he no longer has the added attention of being the team’s captain. He was easily one of England’s top players throughout the tournament, and the harsh comments that the US media have been spouting out all tournament were not only unfair, but it just goes to show that they really don’t have an understanding of the World’s game.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 3rd, 2006 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.