Beckham down

Tragedy, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Ok, I exagerrate, but I do feel a pang of regret for David Beckham, who may have suffered an injury similar to Jonny Bornstein. Unlike Bornstein, Beckham isn't a young-up-and-comer and presumably isn't going to get that many chances to impress and perhaps earn another call up to the national team.

Also, playing in MLS isn't really considered a handicap to making the U.S. national team. It is for England, so Becks' window of opportunity gets even smaller than ever.

Hearing that Beckham hit the advertising boards around the edge of the field reminds me of a Galaxy game in 2005 when the team got these new expensive LED boards and placed them near the sidelines. In the pressbox, the media was buzzing about the reported multi-million dollar cost of the boards, while the photographers were complaining that the colored lights were wrecking their shots.

Running to keep a ball from going out of play, Herculez Gomez, headed full-speed for the ad boards. One reporter next to me said, "Great, he'll be paying that off the rest of his life." At the last second, Herculez avoided a collision by diving headfirst over the barrier. I guess he did a shoulder roll out of it or something, because he popped back up from the behind the boards and jogged back to the field.

Anyway, the point is that maybe the ads are actually too close to the sidelines if they're endangering players during the game.