16 minutes. That is the sum total of Becks appearance. You know if Alexi Lalas was at all concerned about Beckham's ankle healing properly he would have asked him to wait out this season. It might be a bit too late for the LA Galaxy to make it to the playoffs and having Beckham might have not made much of a difference. However, it would have given the ankle time to heal and would have stopped all the second guessing and finger pointing going on.
So get used to these headlines. This weekend Beckham flies in with the Galaxy but he probably will not play. To protect themselves from the wrath of many who thought that this might be his debut, Toronto issued this statement " As with any other player under contract with either club participating in the game, should Mr. Beckham be unable to play in the game, no refunds will be issued.''
For skeptics not sold on soccer, this may well be the biggest reason. I guess no one considered that Beckham's no shows could actually cause soccer more harm than good.
Greg Couch only deprives himself when he can't be bothered to tune into great football, say, Champions League football, La Liga--when he complains that ESPN forced upon him the world's biggest sporting event, I can't really take him seriously.
The linked story above states Toronto FC has giving the disclaimer to their fans that they can not guarantee the appearance of any player. What is wrong with the situation of the Dallas game, was if 4 game packets were being sold and some people might have bought those under the impression of it being their only way to see David Beckham...and then, I can understand fans disenchantment when it was explained to me.
But as for the injury itself; NFL, NBA, gosh, how we Americans know of how a player can be missing for an extended amount of time.
And as some TFC fans boast, they have a sold out house no matter what for the Galaxy and I surmise all of their other games; and some of their fans say, they've sold out every game for next season and maybe even after!
I think, a personality that compares somewhat to David Beckham was probably Joe Namath, reading the Dallas FC story. Under similar cirumstances, Joe Willy and the Jets once played an exhibition against the Dallas Cowboys; and even with the Cowboys being such a big team back then, many went still just to see Namath.