Cuma tinggal 180 menit lagi Becks bakalan nongol di La Liga. Sayang seribu sayang. Ga akan lagi liat freekick khasnya, umpan-umpan silang maut plus spiritnya yang ga pernah luntur selama bertanding. Come on Becks. Give Madrid fans La Liga trophy!
======================================================== American dream too little, too soon for revitalised Beckham Real are realising what they will miss as David Beckham leads their title push. Sid LoweMay 28, 2007 12:18 AM Man of the match as Real Madrid took a step closer to the title this weekend, David Beckham is only two games away from his final bow, two wins from leading Madrid to a first trophy since he arrived by private jet and police cavalcade back in the sweltering summer of 2003. He is, as one screaming Spanish headline put it yesterday, 180 minutes from heaven. At last. And yet, as he continued his crusade to end the club's longest trophy drought in half a century, as fans applauded him from the field, so the realisation dawned: very soon it will be all over. Not just for another season but for good. Beckham is about to depart Real Madrid and, with it, top-flight football. Major League Soccer has always appeared a kind of semi-retirement. That would be fine if Beckham were a spent force. Instead he appears reborn. Madrid will miss him; perhaps this is the final fling of a man who knows time is running out, but the goodbye looks premature. His team-mate Ruud van Nistelrooy last night said as much. "It is too early for David to be going to America," the Dutchman insisted and, deep down, Beckham may feel the same way. Beckham may have insisted that he can carry on playing for England even after leaving for Los Angeles, noting that the US season is shorter, but his new employers will have other ideas about such a huge investment jetting back to Europe mid-season, and maintaining England form may prove impossible. It would only be natural for him to feel a twinge of regret at departing Europe aged 32, the key player at a club poised to win the league title. But, then, things have changed. Beckham claimed to have turned down Milan to join LA Galaxy. That may well be true but he also chose the MLS at a time when his options had begun closing down. After losing his place in the wake of Madrid's 2-0 humiliation at the hands of Lyon back in September, Beckham barely played, Capello relegating him to fourth choice on the right. By Christmas he had started only five times in the league and twice in the Champions League. And when he did start, Madrid's record was appalling: those five league starts accounted for three of their four defeats, with only one victory, while in Europe they had a solitary, irrelevant draw. He started Madrid's first game back after Christmas and they lost to Deportivo La Coruña. Capello's mind appeared to be made up and, as Beckham stalled on a new contract, Madrid's position hardened. Meanwhile, another man whose mind was made up was Steve McClaren. Much as he claimed the door was still open, in truth it appeared double-bolted. Beckham certainly thought so. There was little left to lose by going to the US. In fact, he nearly lost the one thing he did have left to lose: a final shot at a trophy with Madrid. When he announced his departure for LA on January 11, Capello followed club orders and insisted that he would never play for Madrid again. Real's president, Ramón Calderón, reacted even more petulantly, describing him as "half an actor, off to Hollywood" and claiming "no one wanted him anyway". How foolish Calderón looks now, insisting he would love Beckham to continue in Spain. A month's ostracism followed but, with Madrid collapsing, Beckham was recalled and immediately saved the coach's skin with a goal against Real Sociedad. A seven-week injury followed but he has proven hugely important since he returned for a second time, providing assists against Recreativo, Valencia and Athletic. The England recall followed and he celebrated by again performing superbly against Deportivo on Saturday night, providing two assists and countless wonderful passes and hitting the post with a free-kick. "He was unbelievable," whispered Deportivo's beaten players in hushed tones. "He's playing better than he has in two years," insisted Capello. That is something of an exaggeration but suddenly Madrid have realised what they will be missing. Although Beckham's snipe that "the same people who want me to stay now thought I was not good enough six months ago" pointed the finger at Calderón, he will be grateful to those who wish he could stay, to those who believe that the MLS is too little, too soon. "He could easily have carried on in a higher level than the MLS," said Guti, and Van Nistelrooy felt a pang of regret when his team-mate's name was included in McClaren's squad - proof that Beckham was hasty in turning to the US. "We'd been talking about it every day leading up to the squad announcement, saying 'Hey, Becks, two more days' then 'One more day'," Van Nistelrooy said. "David was so happy to be called up for his country. Lots of players would have just given in, but not Becks. Only the greats have an attitude like that. That's why he deserves to be back in the England side and back at the highest level." Highest level hardly describes the MLS, though, and Van Nistelrooy added: "With the form he's showing he could continue for years, but I'm not sure he can change [the decision to go to LA] now. I feel it's too early for David to be going to America."
