Beckham Shows England How to Do It

After taking over from good old Sven, former Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren made one of the biggest impacts that must have ever come from an incoming manager. David "Golden Balls" Beckham, once the media darling for his goal scoring antics had been turned upon by the same people that would often sing his praises was dropped having made a tough decision to relinquish the captaincy.

Since then, as BBC1 pointed out tonight before England`s apparent "football match" against Brazil, a number of different players, including (somehow) Andy Johnson have been tried in Beckham`s absence and have somewhat struggled. With Beckham`s recall, seemingly with the England boss bowing to media pressure once more came an opportunity for the soon-to-be LA Galaxy player to really prove a point.

Tonight, he has done that and really has shown his class for what has been an abject England side playing against a considerably weakened Brazil who do not appear to have been particularly interested in making much effort for the entire 90 minutes. The whipped free kicks from distance, coupled with his overall play stood out in an England team that included some very poor performances (hope you read this Michael Owen!) A Beckham free kick whipped into the box provided the perfect tee-up for John Terry, the man who replaced Beckham as England captain to power a header past Brazil goalkeeper Helton, whoever the heck he is!

Brazil equalizer in stoppage time proves that England still do have some fundamental issues to be addressed and one does wonder about the England manager in times where Wes Brown is considered by the ginger one as "international quality." Has Steve McClaren just saved his job with this result against Brazil reserves plus Kaka and Ronaldhino? Not likely if they fail to deliver the goods against European football giants Estonia.


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