David Beckham hit back at his critics with a trademark freekick against Ecuador that took England into the World Cup quarterfinals, and he was revelling in his moment of glory.
The England captain, who was physically sick during a match played in draining conditions, curled his shot past Cristian Mora in the 60th minute to hand his side a 1-0 win and a showdown with Portugal.
”It was nice to silence a few people who have been critical. I can handle my criticism and I’ll prove them wrong,” he said.
”It was a great feeling to get a goal and put us into the quarterfinal.”
Steven Gerrard said after the match that Beckham went out with ”a point to prove” after taking some stick following largely anonymous games in the group stages.
Some commentators and ex-players have called him to be axed — an unthinkable proposition before the World Cup.
One of his main critics has been former England captain Terry Butcher, who has repeatedly urged Sven-Goran Eriksson to jettison Beckham, who earns an estimated $32-million a year, for ”under-achieving”.
On the eve of the match against Ecuador Butcher suggested in his column for Britain’s Sunday Mirror that pressure from sponsors was preventing Eriksson from dumping the marketable celebrity icon.
”England are now in danger of abusing their resources. It could also be termed as gross mismanagement,” he said.
”Beckham is merely in the team these days for his delivery at set-pieces. His contribution outside of that is negligible.”
England’s 1966 World Cup winning hattrick hero Geoff Hurst also called for him to be replaced while the Independent on Sunday weighed in by saying the impression so far had been of ”a talent so in decline it is banished to the periphery”.
Eriksson has denied Beckham is an ”untouchable” despite never substituting him for tactical reasons during a competitive fixture, repeatedly arguing that he is the world’s most accurate striker of a ball at set pieces.
His ”Bend it like Beckham” goal against Ecuador went some way to justifying this, although, again, he was far from his commanding best during the rest of the game.
The strike was his first goal in 13 matches for England and his first deadball special for three years, and he admitted it had been a long time coming.
”To be honest, I haven’t scored for a while,” he said after winning his 93rd cap. ”I haven’t scored with many free kicks this season.”
He was inspired by Real Madrid teammate Roberto Carlos and England colleague Wayne Rooney.
”Wazza [Rooney] said to me before the game ‘You’ve been terrible the last two days, so you’re going to get one tonight’.
”I got a text from Roberto Carlos saying ‘Score me a free kick’, so it’s brought me good luck and we’re happy.”
At 31, Beckham knows this could be his last World Cup and his position as captain is by no means certain when Steve McClaren takes over from Eriksson when and if England get knocked out.
But he doesn’t want to talk about that, and instead wants to focus on the quarterfinal on Saturday, conscious that England need to raise their game if they plan to lift the trophy for the first time in 40 years.
”It was ugly at times and again, we haven’t played to our full potential, but we’ll take that [result],” he said of the Ecuador match.
”We’re through to the quarterfinals. We’ve been a difficult team at times, but we know we can play better.” – Sapa-AFP