England Flashback: Beckham Gets a Red Card vs Argentina in 1998

March 10th, 2010 | by: Daryl | Comments (0)

I posted about Beckham’s most famous sending off on the main page earlier, but thought it was worth re-posting here on the England blog too.

We all know what happened. The 23 year old David Beckham was fouled by Diego Simeone, and then foolishly had a kick at Simeone’s calf in retaliation. The ref saw it, Beckham was sent off, and we went on to lose the penalty shoot out to Argentina.

I had a lot of sympathy for Beckham over this incident at the time, and still do today. Yes, it was a clear red. But Simeone clearly over-reacted, and we still went on to draw 2-2, and could easily have won 3-2 had Sol Campbell’s header not been disallowed. Any other year, the scapegoats would have been Paul Ince and David Batty, the two players who missed their penalties. But our nation’s frustration centered on Beckham instead, as it would on Cristiano Ronaldo eight years later.

Credit to Beckham for surviving the headlines, the dartboards, the effigy hanging and the boos the following season. He came through it and came out the other side as a stronger player and arguably the most media savvy footballer in the history of the game. Here’s hoping David Beckham’s final appearance at the World Cup this year ends better than his first.