Ocean's Eleven was smashing box-office records as 2001 hit its conclusion. Another revenge thriller had just had its release date set and fans drooling. Its setting wouldn’t be the Bellagio casino, but an opulently-constructed Japanese dome. And although it also involved two ensemble, 11-person casts, this was all about one man – one who’d just outranked the Steven Soderbergh movie’s co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, along with Michael Jordan, Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods, to be named the biggest male celebrity on the planet.
David Beckham had sensationally snatched England Korea/Japan 2002 qualification, had just seized silver in the FIFA World Player of the Year running for the second time, was enjoying his best-ever season for Manchester United, and was the highest-paid footballer on the planet. The final draw for that FIFA World Cup™, in Busan in December 2001, catapulted Beckham into the lead role of the grandest man-versus-nation script in international football history. Diego Simeone had, in the Round of 16 at France 1998, clattered Beckham to the canvas. The England winger, right in front of referee Kim Milton Nielsen, gingerly kicked the back of his rival’s calf. The Argentina enforcer went down like he’d been clobbered by a Lennox Lewis uppercut and, once back on his feet, urged the official to send Beckham off. “The referee fell into my trap,” said Simeone of the consequent red card.
Beckham left the field devastated, Argentina won on penalties and the No7 was consequently vilified in the English press. One newspaper printed Beckham’s face on the bullseye of a dartboard, and death threats followed. “I was shaking almost uncontrollably,” Beckham recalled. “I was crying like a baby, clinging on to the shoulders of my dad as if he was a lifeline in a raging sea. It was the worst time of my life. Any World Cup game is massive, but England against Argentina is on another level. I made a mistake, but the reaction was brutal.” Beckham would have to wait four long years, but on its way was his chance to avenge the memory of Saint-Etienne – until disaster struck. Seven weeks before the start of Korea/Japan 2002, Beckham was the subject of a horrific, studs-up challenge while representing United against Deportivo. The victim’s metatarsal was broken. So, too, seemingly was his redemption shot in Sapporo. The offender? An Argentinian, who else? ‘Don't cry for me, England’ read the headline in Buenos Aires sportspaper Ole, who hailed Aldo Duscher as a “national hero”. The Mirror’s corresponding one read, ‘Our worst nightmare’. The early prognosis was that Beckham wouldn’t recover in time. “His goal against Greece was a miracle,” said Sven-Goran Eriksson, referring to the last-kick-of-the-game free-kick that qualified England for Korea/Japan 2002, “so let’s hope for another one here so that he can get back to playing before the World Cup.”
The Swede didn’t get the miracle he prayed for. He did, however, ignore advice and take a player who hadn’t kicked a ball competitively in almost two months to Asia. The revenge thriller was back on. Argentina versus England in a World Cup hardly needed a subplot. It was a rivalry as explosive as it was incongruous. Somehow, the country with the southernmost inhabited city in the world and another encompassed by the North Sea – nations that had no religious or political tension at the time – had erupted into arch-enemies. The feud was started by one of the most volcanic matches in World Cup history in 1966, and enraged by the Falklands War in 1982, Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ four years later, and the Beckham-Simeone controversy.
“Can you ask me about something else?” snapped Simeone at reporters before it. “Please, I try to be professional, but I haven’t been asked about any other topic for the last few weeks.”
Beckham also tried to temper talk that it was all about him and Argentina. “I’m not thinking about Diego Simeone or revenge,” he stated to universal suspicion. “England against Argentina in a World Cup is always massive.” If the stakes were always big when these footballing bastions collided, they were now behemothic. Particularly for England. Beckham, clearly lacking match fitness, had lasted 63 minutes of a doddering 1-1 draw with Sweden in their curtain-raiser. Argentina had beaten Nigeria.
Furthermore, La Albiceleste had finished a staggering 13 points above Brazil in the South Ameircan qualifiers, were on an 18-game unbeaten run – one which included victories over Italy in Rome and Germany in Stuttgart – and had, after France’s catastrophic start, . Plus, England hadn’t beaten Argentina since their captain and No7 had inspired a 3-1 victory in 1980. Publicly, Kevin Keegan’s successor in that shirt and that armband may have been playing down the revenge script. Privately, he must have been consumed by 'I-would-love-if-we-beat-them' feelings.
The early premonitions were that the night would belong to Argentina, but slowly Beckham began to assert himself on the game. Then, just before half-time came its critical juncture. The lively Michael Owen conned Mauricio Pochettino and Pierluigi Collina pointed to the spot. “To be honest, as soon as the referee blew, I thought, ‘Oh my God’,” Beckham admitted. “I knew there was a lot of pressure on, what had happened previously, what was at stake. “Diego was trying to distract me. He was literally trying to shake my hand. I expected those antics, it’s part of gamesmanship, but I refused to make eye contact.
“I never get nervous taking penalties, but I was with this one. There was two or three minutes between the referee giving it and taking it, and it was pretty intimidating at the end in front of the Argentinian fans. I couldn’t get my breath. At one point, I had nearly stopped breathing.” An entire sport waited with bated breath as Beckham took his run-up, the eyes esteemed for infatuating million now bloodthirsty with intent. Uncharacteristically, a man who boasted immeasurable accuracy, elected to power it down the middle. Goalkeeper Pablo Cavallero didn’t move as it flew past him. England held on for a 1-0 victory that helped them into the Round of 16 and send the tournament favourites home at the first hurdle. Beckham had buried the Argentinian ghosts of ’98. “In the end I just drilled it," he said. "A lot has gone on in my life but after four years I can finally lay it to rest.”
“I’ve never come across such a mentally strong player,” raved Eriksson. “To step up and take the penalty, at 0-0 against Argentina in a World Cup after everything that has happened, takes tremendous courage. I’m so proud of him.” “Full credit to Becks," added right-back Danny Mills. "He took an amazing penalty under enormous pressure. It takes a lot of heart to do that, a lot of bottle.”
Another revenge thriller had been released to critical acclaim. This time Frank Ocean had been played not by a heartthrob from Lexington, Kentucky but by one from Leytonstone, London. This time the ending didn’t involve avengers serenely marvelling at the Fountains of Bellagio, but with a hysterical Englishman – fists thrashing his shirt about – howling into a TV camera at the Sapporo Dome. It was four years of pent-up emotion flooding out. Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold.
Sources: FIFA Official
