Football: Beckham special seals win over Wales

A wonder strike from skipper David Beckham helped England claim a comfortable 2-0 victory over Wales in their World Cup Group Six qualifier at Old Trafford.

Beckham curled the ball over Welsh keeper Paul Jones from 25 yards out with 14 minutes remaining to make the points safe.

It was no more than England deserved after they dominated the game from the moment Frank Lampard's shot was deflected in off Michael Owen to put them 1-0 ahead inside four minutes.

England created chance after chance - with Wayne Rooney in particular outstanding - but they found Jones in outstanding form in the Wales goal.

A little of the gloss was taken off Beckham's goal when he picked up a needless late booking which rules him out of Wednesday's clash with Azerbaijan.


Afterwards Owen claimed England's first goal and admitted: "After you've gone a while without a goal you often get one that comes off your backside!"

He added: "Frank is standing by me so I don't want an argument but initially I thought it just hit me and went more or less in the same path. Having seen it again it has taken quite a big deflection.

"I'm very happy. The first 15-20 minutes we started like a house on fire. The diamond means we are trying to get Wayne [Rooney] on the ball as much as possible.

"The system is meant to accommodate Wayne and bring out the best in him. In the second half we stopped getting him on the ball but I think 2-0 was a bare minimum result."

Sportinglife

i see where beckham broke a rib just after scoring his goal, how much will this hurt the english team>

England captain Beckham breaks a rib


October 9, 2004
MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- David Beckham broke his rib moments after scoring England's second goal in Saturday's 2-0 win over Wales in a World Cup qualifying game.

The Real Madrid star was taken to a hospital for X-rays after the game and it was initially believed that nothing was broken. However, England team officials said, a second X-ray revealed the break.

There was no immediate word on how long Beckham would be out.

Minutes after bending a 25-yard shot into the top corner of the net to give England a 2-0 lead, Beckham was tackled by Wales' defender Ben Thatcher and slumped to the ground holding his ribs. He stayed in the game, and was later given a yellow card after crashing into Thatcher.

The caution was his second of the qualifying, meaning he would have had to sit out England's game against Azerbaijan on Wednesday even if he wasn't injured

It was quite lucky in a way as Beckham picked up a yellow card so he would have missed the next game anyway.

Even though I don't rate him that highly, that goal was a brilliant piece of vision.

Yeah i was a bit gobsmacked.

What do ya think about him getting a Yellow and a ban on purpose? As thats what the papers are saying he said?

He's talking utter rubbish to make himself look better and it has backfired superbly!