Filip Bondy

David Beckham played the full 90 minutes at Giants Stadium on Saturday night. He set up two goals, launched eight corners, applauded the 66,237 fans, gave his jersey away to a girl in the crowd, signed some autographs, and might have navigated the team bus back to New York City if somebody hadn’t told him to sit down, ice his ankle and stop performing.

This is Beckham’s life now, and you have to wonder how long he will last. Beckham is already down to half a tank, and now he’s headed to England for a friendly on Wednesday against Germany. That’s not all. He has told his coach he will fly eight time zones back to the West Coast to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy on Thursday, for an MLS match against Chivas.

It’s all quite nutty, but there you have it. Beckham is a driven man at age 32, trying to prove he is capable of igniting soccer interest on one continent while starring for his national team on another. It is hard to tell whether he is motivated by guilt, after missing five Galaxy matches because of injury; or whether he is trying to impress Steve McClaren, the coach of England, who continues to scout the former captain.

Maybe it is both those things, and more. All you had to do was watch him against the Red Bulls, during a wild and wooly 5-4 defeat for the Galaxy, to understand how seriously he is taking this up-to-$250-million pilgrimage to America. He intended only to play for a half. But then his teammate and defender Ante Jazic was injured in the 17th minute, and Beckham took it upon himself to fill the breach.

Galaxy coach Frank Yallop kept asking Beckham, “Are you tired?” Beckham kept replying, “I’m fine,” even as his sprained left ankle swelled inside its tape.

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“I was surprised to play 90 minutes,” Beckham said. “But I’m quite a stubborn person on and off the field. When we were winning, I didn’t want to come off. When we were losing, I didn’t want to come off.”

So he stayed on and on, though the game was being played on the harsh artificial football turf. And when the match was done, Beckham admitted, “My ankle is more swollen than it was before the game.”

But he played on, and his first full match in America became one of the greatest marketing opportunities in MLS history. It was a nutty match with nine goals, just what those ignoramus U.S. audiences have been demanding for decades. Beckham joked he hadn’t played a match of this sort, “since I was nine or 10 years old.” Yallop would say later, “If the fans didn’t enjoy that, they know nothing about soccer and don’t know what they’re looking at.”

Beckham himself was playing at less than full strength, but his genius on set plays was very much on display. He set up his teammate Carlos Pavon for two first-half goals, placing the ball on Pavon’s head as if Beckham were hanging a towel on a rack. This was great stuff, even though he limped a bit and didn’t appear too strong whenever he chased the run of play.

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