At the final whistle he angrily confronted a group of fans by the side of the pitch. Having missed the first half of the season on loan at Milan, been criticised by team-mate Landon Donovan for his lack of commitment on and off the pitch and beset by injury and underperformance, it looked like his flirtation with soccer evangelism had failed.
Yet, as so often, David Beckham found redemption.
He was cast out by this nation after his red card in the 1998 World Cup defeat by Argentina yet became the one of the most popular England captains.
In his final season at Real Madrid he was dumped out of the squad by Fabio Capello after agreeing his move to LA only to win over the cold-blooded Italian with sheer bloody hard work and win that elusive Spanish league title.
Now he is seeking another elegant exit, one that befits Beverly Hills. Tonight he plays in the final of the MLS Cup as the Galaxy take on Houston Dynamo at the Home Depot Center.
The Galaxy, with Robbie Keane and Donovan in the side, are strong favourites and victory would give Beckham the title that has eluded him — they have finished top of their conference for the last two seasons but lost in the final of the play-offs and in the semi-finals in the past two seasons.
This year the Galaxy recorded the second-highest points total in the 16-year history of MLS. It is all set up.
To lift the trophy as his final act with this team would appear to vindicate his decision to cross the Atlantic. But does it vindicate the decision of the Americans to bring him over in the first place?
Don Garber, the commissioner of MLS, believes it does, but within realistic parameters.
“There still remains scepticism about soccer in our country,” he said. “So that doesn’t surprise me that there would be scepticism about things related to American soccer outside the United States. We can’t get too distracted by that.
“We measure David’s success very quantitatively. Galaxy games on the road have our highest average attendance. With a few exceptions [individual games], the LA Galaxy are our highest rated team on television. LA Galaxy uniform sales are among our highest. Without doubt, there’s more attention for David off the sports pages than any other MLS player.”
Beckham’s move certainly helped improve the image of American soccer in Europe and several players, including Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg, Torsten Frings and Rafael Marquez followed him to the US.
Since his arrival 35 more designated players (whose salaries are partly excluded from the salary cap) have moved to MLS and it is becoming an increasingly appealing destination to players near the end of their career. Furthermore five teams have joined the league since 2007 (Montreal will make it a sixth next year) and 10 stadiums either built or fully renovated.
While attendances are growing — up to an average of nearly 18,000 — there remains the old problem of getting the viewing figures to make a TV deal lucrative enough to fund more high profile signings. The arrival of Beckham gave the league commercial momentum and they must find new ways of sustaining that.
For Beckham this is not the final end. He has interest from a host of clubs around the world, with Paris St Germain perhaps the most appealing. Then of course there is another opportunity for an elegant exit, at the London Olympics next year. Surely it cannot all follow the script.
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