Beckham suits the Italian game

It is impossible for one football player to dominate a game when there are 10 other professionals on the pitch. Lots of players have great pace and acceleration; lots of players have the lungs to run north, south, east and west for ninety minutes. Those basic physical attributes are a given. Supporters and commentators talk about something called "quality" or "class." Great -- truly great -- players bring quality to the game. To me, that is two or three decisions over the course of the game. Maybe that is a pass, or a cross, or finish -- banging the ball into the back of the net. It is those moments that separate the good from the great. And the supermen, the Eric Cantonas, the Maradonas, the Zidanes, the Gerrards, they do it in the biggest games at the most crucial time. Which brings me to Beckham. Yes, he's not as fast as he once may have been. But that was never his game. What he brings is intelligence, the unexpected pass, the perfectly weighted, curling corner. Not every touch is creative, of course. But the moments are there now that he plays at Milan.

The Galaxy was not right for Beckham's play. The Italian game is clinical: each player on that pitch knows how to hold on to the ball. The ball moves in short passing sequences up the field; sometimes it passes back, the attack builds again from a new angle. In the Italian game, each time holds on to the ball for a long period of time. In contrast, the MLS game is more up and down. The ball bounces around between the teams; there is a more scrum like quality to the play. Essentially, the players are less skilled. They are not unskilled and they are not slow. But they do not play like an Italian team. As such, the quality that Beckham brings -- those two or three passes of quality -- gets lost in the noise.

Beckham is not a better player than he was six months ago. He's playing a different game.