“Everybody bar the Greece supporters praying for a goal. Beckham to take. The 93rd minute at Old Trafford. Beckham…YES! YES! What a goal! He’s done it! Fantastic! It’s 2-2 and England may still be going to the World Cup automatically. It’s a fantastic ending to a very, very poor performance.”
The BBC’s John Motson was right, it was a very poor performance by England. But there was one man who covered every blade of the Old Trafford grass that afternoon, one man who you would have wanted to step up to take that free-kick, one man who played that match as if he was wearing a big ‘S’ underneath his England shirt that day.
That man was David Beckham.
It is remarkable to think that it is 10 years to the day since that all-important free-kick which secured England top-spot in their qualifying group and an automatic spot in the 2002 World Cup.
Back in 2001, in the game before the international break, Beckham had scored Manchester United’s fifth goal which capped off a remarkable 5-3 win against Tottenham and then went on to score the opener for his club in the game after his heroics against Greece in a Champions League win, ironically against Greek opponents, Olympiakos.
Fast forward to 2011 and in the lead-up to the anniversary of his free-kick, Beckham’s LA Galaxy side lost 2-0 away to New York Red Bulls and he will be looking to play a key part in their next fixture, a local derby against Chivas USA. Ten years is certainly a long time in football.
Even though he now plies his trade in America and his hopes of representing the national side once more are all but extinguished, Beckham still commands an audience, but in 2001 he was hot stuff. The free-kick secured his victory as the 2001 Sports Personality of the Year and he was voted second place in the FiFA World Player of the Year award.
That year, he was part of a United side that romped home with the Premier League title in record time and captained England to five consecutive wins in World Cup qualifying – including an incredible 5-1 victory away to Germany – before dramatically securing the point that took them to the World Cup.
The team that went out that day was not at full strength. David Seaman was injured as was Michael Owen, and their replacements, Nigel Martyn and Robbie Fowler, hardly covered themselves in glory.
England went out for a win that day, though in truth, they only needed to match Germany’s result against Finland to go through automatically. With the 5-1 loss aside, Germany were a formidable side at home, which meant that England needed all three points against Greece.
Angelos Charisteas stunned the Old Trafford crowd when he scored the opening goal in the 36th minute. Three years later, the young Greek striker would go on to score the winning goal for his country in the Euro 2004 final.
England got back into the game in the 68th minute after Teddy Sheringham headed home just 10 seconds after coming on for Fowler. Demis Nikolaidis put the Greeks back in front after shrugging off Rio Ferdinand and England were destined to finish second in the group and have to travel to Ukraine for the play-off match.
Germany were playing at the same time and were being held 0-0 by Finland, England just needed to equalise to qualify for the World Cup.
Then, deep into injury-time, Sheringham won a free-kick 25 yards from goal. He wanted to take it since Beckham had missed a host of opportunities throughout the game, but the England captain was having none of it.
His arms were swinging a little, waiting for the referee to blow his whistle to signal the free-kick to be taken. There was tension and anticipation as Dick Jol blew the whistle and three seconds later, the back of the net rippled.
Beckham had scored. England had drawn the game. They were heading to the World Cup.
Watch The Historic Free Kick Here