David Beckham's hopes of an Olympics call-up in his home city of London may be over after he flubbed his audition in front of the watching Team GB soccer coach.
Beckham turned in a poor performance Sunday night in LA Galaxy's 1-0 home defeat to the New York Red Bulls in front of coach Stuart Pearce, who had flown across the world to see if the 37-year-old superstar could still kick it at the highest level.
Despite playing the full 90 minutes, Beckham was at fault for the only goal of the game, picked up a yellow card for a late lunge at New York's Dane Richards and missed an open-goal in injury time that would have grabbed his slumping team a point.
The former England captain, who was widely credited for his role in securing London the Games in 2005, is desperate to be named one of Team GB's three "over-age" players after being short-listed for the team.
But he may have played his way out of contention, and he later admitted there was little to impress the watching coach.
"It certainly wasn't the prettiest of matches for him to come to," the veteran midfielder told reporters after the Galaxy slumped to a fifth loss of the season.
Pearce, who announces his 18-man roster at the end of May, recently made it clear he would not show Beckham special preference on the basis of his achievements as an Olympic ambassador.
"David Beckham will be treated exactly the same as any other individual, whether it is young or over-age," he said. "Form and fitness will dictate what the makeup of the squad will be. David falls into the same category. I have a duty of care to the Great Britain squad to try and win a gold medal. I will pick the strongest possible squad I can."
