LA Galaxy fans take a pooh on Beckham!

This Beckham thing just got a whole lot more interesting.

I mean, Beckham and his Galaxy teammates trading little verbal pokies like 12-year-old school girls … that’s not so  interesting to me.  (I mean, yes, I have to write about it. But that's just biz, ya know? It's tough on the streets for a workin' man.)

Sunday night at the Home Depot Center, His Becksness really waded into the swamp of public discontent. And there’s gators in that swamp!

Things happened during the AC Milan-Galaxy friendly that say a lot about how Golden Balls is really seen among the soccer fans of sunny SoCal.

Fans got downright ornery toward the league’s highest-paid and highest-profile player.

Nasty signs were unfurled. Insults flew. Hand gesture were exchanged.  Clearly, folks aren’t impressed with the way he "better-dealed" the Galaxy, spiriting off to Milan, answering the siren call of the Rossoneri. (Anybody out there who’s ever been dumped, dropped like a bad habit by their girl / guy for someone better looking, with more money or more connections or whatever, they know the feeling.)

At one point, as Beckham invited a certain fan to come down and talk things over man to man, we were just chain-link fence away from a full MMA pay-per-view breaking out. Here’s the video. Enjoy.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out Mark Zeigler’s account in the San Diego Tribune. Mark is something of a muckraker in the soccer journo world, but his stuff is generally pretty spot-on.

Or, check out Grahame Jones' picture painting from the LA Times. Grahame positions things a little more in the middle generally. (And despite being a few years older than me, that dude can sure hold his own in a German bier garten, as I learned a couple of years ago during World Cup 2006. That's the picture just below. Cheers, Grahame! And, yes, you were right. That dark-haired German vixen definitely wanted you.)

But since I'm a man of the people, maybe I'll just let the people speak tonight. This is from Ricardo, a member of the L.A. Riot Squad (a Galaxy supporters group). And my man Ricardo is obviously speaking from the heart. Dig, if you will, the picture he's painting here, and let it all sink in, what this means for the whole Beckham wayward enterprise.

"the la riot squad was obviously booing him (deciding that this was an exihibition and an opportunity to vent the frustrations for what he and/or his 19 Entertainment did to our team ...and his unwillingness to apologize for it) most of us don't care about milan and/or his decision to want to go to the world cup: that is fine and honestly who wouldn't do that? most of us understand that's a good move for him...

but not for our team... and so LEAVE!  that's really my thoughts... if you want to go: go...of course our protests are as much a message to AEG who probably has him "imprisoned" here for monetary reasons. it's clear he's not commited as he claims and he doesn't want to be here... as a real galaxy fan, not the kind of fan who came out to watch milan and won't return for a mid summer game against the wizards, I want players who want to be here."

Well, said. From the heart. Bob freakin' Woodward couldn't have expressed it any better. (He might have gotten the punctuation right, but he wouldn't have said it better.)

Bottom line: when public sentiment reaches critical mass, no amount of PR spinning or strategic synergy or any of that crap from overpaid, self-important handlers can bring it back to where Brand Beckham would like it to be.

This Beckham thing is making a long, hot summer a little more interesting.