With the lights seemingly turned out on David Beckham's first season in Major League Soccer, the English midfielder will have plenty of time to reflect on what went wrong in what should have been the Summer of Beckham.

Though there were surely some moments worth celebrating, his short tenure in the City of Angels has been marked with disappointment - both for the player and his adoring fan base who had hoped to catch a glimpse of soccer royalty.

After playing though a troublesome ankle injury for his first weeks as a member of the Los Angeles Galaxy, a sprained MCL suffered in the SuperLiga final on Wednesday night ensured that Beckham will be watching from the sidelines for a minimum of six weeks and quite likely the rest of the season. But could this situation have been prevented?

Since Beckham has shown not to be the type of player who would point his finger at others during a career setback, I will attempt to assign fault to the villainous characters who are at-fault on his behalf.

Steve McClaren
Flashback to August 2006: England had been knocked out of the World Cup by Portugal and David Beckham decided to relinquish his captaincy. New boss Steve McClaren made his intentions clear early on that Beckham would not figure into future plans for the Three Lions, leaving #7 off the roster for his very first game as skipper.

During Euro 2008 qualifying, some unexpected bad results (and maybe fear of losing his job) swayed McClaren to find a place in the lineup for the hungry-as-ever Beckham to represent his country once more.

Assisting on two of England's goals in a 3-0 victory over Estonia in June, it was clear that Beckham would play a significant role for the squad in future qualifiers.

After visiting the United States earlier this month to take in David's performance in an MLS game, McClaren named Beckham to the roster for an August 23rd friendly against Germany, knowing all along that the date fell on the eve of a Galaxy game against city rivals Chivas USA.

Feeling pressure from both his club and country to suit up, Beckham opted to play three games in five days, including two on back-to-back nights in cities 5,500 miles apart.

Playing well in the England leg of his journey, he returned to southern California and looked completely spent by the end of the Galaxy match, even turning down corner kicks in the waning moments as he grimaced in agony.

Calling Beckham up for qualifying matches is certainly understandable, but why was it necessary to include a somewhat-hobbled Spice Boy in the roster for a meaningless friendly? McClaren should have respected Beckham's commitment to his new club and omitted him from the roster altogether until he was really needed for September's pair of qualifying matches.

Real Madrid
Returning in February from exile to the starting line-up under Fabio Capello (who was also under duress to get results), Beckham immediately showed his value by scoring on a free kick to help Madrid to a win. The club gathered momentum over the rest of the season, losing just one league game en route to winning the 2006/07 championship.

Just before the final Madrid game in June, Beckham picked up his now-infamous ankle injury in England's 3-0 win over Estonia. Instead of resting the injury, club trainers shot painkillers into the ankle in hopes of getting one last performance out of it. After starting the match, Beckham came off just after an hour in tremendous pain.

The effects of running on his bum ankle for an extended period of time, coupled with the scar tissue created from the shots, pushed back Beckham's recovery and caused him to miss several MLS games at the beginning of his stint with the Galaxy.

Beckham was clearly hurt and not able to play much of a factor in Madrid's final game, so why not start someone fit in his place?

Playing Beckham showed a lack of compassion for the player's health and a willingness to stick it to the Galaxy if Beckham arrived as damaged goods. Had he sat out that final game, chances are that he would have arrived ready to go with the Galaxy in July, instead of being week-to-week.

MLS
When league executives unveiled the 2007 schedule in February, they decided to give Los Angeles 12 games over the first four months and push back many games (primarily away tilts) until after the Beckham arrival, hoping to cash in on the hype in as many markets as possible.

Eighteen games over the last three months of the season, coupled with potential runs in the US Open Cup and SuperLiga competitions ensured that Beckham would not get a chance to rest, with games coming at the Galaxy in bunches of two or even three games a week for the remainder of the year.

Unfortunately for the league, Beckham will now miss road trips to five MLS markets (Kansas City, Columbus, Salt Lake, Houston and Chicago), which will undoubtedly spark another wave of "Bench It Like Beckham" coverage and questions over refunds for tickets to these games.

Though everyone involved has stressed that Beckham will be here for five years, the league opted to cash in as soon as possible on their new superstar, and instead will be paying the price with a rash of negative publicity from the worldwide media.

Galaxy Management
As if the grueling schedule handed to them weren't enough, Galaxy executives have been lining up friendlies for the club to play, some falling in the run of the season. For example, if Beckham had remained healthy, he would have been put through the following schedule:

9/23  vs. Dallas
9/27 - @ Kansas City
9/30 - @ Columbus
10/03 - @ Vancouver Whitecaps (friendly)
10/07 - @ Houston
10/10 - @ Minnesota Thunder (friendly)

That's 7,401 miles traveled over the course of two-and-a-half weeks and six games, two of which aren't even league matches.

Factor in that Beckham would have traveled to Europe for Euro 2008 qualifiers on dates just before and just after the above segment of the schedule, and he'd have earned enough frequent flyer miles to go to the moon and back. Add to that a planned November tour of Australia and whispers of a similar tour of England, and there might as well not be an offseason for the club this winter.

Galaxy officials should never have agreed to such a strenuous league schedule. When they did so, they were basically throwing in the towel on the whole season and letting down one of the strongest fan bases in the league, as well as all the other players on the roster.

David Beckham
Finally, nobody knows the player's body more than the player himself. Presented with several situations where Beckham knew he shouldn't be on the pitch, he suited up without blinking an eye, and now he will be missed by teammates on both sides of the Atlantic.

Though his latest layoff will force Beckham to finally get the rest needed to fully heal his ankle, he may feel the pressure to speed through his rehabilitation and return to the field before fully recovered.

For his sake, somebody needs to step up now and tell David to take the rest of the year off with an eye on returning healthy next April. At 32, his career may depend on it.