Sounders fans got to see less than 17 minutes of David Beckham this season.

And when the next Major League Soccer schedule is released, Puget Sound soccer fans eager for an in-person look at the world’s most famous player should hope that the Galaxy’s visit comes late.

Beckham has said he will play the fourth and fifth seasons of his five-year MLS contract. But Grant Wahl, author of “The Beckham Experiment,” expects him to return once again as a part-time player in 2010.

“Beckham wants to be in the league next year, but he wants to be in the league on his terms,” Wahl said. “He wants to come back after the World Cup and rejoin the Galaxy more than halfway into the season, so he would be a part-time player again, just as he is this season. So, we’ll see how that works out. They would have to redo his contract for that to happen. But it sounds like the Galaxy would probably agree to that, and then Beckham could come back in the last part of 2010 and supposedly be around for all of 2011.”

This season, Beckham missed the Galaxy game in Seattle because he was still on extended loan to AC Milan. And then Saturday brought a 16-plus-minute appearance in the Sounders 2-0 road win. Then he was tossed through a straight red card for his spikes-up tackle on Peter Vagenas.

That leaves Sounders fans looking to next year ... or perhaps a Seattle-LA crossing on the playoff road.

Received these quotes from the two Galaxy stars, provided by the club:

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM
On his red card:
“Pete (Vagenas) is one of my best friends. I think it was a hard tackle but by no means is it a red card. I’ve never gone into a tackle wanting to hurt someone, but the referee saw it different. It was a hard tackle, but not malicious.”

On the game:“I think the guys battled. It’s always hard when you go down to 10 men and lose a man. It was a tough night for us. We went into the game in such a good position and in such good form, but you can’t win every game.”

LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On his availability for the game:“I actually felt really good. In hindsight, I wish I could’ve started the game because I had a lot of energy, but it’s frustrating that I couldn’t play more. He [Bruce Arena] asked me how I was feeling, and I said I thought I could play 45 minutes. Maybe in hindsight, I would’ve tried to start the game and see how I felt at halftime, but in an ideal world, maybe we are winning and I don’t have to come in until even later, but that is how it went tonight.”

On him getting swine flu:
“Having experience it, it just like any other flu like I ever had, there is obviously a lot of serious cases, but I did a lot of research, and learned a lot about it and the majority of the cases are just like any other flu. The realities and the perceptions are very different, that being said, from what I understand, there is not a lot they know about it. From my experience, it was just a normal flu.”

On David Beckham’s red card:
“In games like that, you rely on the ref to do a good job of keeping things under control, and when the first bad tackle is given a red card then the rest of the game follows. And that is the unfortunate part; it is too bad it has to go that way.”