MLS: David Beckham scores free-kick on start, Galaxy in Superliga final

He missed seven of nine games for his new club but David Beckham, soccer’s most converted brand, finally made his start for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, August 15 – and stamped it with a trademark free kick.
To the whoops of "goooal" from 17,000 fans around the Home Depot Center on 27 minutes a shooting star left the number 23’s right boot, swept over the opposition wall into the top right of the D.C United keeper ‘s net. Troy Perkins was left gazing at the passing Perseid meteor shower.
Beckham said of his goal which took his team into the $1 million final: "I don’t want to sound like I’m too confident, but I felt I was going to score." Scoring a free-kick from nearly thirty yards is difficult at the best of times, without a dodgy left foot and no practise for eight weeks.
Landon Donovan, who the previous day gave Beckham the Galaxy team captaincy, was not to be written out of the future movie script – he scored the second goal on 47 minutes from a Fed-Ex delivery through the D.C United defensive line from the $6.5m a year man-of-the-match.
To further prove the game had the fragrence of pure, distilled Beckham on 18 minutes the newcomer was punished by Alex Prus with his first yellow card – a two-footed tackle on Jamie Moreno.
On 63 minutes it was over: Beckham was substituted and, with cameras trained on him, his swollen left ankle wrapped in ice. So too was the game: the Galaxy won 2-0 and progressed to the first  Superliga Cup final against Mexican side Pachua.
David Beckham’s $250m deal with the MLS made even Tiger Woods admit the 32 year old Essex born was the world’s most famous athlete. "As far as global figures go, he’s probably far more global than I am."
Since Beckham’s MLS entry on July 13 merchandise sales have trebled, while ticket sales and televised soccer ratings improved.
Yet the Los Angeles Galaxy coach Frank Yallop surely cares less about the economic impact of Beckham on US soccer and more about results: his team have won just three league games and his position is under pressure.
A win in the first Superliga on August 29 would help show the Galaxy fans Beckham means more than business.

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