NY Red Bulls 1 LA Galaxy 3

The TV coverage started with a frank interview with Beckham, followed by some whining by the writer of the 'Beckham Experiment' book which left me thinking... if you could write books half as well as Beckham plays soccer you would probably actually write something worthwhile. I hate to see someone of average talent criticising someone with unquestionably huge talent, I can live with Donovans criticism far more than some nerd with a chip on his shoulder.
Whatever the critics might say about whether he should play or not, Beckham starts in the middle of midfield giving an embrace to Donovan before the kick off. In less than 3 minutes Eskandarian's left foot gave the visiting LA team the lead. New York responded with Juan Pablo Angel coming close on a couple of occasions. Tellingly, when Donovan had a chance to put someone in a goal-scoring position early on, he selected to cut back a long way to Beckham who's shot was blocked.
On 30 minutes Donovan scored with his right foot, after a period of prolonged pressure from The Galaxy, Beckham resuming his role as spot-kick and corner-taker. Donovan Rickets in the LA goal kept the Red Bulls out and just before the half-time whistle, Landon Donovan fed the ball cross-field right to left for Eddie Lewis to volley home with his left foot. LA Galaxy head into half-time with an unprecedented 3-0 lead for this season - whether this is the Beckham touch or not... something was going the right way.
LA started the second half brightly, the game remaining open and flowing, LA showing no inclination to close up and slow the game down. On 68 minutes Buddle had a stinging shot parried away and Beckham was replaced By Chris Birchall (previously playing at Brighton and Hove Albion). Birchall had an immediate impact placing the ball cleverly to Donovan who knocked the ball across for Eskandarian who could do no more than place it into the keepers hands. Mike McGee replaced Eskandarian as LA looked sure to walk away with the three points. The final twenty minutes were played out without any real threat emerging from the New York team. However on 85 minutes, they had the ball in the net but ended up with a penalty for hand-ball, Angel made no mistake from the spot-kick, leaving the score at 3-1. Bizarrely four minutes later a second hand-ball penalty was awarded, but this time Rickets saved from the spot-kick.
Beckham had demonstrated how smoothly he can make the transition into this new team, Donovan showed how invaluable he is to the Galaxy team as did Rickets in Goal. The Galaxy also demonstrated their capacity to lose concentration and were lucky not to give away two goals in te last five minutes. Observers are left wondering why it has taken The Galaxy so long to gel successfully as a team.