By Adam Roy
Written for Ontheminute.com
Those fans who were expecting to be dazzled may have been disappointed by Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over the LA Galaxy. The game itself was relatively standard fare. From the kickoff, the two sides scrapped over the ball, with Chelsea quickly gaining the upper hand but failing to produce many memorable plays. Chelsea’s John Terry scored the game’s only goal in the 49th minute with a powerful shot that ricocheted off the right post before rebounding past LA’s number one, Joe Cannon. All in all, a game more likely to induce snores than gasps.
However, most fans weren’t watching the game for the play so much as for the players: Saturday’s much-hyped match was megastar David Beckham’s MLS debut.
The English free-kick artist jogged onto the field in the 78th minute, still grimacing in pain as he put weight on his injured right ankle. However, Beckham went on to give a solid, if uneventful, performance, continuing to shrug off the pain after a clumsy tackle from Chelsea’s Steve Sidwell clipped his right foot.
Beckham capped off his efforts when he curled in a solid corner kick at the end of stoppage time, prompting wild cheers from the crowd but failing to find any of his teammates.
LA play their next game, a Superliga match against Mexico’s Pachuca, on Tuesday.
