標題: Beckham-led MLS All-Star down Hammers [打印本頁] 作者: cchl8 時間: 2008-7-26 06:24 PM 標題: Beckham-led MLS All-Star down Hammers
TORONTO: David Beckham was a winner in his first Major League Soccer All-Star Game here on Thursday as the English midfielder helped the MLS All-Stars defeat England’s West Ham United 3-2.
Dwayne De Rosario netted a penalty in the 69th minute for the winner as the MLS select line-up improved to 5-0 against international foes since the format began in 2003.
Christian Gomez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored first-half goals for the MLS squad while Dean Ashton netted both goals for West Ham United before a sell-out crowd of 20,844.
Beckham, who contributed an assist with a stellar set-up pass, said the MLS line-up was motivated despite the match being only a mid-season exhibition and players more accustomed to going against one another rather than teamwork.
“Every player out there was committed to winning the game. We said we were going to take it seriously and we wanted to win the game, and we did that,” Beckham said.
“We also wanted to put in a good team performance because we are a bunch of players that play against each other every week and haven’t played with each other. But we proved that we can come together. We played as a team, worked as a team and we won as a team so overall, it was a very good performance.”
Beckham boosted the league’s global profile when he jumped to the Los Angeles Galaxy last year after playing out his Real Madrid contract, a landmark US$250mil deal that has only a US$5.5mil salary base for playing matches this season with sales and incentives a major part of the deal.
MLS teams have defeated Mexico’s Chivas of Guadalajara, England’s Fulham and Chelsea and Celtic of Scotland in prior all-star match-ups.
