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Beckham’s corner kicks douse Fire

DavidBeckham (ISIPhotos.com) 

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By JONATHAN VERA

CARSON, Calif – After battling a back injury for weeks, David Beckham woke up earlier this week feeling pain free and ready to play.

The Chicago Fire found out the hard way just how ready Beckham was.

The Los Angeles Galaxy star set up a Landon Donovan goal before scoring a goal of his own on, of all things, a corner kick to help lead the Galaxy to a 2-1 win over the Fire on Saturday night at the Home Depot Center.

Donovan opened the scoring in 59th minute when he headed home a Beckham corner kick. Cristian Nazarit netted an equalizer for Chicago just six minutes later, but Beckham settled matters just two minutes later when he whipped in a corner kick that fooled Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson and bounced through his legs for the game-winning goal.

“It feels good to win,” said Beckham, who played 90 minutes for the first time in almost a month. “We haven’t played very well lately, tonight wasn’t perfect but we were a lot better.

"Our energy was better, our commitment was better, we passed the ball better. We made the plays we needed to win, so it feels good.”

As for the game-winning goal?

“I saw the goal keeper going out of the goal and saw a little bit of a gap,” Beckham said. “So I knew if I put in an area it was either going to get a touch off somebody or go straight in.”

The last time Beckham scored a goal like that was back in 1995 when he was on loan at Preston.

“I think [Beckham] was a tremendous presence tonight,” confessed Bruce Arena. “The second goal, did that touch anyone? I don’t know how it went in; but that’s why we pay him the big money for.”  

The Fire saw their eight-match unbeaten streak snapped, a fact made more frustrating for the Fire because Chicago created more goal-scoring opportunities than the Galaxy did, but surrendered too many free kicks

“We didn’t deserve to lose this game,” said Fire coach Frank Klopas. “We totally out-played them, we out-shot them but we hurt ourselves with the set pieces; we gave away too many fouls throughout the game.

“When you give opportunities from set pieces to a player that’s the best in the world, we put ourselves at risk.”

Comments

  1. Especially considering he is still undergoing therapy for his back! I don’t care what anyone says, he loves the game, he wants to play, and when he gets to play he plays with heart. He fights for every ball. Some claim he is getting too old to be viable… I see experience playing a bigger role on the field than the strength, speed and conditioning of twenty other younger guys out there. Very valuable player.

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  2. Staying positive is crucial to getting your team up and ready for the next game. If you don’t feel like the best team – even when you’re not – then you never will be.

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  3. He will probably still get suspended. Then the red card to the Fire bench player was just an insult after that play. Once again Refs ruin an otherwise well contested match.

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  4. When LA plays with urgency the team is unstoppable. The problem is the same one the USMNT has. LA has the speed and skill to take the shield and cup this year. If they play to their potential there is no team in the league that can compete.

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  5. I watched the game besides the nice service, I actually saw Beckham winning tackles & sprinting back on defense – for 90 minutes. Impressive.

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  6. +1

    The only reason he did not was because he did not seriously hurt Nyarko. That was bad. In any other league, it would be a red card and a 2-3 game suspension for reckless tackling. If you do this in the MLS, maybe, just maybe, this sort of crap will be dialed down and the league can be respectable.

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  7. You have to give credit where credit is due, both balls delivered by Beckham were class. The first one that Landon headed in was unbelievable.. the second was really good but had a bit of luck to it, the Fire should have stopped it before going in. Not a fan of LA but they were the better team and deserved to win.

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  8. As a Galaxy fan, Birchall should have got a red card for that tackle. Now Oduro on the other hand was diving after anyone got near him, I understand the concept of trying to draw a foul but I thought he was on a swim team by the end of the game.

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  9. Are you serious? If by Good, you mean inconsistent and lenient…then yes…he was “good”.

    I saw players on each team taking each other out on breakaways a half dozen times with no call. The play he gave a yellow on, was no different than 2-3 other plays he gave nothing on. That yellow would be a red in any other league in the world, including the EPL.

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