The LA Galaxy lost another one as David Beckham made his MLS debut, albeit for only a cameo appearance, in front of a sold out flood of camera flashes at RFK Stadium.

The Ex-Real and Man. United midfielder was brought in for the last stages of LA’s Thursday night game against DC United, but it was DC’s Brazilian forward Emilio’s goal in the 27th min. that mattered most as the lone goal was enough to claim victory and 2nd spot in the Eastern Conference.

Unfortunately, LA was reduced to 10-men moments before Beckham’s introduction. Martino was shown red for a nasty tackle from behind on United’s Fred, and though they had several chances, DC could not take advantage of the man advantage as LA’s keeper Cannon made several unbelievable stops.

LA actually had several chances of their own, but forward Buddle could not capitalize on a point black opportunity, and DC’s keeper came up trumps by blocking Donovan’s route to goal, at the edge of the penalty area, after a trademark through pass from Beckham.

Becks will have another chance to feature this weekend as LA continues their East Coast tour with a match against Eastern Conference leaders New England on Sunday. Beckham may be reduced again to a substitute’s role, but barring any re-injury to his million dollar ankle, it can’t be long now for the champagne midfielder to start playing the full ninety.

The question for LA still remains: will there be enough time to pull out of the cellar?
 

Before we get into the semifinal match-ups of the inaugural SuperLiga tournament, savages, let’s remind ourselves that our Mexican counterparts are using the tournament as a pre-season of sorts as the Mexican League season is just getting underway this weekend.

Otherwise, our MLS clubs will be looking sweet indeed as there are 3 clubs contending to Mexico’s 1: LA Galaxy, DC United, Houston, and Pachuca.

The Galaxy out-drove FC Dallas 6-5 in a game that reads more like a mediocre baseball score while trifecta champions, Pachuca edged rivals Chivas 0-1 on the road back in Mexico in Group A.

Both Houston and DC progressed through in Group B even though DC fell to Houston in a cross-conference rivalry. America’s 3-2 victory over Morelia in the final game came to not as the men from Azteca lost to both DC and Houston on American soil.

The semis are stacked up for some heavy hitting even though we have to wait about a week and a half for the semis to kick-off. The Galaxy will face fellow MLS contenders DC United while Houston will try to avenge their Champions’ cup defeat at the hands of Pachuca in the other semifinal.

SuperLiga Semifinals Schedule:
Tue., Aug. 14
Los Angeles vs. DC United
Wed., Aug. 15
Houston vs. Pachuca

Talk about blowing off steam though. To be continued doesn’t really work well with sporting events. Hopefully, better planning will helpfully eliminate the lack of continuity in the tournament’s schedule in future renditions of the tournament.

Ready, Set, Action! Thank you Soccer Gods, it’s almost over–the MLS All-Star game is done and dusted (hopefully forever) and the Grant Hill-like suspense of will-he-or-won’t-he-play in regards to tomorrow’s mid-season Galaxy/Chelsea friendly for David Beckham. It will soon be back to the modest grindstone of MLS league season matches on Sunday.

Objective oversight and biased generalizations are always on the tips of the tongues of US Soccer Administrators when it comes down to justifying soccer decisions in the US. Yet, when it comes down to the Nickelodeon-style marketing campaigns like the MLS All-Star Game, I guess one can see their need for words.

With the mere appearance of David Beckham to promote a mid-season friendly, a half-time show that smacked of budget constraints, or inept production, and an average European opponent in the historic, yet limited, Celtic United, MLS must really be grasping at straws when they continually have to remind the public that the league is producing top quality ball.

Don’t they know not to call a mule a donkey by now (or something like that)? Unfortunately, in all the uproar of hype, it seems the marketing geniuses actually forgot to remind the public of the game (a Thursday night?).

The necessity for the league to turn out a baseball- or basketball-style format to the season is an enigma. Who ever heard of an All-Star game that played a team outside the league anyway? And does anybody really believe that Celtic connotes “all-star” status? (No offense to the Celtic faithful!)

With everybody always raving about the progress of MLS soccer, I guess they have forgotten to sit down and actually watch a match. The best thing for everybody to do is to catch every minute of the game this Sunday between New England and Houston (as the leaders of their respective conferences) and ask themselves “is it really worth watching?”