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?
 

Having surrendered their usual lock-grip on the Bundesliga title last season, Bayern have made a number of summer signings to bring back the smiles to half of Germany including Franz Beckenbauer.

With an uncharacteristic 4th place finish last term, however, the high profile, new faces will have to be content with UEFA Cup action this time around while they fight through the Bundesliga, looking to ensure Champions League Football for next season.

Gone are the South American forward line of Pizarro (to Chelsea) and Santa Cruz (back to Paraguay or something), replaced by German International Miroslav Klose and Italian International strike force Luca Toni.

Owen Hargreaves has also left, thank God. French International Frank Ribery and the re-called Brazilian, Ze Roberto, will far out-way the loss of the Canadian, er-I mean English midfielder.

The new boys have already gotten a run out with their new team and looked absolutely lethal as they won the German Pre-season tournament. Of course the league will be a tougher story, but with how much Bayern have spent, anything less then title holders will be frowned on by the Bayern hierarchy.

Their opening run out against promoted side Hansa Rostock on Saturday couldn’t be any easier either while defending champions Stuttgart have a punishing, pulsating 1st match against league runner-ups Schalke in the Bundesliga opener on Friday.

Man. United defeated Chelsea in penalties on Sunday in the Community Shield thanks largely to Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

The win gave Man. United their 1st FA Community Shield victory since beating Arsenal in 2003. Of course the win is solely for bragging rights as the real deal (the EPL League Season) kicks-off this coming weekend.

Ryan Giggs opened the scoring in the 1st half, sweeping home a cross by Patrice Evra with his left foot after a nice build up on the left, but new signing Florent Malouda tied things up with an incredible individual goal at the death of the half. The French winger ran on to a through ball, battled off Rio Ferdinand, and struck the ball with the outside of his left boot to the far post past van der Sar.

The match then moved straight into penalties as both teams failed to create a winner in the 2nd half.

Claudio Pizarro (another new signing for Chelsea), Frank Lampard, and Wright-Phillips scratched from the Penalty Kick line. The Man U. number 1 and Ex-Juventus keeper Van der Sar blocked all 3 spot-kicks while Ferdinand, Carrick, and Rooney found their way past Petr Cech into the trophy-case.

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Le Championnat is the 1st major European League to kick off this weekend with 6-time champions Lyon, kicking off their quest for a 7th consecutive French League title against Auxerre on Sunday.

To say that Olympique Lyon has had the lion-share of French titles would be an understatement, but this term may be the best chance for a slip with so many changes occurring at the club.

Gone are midfielders Florent Malouda (to Chelsea) and Alou Diarra (to Bordeaux), and number 1 keeper, Gregory Coupet is said to be out for months after a pre-season injury.

But constant marksman, Sylvain Wiltord and Sidney Govou will still lead the crew, and the addition of Italian World Cup Champion, Fabio Grosso for defensive cover looks interesting.

After winning two titles in succession, ex-Liverpool manager, Gerard Houllier has also left the club and has been replaced by Alain Perrin, who last year managed FC Sochaux to a French Cup final victory over his new club.

It seems, however, that no matter who is at the helm, this club keeps winning. Perrin, with 1 trophy already under his belt (OL’s Asian pre-season Peace Cup trophy in South Korea), has also steered Lyon past his old club for a 2nd in the pre-league Champions’ Trophy fixture which sees the French League Champions from last season meet up with the French Cup Champions.

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.

Thank your blessed beans savages, as Freddy has finally done it. The 18 year old American International has capped off his fine u-20s World Cup performance by signing a professional contract with Portuguese club Benfica.

There is no better time or environment for Adu to continue his football development, and if all goes well, we could see Adu in the likes of a team like Real Madrid by the time he is 21.

Well, that should be his goal anyway, or otherwise, why follow such high aspirations of Champions League football to Portugal?

MLS certainly wasn’t helping any by pushing Freddy off to Real Salt Lake, and when one thinks about their current predicament in the Western Conference league standings, it is a testament to Freddy that he was so ready to shine for the US in Canada.

Well, that is all history now, and Freddy (and all savages) will have his American-tinted eyes on all the famed prizes of his mind.

Don’t worry MLS, one day Freddy will come back to a team like Real Salt Lake, after many years of success, and let them share the titles of his heydays.

Iraq won its 1^st ever Asian Cup title on Sunday as they defeated 3 time winners Saudi Arabia 1-0.

It was fitting that the lone goal came from captain and top striker, Younis Mahmoud, whose towering header at the back post (from an Iraqi corner) in the 71st min. was enough for the war-torn nation to lift the trophy.

The Iraqis showed the greater courage on the day as the Saudis looked a bit fatigued and lacked any real creativity to unlock a stingy Iraqi defense that only gave up 2 goals throughout the tournament.

Perhaps the only real downside to the beleaguered nation’s triumph was the fatalities that occurred after both their semifinal and final wins. As if the death toll in the Middle Eastern region wasn’t enough, excess celebratory gunfire and bombings also ended in loss of lives.

The country will now turn its attention to World Cup Qualifiers, but it seems Iraq will have to do without Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira, who has decided to call it quits having taken Iraq to an indescribable victory.

 

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Now that the Superliga and International club friendlies are getting underway in the MLS mid-season, one could say that the media coverage of the Beckham sightings was not just overkill, but maybe even narrow-minded.

MLS executives should have put their media use to better use with some coverage and promotion of unveiling the Superliga program and other friendly matches that MLS has worked together in conjunction with La Liga de Mexicana and other top professional clubs during this league intermission.

With 8 teams involved in the mid-season Superliga tournament, the lack of coverage really cuts at the national fan base and attention by keeping potential fans at a loss as to what is actually happening from a league stand-point.

It is not everyday that Americans get the chance to witness teams like America, Chivas, Pachuca, and Boca Juniors bring their game to our stadiums. Much more should have been done to market these exciting fixtures, to foster a national attention that games like these deserve.

And no knock intended for the Spanish-language stations doing justice by covering these events, but an American fan should not have to rely on Univision to get a sight of the games. In fact we should be looking at their broadcasting methods and learning how to package games for air-time.

It is the experience and exposure of games like these, not the star-status of name dropping, that will both develop and promote the sport by bringing up the level and awareness of every player and fan in America.