Angel, Altidore Shine in Beckham's Spotlight

Major League Soccer could not have asked for a better show than this.

It was a perfect storm -- New York vs. Los Angeles, and David Beckham, the biggest name in soccer, playing in the biggest media market in the world. Giants Stadium hasn't been this packed for a soccer game since Pelé's swan song with the New York Cosmos in 1977. The New York Red Bulls usually play in front of more than 66,237 empty seats at home.

Maybe not after this. Those 66,237 people got themselves one hell of a show. Within eight minutes they saw Juan Pablo Angel sneak a free kick under an L.A. Galaxy wall for a goal, and they saw two David Beckham set pieces lead to two Carlos Pavon goals. By the time it was done, the New York Red Bulls finally got the better of Beckham's Galaxy, winning by a final count of 5-4.

No doubt, most of this crowd were there for Beckham. You could hear the fans buzzing and the girls screaming whenever Beckham set up for a corner kick or free kick. I suspect most of those people had no clue who Angel and Jozy Altidore were.

They do now.


All the casual fans who tuned in or bought tickets just because of the Beckham hype got to see two incredible talents at the top of their game. Angel not only got the first score but also scored the game winner in the 88th minute after chasing down an errant ball in the box.

Then there was Altidore, the 17-year-old phenom who may be the last big-name American from the U-20 World Cup team who hasn't made the move to Europe yet. Some clubs in need of a striker (*cough* Man U *cough*) had to take notice after he scored twice in the second half, displaying world-class ball control skills that bely his age.

Of course, the Galaxy weren't about to lie down and take a 4-2 beating. Less than a minute after Altidore's second goal in the 70th minute, Landon Donovan took the kickoff, ran it all the way down the pitch and blasted the ball into the corner of the goal. Los Angeles took the lead of their new captain and played at a much higher level than did before he arrived. You can actually see this team learning from Beckham and putting the ball in places where only their teammates could reach it.

Unfortunately, improved passing skills could not make up for a shocking back line, which looked lost without Abel Xavier, who sat out the game with a knee injury. L.A.'s defense gave New York too many opportunities, and Angel and Altidore took full advantage of that. New York's defense, meanwhile, proved much more stout. By the second half, nearly all of Beckham's free kicks slammed into the Red Bull wall. Clearly, Becks had lost a little bit after playing a full match on FieldTurf, though he still managed to put a corner kick in the right spot in the 82nd minute, leading to an Edson Buddle equalizer.

It was Angel, however, who sealed the deal and gave the New York fans a home victory. Perhaps some of those fans will remember that. Perhaps a few thousand who came just to see Beckham will talk less about his set pieces and more about Angel's winner, Altidore's goals, or the sideline battles between Dane Richards and Mike Randolph. Those were exactly the things that MLS wanted fans to see, these talented players that toiled in relative obscurity, and you can bet a lot more sports fans saw them -- all because of David Beckham. Tonight, the experiment was a success.

Then again, maybe it was just 11,237 soccer fans, 10,000 Manchester United and Real Madrid supporters and 45,000 women waiting two hours to see Becks take his shirt off.


And let's not forget that the Galaxy is now looking quite doomed in its quest for an MLS playoff spot. Unless that backline improves overnight, this team's only real hope for hardware this season is in Superliga, and what does that mean, exactly?