The Hindu : Sport / Football : David Beckham stars in Galaxy draw

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David Beckham stars in Galaxy draw

Beckham scored twice with trademark long-range curving kicks
He had worked on his kicks several times last week

SALT LAKE CITY: David Beckham got his famous bend back on Saturday to give the England international his first two-goal game in Major League Soccer.

Beckham scored twice with trademark long-range curving kicks as the Los Angeles Galaxy came from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Real Salt Lake.

Beckham had worked on his kicks several times last week because he had been off target too often.

“Sometimes it works. Sometimes it don’t. Tonight they did,” he said.

The first was from about 25 yards, as Beckham took a bouncing pass and had enough time to control the ball and curve a shot past the defence and Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando inside the far post.

The second goal didn’t have quite the arc of the first, but thrilled the fans just as much because they could see it coming.

Free kick

Galaxy got a free kick from 29 yards out in the middle of the field, and Beckham bent it inside the left post and past Rimando, who once again couldn’t dive quite far enough to stop it. Rimando later did save Salt Lake a point when he stopped Landon Donovan’s point-blank header.

‘It was obviously my turn to score the goals instead of Landon,” Beckham said.

Fabian Espindola and Kenny Deuchar scored early in the first half for Real Salt Lake.

Beckham scored in the 36th minute and 40th minute, tying the game after Real had taken a 2-0 lead.

He came close to a third goal, but got upended before he could get off a shot toward the open net in the second half, which the Galaxy controlled.

The last time Beckham played in this stadium was August 2006 in an exhibition when he was still with Real Madrid.

Huge turnout

His return on Saturday drew a crowd of 25,500, the third-largest in Real Salt Lake history.

The only bigger crowds were for the Madrid game and to see a doubleheader with the U.S. national team against Costa Rica in 2005.

Beckham did not disappoint the fans. After the post-game handshake, he took off his jersey and handed it to one very ecstatic teenage girl in the front row, then waved to the rest of the fans as he trotted off the field. — AP

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