And what a start.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6948945.stm

Not only did Beckham score he set up another goal. Beckham is pure class, simple as.

As for soccer being the least popular sport in the US, that is bull pure and simple.
It is the most played sport in USA and Canada. It is only at college and post college level that it trails massively off the other sports as there currently isn't enough money in it to force it upon the peoples conscienceless.

I think MLS will increase in popularity.
You have only to look at the sell out stadiums for Beckham's games, the attention Beckham is getting from established US sports stars. The Yankee team were clamouring to talk to him. Woods insisted that Beckham is the worlds biggest sports personality not Woods.

Check out the la-*test*-('") match a 9 goal thriller in which Beckham played 90 minutes despite inflaming his ankle???

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6953543.stm

and here from the official MLS site.
http://web.mlsnet.com/t106/

See 4 minutes of highlights from 9 goal thriller here

What an amazing match in front of another lively sold-out crowd.

2 things:

- why the American football graphics all over the pitch, could effort not have been made to erase these prior to soccer match? Field paint not that expensive!

- and is it just me, but do many of the MLS goalkeepers seem very poor?

They were playing in Giant Stadium and it belongs to the Giants, so they're rules I suppose. But the graphics make the match incredibly difficult to follow. Especially as the NFL pitch is much narrower than soccer pitch.

Actually that wasn't too bad, last week's match the painting on the pitch was fresh and thick.

And after watching the highlights I can see what you mean about the GK's, that last goal was shocking.

Re: Beckham. The media of course loves him, of course. Most of us know that he's still a good player, yet far from his best. He's already lost at least one step and will be losing more in the near future, especially playing on field turf instead of grass in some of the stadiums. Those of us sick of hearing about him already are now turning off the TV's and just catching highlights later.

Re: Keepers. Yes, the American goal keepers on the whole aren't as good as most European top sides. The number one factor in that would be the money. MLS players make on average about 15% of the salary that EPL players make based on 2006 salaries. If you look at the last decade of the U.S. national team, you'll also note that of the US GK's, nearly every one of them played in Europe. All our best keepers aren't playing in MLS at this point.

Re: football lines on soccer field. Very few MLS teams have their own stadiums. A few are building them right now (as my KC Wizards are), however most still play in NFL stadiums. Right now the NFL is in pre-season and since they own/operate the stadiums they leave them up and painted. I've watched matches held the day after football games when the field is all chewed up and ridiculous to play on. It's not pretty, yet is a nice underpinning to show how soccer is clearly the backseat sport. The sport where the field conditions matter immensely because the ball rolls on it a lot takes the back seat to the sport where ideally the ball never hits the ground.

Re: soccer being #4 sport in country... it might be #5 actually. NFL is #1. American football rules over here by a landslide. Baseball is still #2 most likely, though recent years have seen attendance slide. Basketball is #3 and caters primarily to a different crowd than baseball. Ice hockey may be #4, though the strike and lock out for all of last year and then a horrid TV contract did their best to destroy the sport entirely. We'll have to see if it can recover at all or if MLS will surpass it next year.

As to why soccer isn't as popular? I can offer three reasons. One: Americans hate ties. With a passion. If your team can go out and play hard all match, and after 90 minutes (plus injury time) no one has scored and then everyone goes home - well, most Americans call that a waste of time. There will have to be dynamic plays and great shots/saves for the casual viewer to watch over here. Last year ice hockey instituted a "no tie" format where if it's still locked up after overtime the game gets decided on penalty shots. Almost everyone loves it and it makes for incredible finishes to games. The losers still get a point for losing in extra time, as they would have under the old tie scoring - so the teams really throw themselves into trying to win as they at least have a point wrapped up. They also go down to 4-on-4 to make it more exciting and see wide open plays. You never see them playing "not to lose" as a lot of soccer teams do when tied up in injury time and start just stalling to escape with a point. Knock out tourneys do that for soccer (PK's to win), so that change would likely draw interest in the US if it were for every match.

Two: history. As in, the league has next to none. European soccer goes back decades for every club and many have been around for more than a century. Having had two soccer leagues in the U.S. start up and then go bankrupt in the past 30 years has left many people skeptical about this one as well. Why invest in and root for a team that you don't expect to be around in five years? Every European club I've watched has team songs, team chants, team cheers, and at least one other club that any of you would give up a sizable chunk of money (and maybe a limb) to laughingly watch get relegated and mock incessantly for a year. We don't have those rivalries yet, and team chants/cheers are rare. If MLS is still around in 10 years, I can see it overcoming hockey and holding its own with basketball (though never in terms of salary). It's not happening in the next 2-3 though.

Three: Americans have this driving obsession to be the best. 2nd place is the first of the losers. While I do watch soccer and have been to several games, at the same time I can't shake this nagging undercurrent to all the media and coverage and general discussions about the league from sports fans. Why watch MLS when most of these guys are at best third-string on most Euro clubs? Then our top players and best young stars (see Freddy Adu) get snatched up and go to Europe anyway. Unless the US can go very deep in the World Cup with a mostly MLS squad, I can't see soccer being truly embraced. If the best are playing on high definition TV at home on FSN, do I really want to go out and deal with traffic and eight dollar drinks to watch the junior varsity? In his prime, Beckham was one of the best. That's what Americans want to see even if he's a notch down now. Unless we get some homegrown "best" among the world's elite, people will not pay to come out and see them on a regular basis.

Post already waaaaaaaaay too long. Shutting up now.

God Help us All!

Beckham can still be a match winner with his free kicks, so would be in any roster squad I picked.

Beckham can still do it for England, but is it too late to take Engliand to the Euro2008 Finals?

I'd think it would be sweet if David Beckham got to earn 100 international caps.
(I think Beckham is on 97 England appearances currently)

Also, in the current debate on England squad, and talk of Defoe - I like Defoe and think Spurs would have done better under Jol had Defoe played more often,
but did a 16 year old 'unknown at the time' not get picked ahead of Defoe for last years World Cup squad?

Worst decision ever by old England boss Sven.