Beckham reduced to cameo in own show

They roared when the big screens caught him gingerly pressing his left foot into his boot. They were in raptures when he finally took off his training top on the touchline and the Home Depot Center crowd got to their feet when David Beckham struck his first pass for Los Angeles Galaxy. Appropriately, it was a raking long ball out to the right wing that any hardened old pro would describe as "a Hollywood pass".

There will be plenty more where that came from. As debuts go, Saturday was, by Beckham's own admission, a "little bit embarrassing", the kind of sporting spectacle that only the man himself could contrive. A sell-out crowd at the 27,000- capacity stadium in Carson had turned up to watch a barely fit footballer play a friendly for a below-average team in a second-rate league. Put like that, it was not the most enticing of prospects, but it is testament to the star quality of Beckham that he still managed to turn it into a piece of theatre.

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By the time Beckham came on after 78 minutes for Alan Gordon, the presence of Chelsea, who won 1-0 through John Terry's goal four minutes after the interval, was virtually incidental. Beckham had finally stepped on to a pitch in the new white of LA Galaxy, albeit with a hobble and an unwillingness to move much out of the centre circle.

In the stands were his wife Victoria, the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the actors Eva Longoria, Katie Holmes and Ray Winstone - the Hollywood moment indeed seemed complete.

Beckham was evidently not fit but as Frank Yallop, the LA Galaxy manager, put it later: "David's first game had been looming for a while". Now it looms no longer above the little club with big aspirations. LA Galaxy can go back to some semblance of normality, while Beckham himself can go back to being injured. It seems unlikely that he will be risked in the forthcoming games against the Mexican sides Pachuca and Guadalajara in the incongruously named SuperLiga series.

In keeping with the outright absurdity that accompanied much of the hype around Beckham's first appearance, the whole show almost came crashing down when Steven Sidwell threw himself into a tackle in injury time which looked like it might cost LA Galaxy millions in ticket revenue. A bad touch from Beckham allowed the ball to roll ahead and Sidwell clattered into him, leaving the former England captain in a heap on the floor and Galaxy executives in fear of losing their jobs.

If Hollywood does one day come to make a movie about Beckham's life, they will have to write in the character of a red-headed midfielder from Wandsworth who very nearly found himself cast as the villain before Beckham picked himself up and carried on. "I wasn't trying to nail him," Sidwell said. "It could have been worse. But we got up and had a good laugh and a joke."

For LA Galaxy there was much greater honour in this defeat than the 3-0 capitulation to the Mexican side Tigres on Tuesday and they twice went close to scoring, notably when Landon Donovan headed over with 20 minutes left. There are still great disparities in the quality of players - a division reflected in the pay scale - but this performance was at least some reassurance that Beckham would not be better off playing for Vinnie Jones' Sunday league Hollywood United team.

Beckham's performances in front of the American media are ever smoother and he talked about his "pride" at the reaction of "the people of LA". The decision to play, he claimed, was made on the morning of the match and the ankle was heavily strapped. It may be something of an anathema to the football purist that an unfit player is virtually obliged to play some part in a friendly match in the interest of public relations, but the rules under which Beckham operates are now very far from those that might be considered orthodox.

The medial ligament ankle injury itself should be healed in time for him to play for England against Germany on 22 August and Beckham described it as "just one of those injuries that footballers get". Steve McClaren, the England manager, can rest easy that he will probably need just another two weeks at the most to recover, although it should not take that long.

"I don't think I've ever had a more extraordinary year in my life than this one," Beckham said. "In football terms, I've had ups and downs all this year, but this last week has been truly one of the most remarkable weeks in my life, attention-wise.

"The attention has been immense, not on just the Galaxy as a team and LA as a city, but on me and my family. Ninety-nine per cent of it has been positive, and that's remarkable. I hope that continues."

The Home Depot Center will prove an interesting home for Beckham over the next few years, a stadium which shares few similarities with Old Trafford or the Bernabeu. The upper tier behind one goal is just a grass verge that is used when the ground is sold-out and on Saturday was like a cross between Glastonbury and Henman Hill at Wimbledon.

In the stands were the self-styled "LA Riot Squad", a rather tragic-looking bunch of middle-aged men who have adopted the customs of English football fan culture and applied them to LA Galaxy with mixed results. Their repertoire of songs leaves something to be desired - the chant that ended with the line "Chelsea sucks!" will never be a terrace classic - although they were the only part of the stadium that made any real kind of noise.

"This is where the hard work starts," Beckham said later as he once again detailed his determination to make soccer - as he now often calls it - a serious force in America. The Major League Soccer officials must love his polished answers on the future of the sport in America and the MLS commissioner, Don Garber, said after the match that more high-profile signings were planned - Juan Sebastian Veron is another reported target. They could certainly do with a few more nights like Saturday.