July 22, 2007: The Los Angeles Galaxy play their 1st game with David Beckham. The hype over the English star was huge.
Because of his performances for Manchester United, for Spanish giants Real Madrid, and the England national team -- and also because of his supposed good looks, and his marriage to former Spice Girl Victoria Adams, a.k.a. Posh Spice -- Beckham was the biggest star in English soccer, one big enough that even Americans knew who he was, something not really true for previous Man United stars like Bobby Charlton, George Best, Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona.
Major League Soccer needed a star. A worldwide star. Money was no object: They needed Beckham, and they needed him at one of their marquee teams: The New York Red Bulls or the Los Angeles Galaxy. He chose Los Angeles, Hollywood. The L.A. media machine hyped him up tremendously.
His 1st game with them would be at home, at the Home Depot Center (now named Dignity Health Sports Park), in suburban Carson, 14 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. It was an exhibition game, or what English soccer fans would call a "friendly." Fittingly, it was against an opponent familiar to him: Chelsea F.C., of West London. A full house of 27,000 saw Chelsea win, 1-0. Their Captain, John Terry, scored the only goal of the game, in the 48th minute.
His 1st league match was on August 18. The league wanted to generate maximum publicity by letting him debut in New York. Well, the New Jersey Meadowlands, anyway. There was just one problem: The New York Red Bulls burned the script, 5-4, with Juan Pablo Ángel scoring the winner in the 88th minute. None of the Gals' goals were scored by Beckham. As a Seinfeld fan might have put it, "Nice game, pretty boy!"
Beckham would play 6 seasons for L.A.. Despite his skill, despite usually being the best player on either side of the pitch (field), the "Gals" missed the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, they advanced to the MLS Cup Final, but lost on penalties to Real Salt Lake. Beckham made his penalty, as did Gregg Berhalter, later the manager of the U.S. national team. But established U.S. stars Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle missed theirs.
In 2010, L.A. made the Semifinals. They won the MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012, beating the Houston Dynamo in the Final each time. Having spent the 2009-10 and 2010-11 MLS off-seasons back in Europe, with A.C. Milan, Beckham signed with Paris Saint-Germain for the 2013 season, which would be his last as an active player.
Did "The Beckham Experiment" work? It did for the Galaxy: They played before sold-out crowds, and, although it took a while, found team success. But for MLS as a whole, it didn't matter much: Even when the New York Red Bulls added Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, perhaps the greatest player in the English top flight since the Premier League assumed that position in 1992, attendance didn't go up by much.
In 2014, the application of a group, for whom Beckham was the public face, for an MLS expansion team was approved, and it began play in 2020, as Inter Miami. In 2019, the Galaxy unveiled a statue of Beckham outside Dignity Health Sports Park.
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July 22, 2007 was a Sunday. No regular-season MLS games were played. The only major league sport then in season was baseball, and these games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 21-7 at Yankee Stadium. This was on top of the 17-5 win the Yankees had the previous game. Andy Pettitte was supported by 10 runs in the 4th inning. Every Yankee starting player got at least 1 hit.
Over the course of the game, the Yankees got 2 home runs from Shelley Duncan, and 1 each from Hideki Matsui, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Canó and Bobby Abreu. Matsui had 5 hits, Canó 4, Abreu and Jorge Posada 3. Duncan had 4 RBIs; A-Rod, Canó and Abreu, 3 each. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Chip Ambres singled Lastings Milledge home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz did not play.
* The Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. The Nats scored all 3 runs on a home run by Austin Kearns in the bottom of the 8th inning, to make a winning pitcher of Jon Rauch in relief of Tim Redding. Four Nats pitchers combined on a 7-hit shutout.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Braves relievers Tyler Yates and Óscar Villareal collapsed in the top of the 10th inning: The former gave up a home run to Skip Schumaker, and the latter to Scott Rolen.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-3 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Roy Halladay pitched a 3-hit shutout.
* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Woody Williams pitched 8 innings of 6-hit shutout ball, and Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless, 1-hit 9th.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Yusmeiro Petit pitched 6 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and 3 relievers completed the 4-hit shutout.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-5 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee. Barry Bonds, sitting on 753 career home runs, did not play.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 8-3 at Ameriquest Field (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 9-0 at Petco Park in San Diego. J.D. Durbin pitched a 5-hit shutout.
* And the Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the McAfee Coliseum). Jeremy Guthrie pitched 7 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, Chad Bradford pitched a perfect 8th, and Jamie Walker pitched a perfect 9th.
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