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Four Star Daily: David Beckham retires, Landon Donovan shines

On the same day that David Beckham announced his retirement from competitive football, the media world was wrapping its head about Landon Donovan's statement game last night.

By Josie Becker
Shaun Botterill

  • The big announcement today was David Beckham revealing he will retire from the sport of soccer football at the end of this season. He'll leave the sport having won titles in the Premier League, La Liga, MLS, and Ligue 1. He's played in Champions League's on two continents. Here's the BBC with the story, where of course the headline list Manchester United, Real Madrid, and AC Milan but not LA Galaxy. LA Galaxy does feature in the story, but not with a the before.
  • Speaking of English stars linked with LA Galaxy, it came out yesterday that Chelsea star Frank Lampard was considering signing with LA Galaxy but that he was going to re-sign with Chelsea for another year. It came out this morning that Landon Donovan had spoken with Lampard about making the move, so you can see how close it came to actually happening.
  • This upcoming Tuesday the Carolina Railhawks will take on the Carolina Dynamo. Normally this would mean nothing to Galaxy fans, but the luck of the US Open Cup draw has this match taking on sudden significance. Should the fourth tier side Dynamo win, LA will host them in Los Angeles. Should Carolina win, then LA starts its US Open Cup run in Carolina on May 29th. Bruce Arena was quite unhappy when asked about the draw after the game. If you want to know how the sausage is made, click here. Essentially, LA lost a coin flip with Chivas USA to decide who drew the winner between Ventura and LA Blues. This put LA Galaxy in the wildcard group, from which LA drew a team across the country from them.
  • The post-match recaps went in a variety of directions. The Delco Times called LA Galaxy a daunting task yesterday, and in the recap said the Union were left seeing stars. The South Jersey Times went in a similar direction with LA stars being too much for the Union. Goal.com focused on one star, Donovan making a statement in dismantling Philadelphia. The LA Times used the AP Story, though it was placed on page 2.
  • Bonus star this morning: David Beckham was in Manchester United's youth system in 1992 when the Premier League launched, joined the senior squad the following year. When the Premier League launched it was to a large degree motivated by a TV package from Sky Sport. This video shows how the two announced their emergence. David Beckham becoming an internationally known property owes a great deal to this. The game was changed and Beckham was the hot young star:

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