COMMERCE CITY, Colo.—The goalie was rushing at him, but Juan Pablo Angel didn’t panic. He switched the ball to his left foot, scooted past the keeper and poked the shot into a wide-open net—a deft little move that you-know-who couldn’t have done any better.
Yes, David Beckham is the headliner now—even in games he’s not playing. But it’s players like Angel who could be every bit as important to the future of soccer in America.
The Colombian, who came to the States this season to play in the MLS, scored the first goal Thursday night to lift the MLS All-Stars to a 2-0 victory over Celtic FC.
“We said before the game, there’s no such thing as a ‘friendly’ game anymore,” Angel said. “We wanted to go out and do it right.”
Indeed, the stakes have risen with the arrival of Beckham, who wore a suit, watched from the commissioner’s suite and made a brief appearance on the field between halves. During a halftime interview, he said his much-anticipated debut Saturday with the Los Angeles Galaxy could be delayed by a nagging left ankle injury.
Nobody wants to rush it because he’s here for the long term—five years, over which he’ll earn $32.5 million and become the top ambassador for soccer in a country that has refused to embrace the sport on the pro level over the decades.
“For one of the biggest sporting nations in the world not to have soccer as one of its top three sports is pretty amazing,” Beckham said. “So, if I can help grow the game here, then I want to be part of that.”
Angel, who took MVP honors Thursday, took the same leap of faith this year, bidding adieu to Aston Villa of the English Premier League to play for the New York Red Bulls. He might be the best player in MLS, though neither his arrival nor his contract ($1.5 million a year) are on the level of what Beckham has received.
“I think he’s going to feel very welcomed here,” said Angel, who has been gracious about Beckham’s arrival. “It’s going to bring a lot of attention to the league, and it’s going to be great. He’s a terrific professional, and he’s still capable of playing on any team in the world.”
Yet as much as Beckham helps, MLS also needs more players like Angel if it is to start being recognized around the world as more than a minor league.
It’s the overall quality of play that figures to make or break this league, as soccer aficionados decide whether to pay attention and top soccer players decide whether they want to forgo established leagues around the world to play at places like Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City.
A crowd of 18,661 saw the MLS boys put on a pretty good show against Celtic FC, which is still working its way into form but is, nevertheless, the two-time defending champs of the Scottish Premier League.
“We’ve come a long ways in 11 years,” said MLS coach Steve Nicol of the New England Revolution. “We’ve really reached a point where we’re ready to take that extra step. I think it’s great when players like Juan, David and some of these other guys coming in. It’s going to be a great example of the professionalism that Juan shows, all the young guys in the game are going to get better.”
In the 36th minute, Angel scored his goal after taking a pass from Dwayne De Rosario, switching feet as goalie Artur Boruc rushed him, then tapping the ball to the back of the net with his left foot.
Later in the first half, a free kick led to a scramble, and Juan Toja—also from Colombia and also joining the MLS from overseas this year—came up with the ball and converted a wide-open look to make it 2-0.
Boruc made a pair of point-blank saves in the first half and turned away Eddie Johnson’s penalty kick to keep the game from getting further out of hand. Johnson and De Rosario spent much of the night distributing in the Celtic end. MLS finished with 13 shots, eight of them on goal, while Celtic had only five and two.
This marked the third straight year that MLS’ best has beaten a team from overseas in its All-Star Game, a point that certainly won’t get lost among commissioner Don Garber and the rest of the league brass as they pitch the quality of their product.
The Celtic guys certainly were impressed.
“Excellent. I think they’ve done their homework,” coach Gordon Strachan said.
But the future is about more than one game.
It’s clear that Beckham’s arrival buys the league some time to capture imaginations out there. Even his arrival at the stadium for a game he wasn’t playing was enough to draw a crowd and bring out more than a few cameras.
“Oh my God, Oh my God,” swooned one teenage girl as she snapped a photo on her cell phone.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” soccer fan Jesse Fillerup said as he watched Beckham enter the stadium. “But everyone knows, he won’t be able to do it on his own.”
