English star David Beckham made his Major League Soccer debut Thursday night here in Washington, but his Los Angeles Galaxy club lost to DC United, 1-0. VOA Sports Editor Parke Brewer was at the match at RFK Stadium and has details.

Los Angeles Galaxy's midfielder David Beckham, left, from England, fights for control of the ball against DC United Luciano Emilio from Brazil

With an injured left ankle that's bothered him for two months, it was uncertain if Beckham would take the field, but the 32-year-old midfielder had assured his coach Frank Yallop that he could manage, and Yallop was okay with the field conditions.

"I think it made it a bit easier because it was not so much of a sticky field. I think ankles tend to get caught up in the grass and you can turn them again, so I think once the rain started to come down I felt more comfortable with putting David on," said Yallop. "You know we asked him and he said he was ready to go, so that was good news; great to see him out there."

Beckham did not deny that he is still affected by the ankle, injured while playing in a European Championship qualifier for England June 6, but he said it was good to finally see MLS action after leaving Spain's Real Madrid at the end of the Spanish league season and coming to the United States.

David Beckham at a post-match news conference in Washington DC, 9 Aug 2007

Beckham had played 16 minutes on July 21, but that was in the Galaxy's friendly match against English club Chelsea. He did not get in before a disappointed sellout crowd in Toronto last Sunday. Beckham said he appreciated the warm reception he got from the sell-out Washington crowd when he entered the game.

"It's not nice to disappoint people that have paid a lot of money to come and see the game and buy tickets, and I was thankful that I could actually even get on the [field] tonight. So it was a good night, but a bad night because we ended up losing the game," said Beckham.

The only goal of the game came in the 27th minute from DC United's Brazilian star Luciano Emilio. He has scored 11 goals in the last 10 games and is Major League Soccer's leading scorer with 13.