Beckham, Galaxy see no 'friendly' vs Azkals

MANILA, Philippines - One of the lasting images of the LA Galaxy’s last outing was that of superstar David Beckham giving Indonesian striker Andik Vermansyah a hard tackle while going for the ball.

The global icon would later apologize to the Vermansyah and swap jerseys at the end of the exhibition match held Wednesday in Jakarta that ended 1-0 in favor of the Galaxy.

Goes to show how the 36-year-old midfielder treat even a friendly match - with competitive fire.

“We always try to play diplomatic football but we wanna win, it doesn’t matter if it’s a friendly,” Beckham said on Thursday upon arriving in Manila from Indonesia for the second stop of their Herbalife Asia Pacific Tour.

Tonight’s awaited Smart Dream Cup 2011 showdown with the Philippine Azkals at 7:30 pm at the historic Rizal Memorial Football Stadium won’t be any different for the visiting Galaxy.

“We expect the opponent to play 100 percent. It will be a difficult match, probably more difficult than the other night (against Indonesia) but we’ll go for a win,” said Galaxy coach Bruce Arena.

His plan is to field in his best group led by Beckham, Landon Donovan, and Robbie Keane.

“We’ll start with a strong 11, a team that will hopefully compete right away and play well, then we’ll look to make changes in the second half,” said Arena, who will lead a group of Galaxy players in a morning visit and playtime with kids at the Casa Herbalife in Alabang prior to the game.

Though somehow starstruck, the Azkals side bannered by Fil-British Phil Younghusband and Chieffy Caligdong would try to go for a W, themselves.

“I think we always try to do our best; sometimes it works well and I think for the past year it worked most of the time, and we’re gonna do the same thing (against LA),” said Azkals coach Michael Weiss, who will rely on homegrown Eduard Sacapano and Paolo Pascual to tend the net in the absence of Europe-based pros Neil Etheridge and Roland Muller.

“The players are very happy to have this opposition and do their best; hopefully, they don’t have too much respect,” Weiss said, baring plans to “use as many players as I can and try to win the game.”

The Azkals will also miss Euro pros Stephan Schrock, Paul Mulders, Jerry Lucena and Dennis Cagara in the middle, as does captain Aly Borromeo, who is recovering from ACL but will nonetheless join the bench.

“I think it will be the same as we usually play, no matter who the opposition is. It’s important we concentrate on our own game. The Galaxy have played at a high standard so we’ll probably have to have a defensive mindset and play on the counter because that’s the way to play against a strong attacking team,” said Younghusband.

“We promise to fight and make it an exciting game,” said Caligdong, dwarfed by Beckham during the two teams’ photo op and traditional exchange of jerseys the other day.

Fil-British Younghusband, an admitted fan of Beckham, shrugged off the supposed pressure to win against the top MLS club.

“At the end of the day, everyone knows the quality of the Galaxy, that they’re favorites to win the game. But there’s no pressure for us; it’s important to enjoy the game,” said Younghusband.

Notes: Galaxy skipper Landon Donovan said he’s heard a lot of wonderful things about Phl from their Filipina staff back in LA and discovered them first hand. “So far, it’s fantastic,” he said...Azkals counterpart, Aly Borromeo, said it’s heartbreaking not to be able to play against the club he followed as a college player in the US. “It’s kind of hard but nevertheless, it’s a dream come true; just to be on the pitch watching is exciting,” he said...Promoter Jinx Macabenta of Fuelcels admitted the slow ticket sales due to high prices but expressed confidence they would eventually pick up. “It’s been an uphill climb, we really had to justify the prices. But now that we have all our sponsors established and having new marketing backups, there’s been a lot of big spikes in sales. We’re expecting over 80 percent by Saturday,” he said....The Galaxy will be the first major club since Brazil’s Cruzairo FC played the Phl team in 1972 at Rizal.