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Beckham assists as England ties Brazil
2007-06-01
David Beckham's free kick set up John Terry for the first international goal at the new Wembley stadium, but Diego scored in the second minute of injury time Friday night to give Brazil a 1-1 exhibition tie against England. Beckham played with the national team for the first time since the World Cup quarterfinal loss to Portugal last July 1 in Germany, and he received the loudest cheers from the crowd of 88,745 in the 90,000-seat stadium, which took more than six years to build and cost $1.57 billion. Fans cheered each time he took a free kick, played a corner kick or made a tackle, and a multitude of camera flashes went off with every free kick. Beckham, who joins Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy next month, received a standing ovation when he came off in the 77th minute, and he was serenaded with cries of: "There's only one David Beckham." Beckham resigned as captain the day after the World Cup loss but has played well recently for Real Madrid in Spain. He was one of England's best players against the record five-time world champion, setting up Michael Owen for three chances and putting a free kick just wide. Terry scored in the 68th minute for England following an uneventful first half in which neither goalkeeper made a save. Diego tied the score with just one minute of injury time to play when he headed in a cross from Gilberto Silva. When Steve McClaren took over as England coach from Sven-Goran Eriksson in August, his first decision was to drop Beckham from the national team. Beckham was seen as untouchable under Eriksson. It was Beckham's 95th game for England and he can get closer to the 100 mark Wednesday in a European Championship qualifier at Estonia. After that, England is off until an Aug. 22 exhibition against Germany at Wembley. If he's chosen for the Germany game, Beckham likely will have been with the Galaxy for only three MLS games before returning to England. After that, England has qualifiers set for Sept. 8 and 12, Oct. 13 and 17 and Nov. 21.
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