By Sid Ventura | Sportsaholic
It's official: David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and the rest of Major League Soccer's L.A. Galaxy will square off against Phil Younghusband, Chieffy Caligdong, James Younghusband and the other Philippine Azkals in an exhibition match on December 3 at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
This, after the formal contract signing between Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano "Nonong" Araneta and Galaxy president Thomas Payne took place earlier today at a press conference in Makati.
The match will be the second leg of the Galaxy's tour of Asia and Australia, coming after a still-to-be-determined fixture on November 30 and preceding the finale in Melbourne on December 5. It will be the first time a professional football club of this stature will play the national side since Cruzeiro of Brazil came over in the 1970s.
It's also the first time a football icon like Beckham will play in front of local fans, with Payne confirming that the British superstar is indeed joining the team here.
"Yes, the full team will be here," Payne said. "We understand what this is about. We understand we have some famous players, one in particular, and our entire team will be on the field as they always are."
The Galaxy topped the just-concluded MLS regular season, and will have homefield advantage throughout the playoffs, which begin this weekend. The playoffs are scheduled to end on November 20, leaving the team plenty of time to prepare for their Asian tour.
"We organized everything in hopes that we're gonna win a championship," Payne explained, "so we're not traveling till after the MLS Cup, which is our championship, and that's November 20th. It's actually at our stadium, so we have homefield advantage."
While Beckham will no doubt be the main attraction, he isn't the only star in this particular Galaxy. There's US skipper Donovan, whom Payne described as "the best American player that ever lived. He's the biggest goal scorer in the history of the United States. He's the best player on the national team for the past 12 years. When he's going, he's tough to stop."
There's also Keane, the all-time leading scorer of Ireland and one of the top ten scorers in the history of the English Premier League. Payne is also enamored of his young midfielder Juninho. "He's a 22-year-old Brazilian who came through the Sao Paolo system. He's a really fabulous player as well."
The dream match will provide a fitting end to what has been a fabulous year for Philippine football, and will come almost a year to the day the Azkals shocked heavily-favored Vietnam 2-0 in the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup, the result that triggered the sport's revival in the local scene. And what better way to carry the momentum into next year than by bringing over one of the most popular football players of all time.
"I think it's gonna be wonderful," Payne said. "Part of what we do on these tours is we're trying to help promote the sport that I'm passionate about and what David's passionate about, and going into a market like this, which is going football-crazy from what I understand, and the coach and the federation is having a good run of it. So I think putting on a game that brings that kind of PR and media to an event like this can only be good for the sport."
"Of course, it's a big match for us to end the season and end the year with the LA Galaxy playing here," Araneta added. "What more can you ask for? We hope that it will be very successful, and we hope that this won't be their last visit here."
Azkals team manager Dan Palami said he has contacted the Europe-based players to inquire about their availability in hopes of putting together the most competitive team possible.
"We've sent out invitations already to our professional players abroad, and I think some of them have responded," Palami said. "But after this press conference, we will get in touch with them to make sure their attendance will be ensured."
So far, Palami said Ray Jonsson has confirmed his participation, along with Fil-Danish players Jerry Lucena and Dennis Caraga. Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge has sent word he might be free, while Stephan Schrock has not yet replied.
"We thought that convincing win against Nepal was good enough, but here we are served with an early Christmas bonus to have a chance to play against a team like the LA Galaxy," Palami said. "And I'm sure it's not just David Beckham. I've received a lot of e-mails inquiring about Donovan and Robbie Keane."
Payne actually flew in to inspect the venue first, and obviously he was satisfied with what he saw.
"It was wonderful," he said of the Rizal Stadium. "It was probably more than what we expected, to be honest. The stadium was great. We look forward to playing in a smaller venue. We've done some of these games all around the world and played in front of 80, 90,000 people. So we're really looking forward to playing in front of a crowd that's gonna be really close to the action. And I think it's gonna be a really memorable night for this community and the sport of soccer and for our club as well as the Philippine National Team."
The Galaxy will fly in on December 1, which will give them enough time to conduct a clinic for underprivileged kids of the Bantay Bata Foundation. The clinic will be hled on December 2 from 2 to 4PM at the Rizal Stadium.
"A big part of what we try and do on these tours is leave something behind," Payne said. "And you'll find out soon that we'll make sure we're doing something for kids in the community. At the end of the day we want kids to have something look forward to and look up to."
The Galaxy president said he was informed last week about that rumor going around in the Philippines about the match, even though nothing had been finalized yet.
"We hadn't announced anything, obviously, about a game, and I get an email from all of my digital people in my office saying there's a rumor that the Galaxy are coming and it's the top trending topic in all of the Philippines. It's pretty amazing. It shows the passion for the sport and for our team and I'm sure for David Beckham as well."
Meanwhile, organizers said tickets will most likely go on sale the first week of November once they have finalized the pricing.
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