March 22, 2007
GALAXY DENY REAL MADRID
No plans for match, officials say
By Andrea Canales, LASoccerNews.com Associate Editor

It seemed oddly appropriate when a news report on a Spanish website, as.com, indicated that Beckham would travel with Real Madrid in June and play in an exhibition match versus the LA Galaxy, switching uniforms at halftime to symbolize his transfer from the "galacticos" of Madrid to the Galaxy of Los Angeles.

However, team officials have dismissed the report as being without foundation.

In fact, such a match was never reported elsewhere.

Another strange aspect of the report indicated that the game would be part of a tour that would have Real Madrid playing a startling number of matches in a short amount of time. Besides the one scheduled for LA, matches in Washington, Chicago and Salt Lake were also said to have been planned to take place in a nine day window.

Another Galaxy team official pointed out that it made little sense for Real Madrid to plan a tour that starts two days after the close of their regular season. He speculated that perhaps the article was a joke column.

In any case, whether the information was intended to be funny or not, Galaxy administration, including vice-president Tom Payne, confirmed that nothing like this was planned by the Galaxy.

"We're entering the busiest part of our summer just then," relayed a team liason. "We have enough planned without that."