World soccer superstar David Beckham will miss England’s friendly against Brazil in Qatar on Saturday after the Los Angeles Galaxy reached the Major League Soccer Western Conference final with a victory over local rivals Chivas USA.
LA Galaxy progressed to Friday night’s game against Houston Dynamo with a 1-0 second-leg win over Chivas at the Home Depot Centre courtesy of a 73rd-minute Landon Donovan penalty that gave them a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Galaxy is now just one game away from the MLS Cup final which decides the league champions and next weekend’s game against Houston in Los Angeles which means David Beckham will miss the friendly for England.
The England international midfielder sent in a defence-splitting pass to Donovan that led to Mike Magee being felled for the game-winning penalty kick, but was forced to be substituted out five minutes later having struggled from a knock to his lower back.
Beckham then had medics strap ice to the problem area and watched from the bench as as his team-mates hung on to their lead against a late Chivas rally.
Houston had reached the conference final earlier in the day with a 1-0 home win over Freddie Ljungberg’s Seattle Sounders with Brian Ching’s stoppage-time winner had been the only game of the two-legged tie and brought to an end a successful inaugural season for the Sounders.
In the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Fire progressed at the expense of the New England England Revolution and will face Real Salt Lake, who knocked out defending MLS champions Columbus Crew on Friday.