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TORONTO — David Beckham or no David Beckham, the game goes on. The schedule says so, and thus the Los Angeles Galaxy went out Sunday night against Toronto FC without their injured celebrity midfielder.
And Beckham or no Beckham, BMO Field rocked, as it has all of this season, the first in Major League Soccer for Toronto FC.
Beckham's absence hardly took away from the entertainment value of the game for the Toronto audience, even if the result was goalless draw played before an announced crowd of 20,522, a record for BMO Field.
Beckham, who told a media conference on Saturday that his injured left ankle would continue to keep his MLS regular-season debut on hold a little longer, was in a suit and tie as he watched the match from the Galaxy bench.
Toronto FC's Marco Reda, top, and LA Galaxy's Alan Gordon go down as they struggle for the ball during first half MLS action in Toronto Sunday. (Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)
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He said at his media conference that he might be a week to 10 days away from playing. He watched his team struggle last night to get anything going offensively, a problem that his passes might help alleviate once he is ready to play.
As for Toronto FC, if it is possible to win a game 0-0, it did last night.
"The amount of chances that we had tonight we surely should have had three points," said Toronto FC's head coach, Mo Johnston. "I felt we were the better team."
As listless as the team appeared last week in losing to the Chicago Fire, Toronto FC played an inspired game despite being short six regulars and having another, Jim Brennan, playing with two broken ribs. But it resulted in only one point.
Forward Andrea Lombardo, who took three stitches to his right toe after tripping at home, was not going to miss his chance to start, which resulted because of injuries to Danny Dichio and Jeff Cunningham.
Lombardo tested the foot before the game. "There was no question, I was definitely going to play tonight," Lombardo said. "It was just a thing of trying it out to make sure I wasn't in too much pain."
Dichio, who has a hip-flexor injury, offered to have an injection and play if Lombardo could not.
Lombardo might have had a couple of goals in the first half, but one was called back on an offside. On the other chance, the ball was in the air, and Lombardo felt over the line, before it was cleared by defender Ty Harden.
Further compounding Toronto's problems, midfielder Maurice Edu picked up a yellow card in the 82nd minute and his accumulation of cautions means he will be suspended from Toronto's next game, in New York next Sunday.
Toronto dominated the game, taking 14 shots at the Los Angeles goal with five of them forcing stops from goalkeeper Joe Cannon, one of them a hard shot by Brennan in the 52nd minute. Los Angeles had one shot on goal and took only five shots.
Andy Welsh, who replaced a hard-working Collin Samuel late in the game, had a big chance stopped by Cannon. Welsh was benched after a poor performance against Chicago.
Toronto's supporters were true to their word as Galaxy forward Landon Donovan took both his team's corner kicks through a swirl of pink streamers. Toronto had an 11-2 advantage in corner kicks.
Andrew Boyens, Ronnie O'Brien, Greg Sutton and Marvell Wynne are Toronto's other injured players. Sutton, the regular goalkeeper, has been out with the after-effects of a concussion suffered in June when he was with Canada's Gold Cup team, and he was acknowledged before the game.
Kenny Stamatopoulos, who was acquired on loan from Tromso in Norway this past week, played in goal last night.
It was no surprise that Beckham did not play.
He has appeared for a few minutes in an exhibition match late last month and probably shouldn't have. He said that in training at BMO Field earlier on Saturday, he was able to run straight well enough, but still had problems turning and said "obviously that doesn't help me in a game."
He sprained the left ankle in England's game against Estonia on June 6. He played four days later for Real Madrid and suffered pulled ligaments. The ligaments were torn in Real Madrid's final game of the season on June 17, when the team won its league championship in Spain. He had three injections to numb the ankle for the game.
"You can imagine what my ankle looked like after the game," he said. "It was a bit of a mess."
Because it is the left ankle, the injury hampers his game even more. A right-footed kicker, he uses the left foot to plant in striking the ball.
Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said that Beckham ran again Sunday and showed some improvement from Saturday.
