Bend it like Beckham - MLS Rapids host Galaxy

By CarlAuer

October 1, 2012

My photos from Saturdays UCLA and CU game can be viewed at Cal Sport Media. I spent all morning Saturday painting one wall in the new condo, and went and bought a new kitchen table set, then had to zoom up to Boulder for the game. After the game, rushed home, did some more editing, then had to get ready for Sunday. Did some more painting, then headed over to Commerce City for the LA Galaxy and Colorado Rapids MLS game. Busy weekend.

Loved how the light hit the players in this shot of Landon Donovan as he took the field for warm ups.

MLS 2012 - LA Galaxy vs Colorado Rapids — September 30, 2012: Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan (10) takes the field for warmups prior to the MLS Soccer Match between the Colorado Rapids and the Los Angeles Galaxy at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado

And yes, the shadow on the wall behind Donovan is Beck’s.

There was talk that Beckham was not even going to play tonight, but after he ran some drills and I saw what was going on in the next picture, I knew David Beckham was going to be on the pitch tonight.

It was kind of funny, tons of people yelling for Beckham, and here he is in plain view being rubbed down by a trainer….

It was another one of those nights though. My 7D was still acting up a bit, so while action was at the far end of the field, I decided to play around with my custom functions to see if something was amiss, and then I saw it. One of my custom functions was not set to what I originally set it at. So far, after resetting it, things look at tad better. It will take more playing around.

Early in the game, it looked like Landon Donovan was going to score. He was in front of the goal, with a Rapids defender on him tight, holding the jersey some, and to get free, Donovan threw him off of him, shot and scored, but the goal was nullified because Donovan was called for a foul. He blew up at the official and earned a Yellow Card. In the picture above, I think you can tell what Beckham is about to say…..

A few minutes later Donovan had another shot on goal, with no foul, but was denied.

But, while I do enjoy watching Donovan play, I was more excited to be photographing David Beckham. It was too bad though, other than a few corner kicks, he really did not impress me with his play.

Sean Franklin, for the Galaxy got a lot of touches, and had a few chances to score, but like Donovan, was denied access tot he back of the net. But with a lot of his attacks, that sent Beckham to the corner right in front of me. On the kick pictured bellow, Beckham sent the ball in front of the goal, and it ricocheted off of a player right at me. I looked over at Beckham, who had a smile on his face. I probably had a dear in the headlights look on my face.

I was pretty happy that the camera was acting better than it had been, it was a decent game, lighting was a little crappy, and then the rain came. It came hard for a minute, hard enough I ran to the media room to get my camera rain gear. Of course, as soon as I got back it stopped raining. But I got there just in time to see Beckham taken out of the game…