Beckham wants full game against Sydney FC

SYDNEY: English superstar David Beckham says he is close to full fitness for LA Galaxy's exhibition match with Sydney FC here on Tuesday and hopes to play the whole 90 minutes.   

Beckham, who made his 99th international appearance as a second-half substitute in England's 3-2 Euro 2008 qualifying defeat by Croatia last week, arrived here Sunday on a private jet from London via China.   

The 32-year-old former England captain has struggled with injury since joining the Galaxy in a huge 250-million-dollar five-year deal from Real Madrid this year, but he was confident he could play most or all the match in front of an 80,000 sell-out.   

Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley has agreed terms with Galaxy officials on a minimum amount of game time for Beckham.   

Although the amount of time has not been disclosed local media believe it to be about 55 minutes, barring injury.   

Beckham said he was unaware of the deal but he wanted to play the full 90 minutes.   

"Physically, I'm good -- I'm a lot better than I have been since I joined the Galaxy," the former Manchester United midfielder told a press conference here Sunday.   

"I'll be happy to play at least 55 minutes and the whole game if possible.   

"I'm very happy to be here. I've never been to this country before and it's somewhere I've wanted to visit for a long time.   

"It took me 22 hours to get here but it's more than worth it."   

Beckham, travelling without his wife, Victoria, will have a busy few days here as he mixes sponsorship obligations and red-carpet functions with training.   

He will remain in Sydney until Thursday before flying to the New Zealand capital Wellington for the Galaxy's friendly against the Wellington Phoenix on Saturday.   

Tuesday's match will be the first time former Dutch international Ruud Gullit takes charge of the Galaxy after taking over from Frank Yallop earlier this month.   

Gullit, a two-time World Footballer of the Year and a European Footballer of the Year, said he viewed the game as the perfect opportunity to see his new players in action and hoped they were not treating the match lightly.   

US international Landon Donovan said the Galaxy players were desperate to use the match to impress their new coach.   
"Believe me, guys, we want to be here and we want to win," Donovan said.   

Donovan said that a few years ago he would never have imagined a match between Australian A-League and Major League Soccer clubs attracting 80,000 fans to Sydney's Olympic stadium.   

Beckham praised Sydney's Brazilian Juninho for doing his bit to raise the profile of the Australian game.   

"(The A-League's) like the MLS -- there's so much potential here like in America," Beckham said.   

"You have to bring in players like Juninho to raise the profile of the game.   

"I was lucky enough to have played against him many times with Manchester United against Middlesbrough and he was one of the players that actually lit up the Premiership when he came in because he's such a talented player.   

"Most Brazilian players are very talented and very humble, nice guys... and he's definitely one of the best I've played against."