Galaxy nab Victory on penalties

David Beckham’s LA Galaxy have prevailed in a penalty shootout over Melbourne Victory to win the Hyundai Club Challenge on Tuesday.

While Harry Kewell’s non-appearance was a slight let down for the 34,608-strong crowd, Beckham did enough with a few moments of brilliance to light up the night, winning the penalty which allowed the Galaxy to equalise early in the second half in regulation time, which finished 2-2.

Beckham’s highlight was his sublime passing, while he threatened to score on a couple of occasions when given space in the second half. He was substituted felling for his right hamstring on 89 minutes.

Victory had taken a 2-0 lead thanks to Carlos Hernandez on 15 minutes and Isaka Cernak 22 minutes later.

But two penalties either side of half time, both of which were contentious, saw the Galaxy draw level with Robbie Keane flawless from the spot.

The match went to penalties and Landon Donavan’s miss with the first Galaxy penalty looked set to prove the difference, but youngsters Paulo Retre and Marco Rojas both missed spot kicks to hand honours to the visiting side.

It was an open first half, with Archie Thompson having one shot saved and pushing another wide inside the first five minutes.

Beckham got the crowd going with an ambitious lob from 55-metre, which almost caught Ante Covic out as it sailed just wide.

But 15 minutes in it was the home side celebrating when Cernak set up Hernandez, whose first shot was blocked by a defender before he got clear to beat Josh Saunders for the opener.

The second breakthrough came on 37 minutes with Hernandez playing provider to Cernak this time, hitting a perfectly weighted ball for the midfielder to lope onto and finish well.

Galaxy had a Keane shot saved before Chris Birchall’s drive forced a Victory handball in the box and a penalty for the visitors. Keane slotted the spot kick to make it 2-1.

Victory should have restored the two-goal buffer before the half, with Adrian Leijer having a header cleared off the line by Birchall before Allsopp waltzed onto an excellent chance but hit it over.

Beckham inserted himself into the game in a decisive manner soon after the resumption and when he was upended by Petar Franjic, Strebre Delovski again pointed to the spot. Keane had no trouble beating substitute keeper Lawrence Thomas.

The came petered out towards the end with Allsopp going closest to scoring a winner for the Victory, while Hector Jimenez hit the post late in the game.

The shootout looked like going Melbourne’s way, but a couple of mistakes from youngsters proved the difference.