Bend It Like Beckham

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jul 19, 2005 1:41AM

If ever there was an occasion for Chicago to become soccer mad, it was this past weekend. Real Madrid played an exhibition against Chivas Guadalajara, a match that had David Beckham -- the world's most famous soccer star -- playing against Mexico's most popular team.

Real Madrid won the match 3-1 in front of a crowd of 54,432. "The atmosphere was electric, especially after the goals started going in," Beckham said. Yet there were about 5,000 less fans than at last year's Manchester United - Bayern Munich match. Some attribute that to the game's announcement only three weeks ago, while others think that last year's rosters of backups caused some to skip the game.

For those nearly 55,000 that did show up, fans came out for a variety of reasons. While some admitted, "I could care less about the game. I just want to be able to stare at [Beckham]," others came out becuase of national pride. Maria Vazquez proclaimed, "We're from Mexico. We had to get tickets." And some of the growing legions of serious soccer fans simply wanted to take advanage of the opportunity to watch some of the world's elite players play.

Photo via Yahoo!News