david beckham’s
soccer usa game 11 (11/12)

Continuing on Five this evening is the magazine show that offers an inside look at Major League Soccer. Coinciding with David Beckham’s move to LA Galaxy, Soccer USA provides a comprehensive guide to football in North America, with match highlights, news, interviews and goals from the up-and-coming American league. Each edition features guests, special reports and films bringing to life all the characters and stories of the US game. The programme also includes ‘David Beckham’s Blog’ –an exclusive insight into the Beckham family’s new life across the Atlantic. Tim Lovejoy hosts the show, while Natalie Pinkham reports from the States.

Soccer USA’s other weekly features include interviews with other football stars who have made the switch to the American league; a look at famous supporters of MLS teams, such as Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg; ‘WAGs USA’, focusing on some of the most glamorous footballers’ wives in MLS; and a tongue-in-cheek guide to American footballing terms.

Tonight’s programme features highlights of LA Galaxy’s game against the Kansas City Wizards. The Kansas side – whose name is inspired by the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – have won the MLS Cup once in their history, in 2000. They are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference and, like LA, will be desperate to bag all three points in order to push themselves into contention for the play-offs.

The regular MLS season ends in October, to be followed by a series of play-off games to decide the winner of the league. Six teams participate in the play-offs: the top teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences, and the next four highestplaced sides, irrespective of their conference. The play-off games consist of a two-leg knock-out round, followed by a match to decide the winner of each conference, and finally the MLS Cup. This showpiece game in November is played between the winners of the Eastern and Western Conferences and marks the end of the season.