David Beckham will not play for the LA Galaxy on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park (7:30 pm ET/4:30 pm PT, MatchDay Live), as the former England captain did not make the trip to the City of Brotherly Love.
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said Tuesday that the decision to leave Beckham behind had nothing to do with injuries.
“We’re resting David,” Arena said. "We play three games in a week and we’ve decided to rest him."
Beckham, 36, played all 90 minutes in the Galaxy’s 1-1 draw with New York this past Saturday, assisting on the Galaxy’s goal. Beckham has missed just one game this season - he served a suspension for yellow-card accumulation - and has logged a total of 789 minutes through Saturday’s game.
Still, Arena said “rest, fatigue, bumps and bruise” were factors in the decision to leave Beckham at home. The match at Philadelphia is sandwiched around home games against New York and Sporting KC, and will lead into the club’s SuperClásico match against Chivas USA on May 21.
“Knowing we have a game on Saturday, we have to make some decisions on players, who is going to play three games, two games and that kind of thing,” Arena said.
While not having Beckham at the match could be a good thing for Philadelphia coach Peter Nowak and his team, the supporters will miss out on their only scheduled opportunity to see Beckham play in person.
“We’re sorry about that,” Arena said. “We didn’t put together the schedule. Our job is to try and keep our players healthy and place the right players on the field each and every game, [those] who give us the best chance of winning.”
Arena also indicated that replacing Beckham might not be the only change on Wednesday.
“We have to go back across the country and play against a team that hasn’t played a game in two weeks. It is difficult,” Arena said. “All of those factors you take into account why David isn’t here and we'll probably have a number of changes for [Wednesday] as well.”
The Galaxy will be hosting an official viewing party for
Wednesday’s match against the Philadelphia Union! Join us Wednesday, May
11 at 4:30pm at Alpine Village in Torrance to watch the game, enjoy
great food and drink specials, and enter to win tickets for the Galaxy’s
next home game against Sporting KC on Saturday, May 14 at 7:30pm. MORE INFO
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