Beckham and Donovan settle squabble

English football icon David Beckham and Landon Donovan practiced together for the first time this season on Monday, saying their war of words is over as they settle down to focus on football.

Beckham said he and Donovan had a good talk before he rejoined the Los Angeles Galaxy for his first workout as the English midfielder prepares for his return to Major League Soccer on Thursday against the New York Red Bulls.

Galaxy manager Bruce Arena, who formerly coached Donovan on the US national team, was also involved in the talk, which came after Donovan criticized Beckham in comments from a book about Beckham that will be on shelves Tuesday.

“I’m not going to talk about what was said,” Beckham said. “That was between me, Landon and the manager.”

Beckham had criticized Donovan at a public appearance on Saturday as “unprofessional” for going public with his problems before speaking to him.

“I said the other day everything that was needed to say,” Beckham said.

Donovan had already said he had regrets for not speaking with Beckham first and repeated that sentiment on Monday.

“We’re getting past it. We’re moving on,” Donovan said. “There are a lot of things I regret. I regret the way that I went about this process and I also regret some of the things I said.”

Donovan indicated that he was not shocked when the excerpts from “The Beckham Experiment” published last week in Sports illustrated caused a stir.

“There were no surprises,” Donovan said. “I’m generally a pretty honest person, but that doesn’t mean I need to share things with everybody.”

Beckham and Donovan handled inter-galactic matters without incident at practice.

“I don’t know if it’s buried or not, but for them to carry any of that is silly,” Galaxy midfielder Chris Klein said.

Beckham went on loan to AC Milan for five months of last season and will meet his former Italian side here on Sunday in an exhibition match.

“It’s going to be strange, funny and exciting,” Beckham said. “It’s good when teams of that class, and the players that they have, come over. It’s about preparing yourself and it’s about also the excitement of having such great players here.”

Beckham, who can buy out the remainder of his US contract after this season, said that talks about a return to AC Milan will begin in the next few months.

“Obviously Milan expressed that they want me to go back so I don’t see any reason why that would change,” Beckham said. “We’ll have to wait and see. I hope to be going back there.”

The Galaxy, on a three-match win streak, has a record of 5-3 with nine drawn for fifth in the Western Conference and hope that Beckham’s return can help the team reach the playoffs after missing out the past three seasons.