Beckham relishing City challenge

LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham is looking forward to taking on Roberto Mancini’s big-spending Manchester City this weekend.

English Premier League side City continue their pre-season tour of the US at the Home Depot Centre on Sunday, where they will face Beckham’s Western Conference-leading Galaxy.

However, Beckham wants his side to focus on their midweek MLS match against the Columbus Crew before turning their attention to the City friendly.

“You know we’re concentrating on tomorrow’s game first,” Beckham said. “Once that game’s out of the way then we’ll look forward to the game on Sunday at our own stadium with a world-class team with a lot of great players in it.”

“We’re looking forward to it. It’s going to be one of those games that fans are going to enjoy, I’m sure. We’ll concentrate on tomorrow night first.”

The Galaxy were comprehensively beaten in their last high-profile match against one of Beckham’s former clubs, Real Madrid.

But despite going down 4-1 to the La Liga giants over the weekend, Beckham believes Galaxy’s players will learn from the experience.

“I think it’s always great for any player to play against world-class opponents because it makes you a better player, it improves you, you learn from it,” he said.

“It’s like playing against Real Madrid. As difficult a game as it was, you learn and you watch these players.”

“It’s what I used to do as a young kid and it’s what all the young kids on our team do. You watch the likes of Kaka, Ronaldo, these players that you can learn from.”