For David Beckham the ovations, for his supposed 'pub team' some credibility, but for John Terry the victory. There was a certain irony to Beckham's tentative introduction to North American football as a stadium primed to welcome its new hero watched his successor as England captain claim the game.

Terry could not imagine himself signing on with Major League Soccer - a sub-standard product in his view - but the Chelsea centre-back has developed a happy knack of scoring on these shores. Last weekend there was a winner against Club America, last night another against Soccer Team America.

LA Galaxy have taken on that mantle by default, the maelstrom of the grandest ever attempt to make football a mainstream, money making sport in the US of A. Such are the demands on their star attraction that this heavily trailed introductory game required appearance even though his swollen left ankle would have been better left to recover.

The decision to play the 12 minutes Beckham did was only taken on the morning of the match at the end of the week in which he had traded training for treatment. "It was nice to get out there and kick a soccer ball," Beckham, getting into the linguistic mood of his new country of residence, said. "I hadn't trained all week, and I hadn't kicked a ball all day so it was great to get out there. I enjoyed it."

Expected to more easily overcome a Galaxy side that had been likened to a pub side earlier in the week, Chelsea may not have. "The game was difficult," said Jose Mourinho. "I think LA played with a lot of pride.

Maybe they wanted to show David that they had a team which has conditions to play well in the MLS. I think Beckham for them will be not just a fellow professional but an inspiration to improve.

As a sold-out Home Depot Center (re-christened by some the Home Despot in honour of the wife who persuaded Beckham to bring his career here) doled out a mixture of crudely English and embarrassingly American anti-Chelsea chants, the man of the moment avoided his team's pre-match warm-up. Listed amongst the substitutes he would, according to match broadcasters ESPN, "be playing, but would not be dressed". No doubt an appealing prospect to his legions of dolled-up, surgically-enhanced female fans.

There was no glammed-up introduction to the crowd pre-match, not even a stadium announcement, as Beckham calmly walked to the Galaxy bench through a massed phalanx of cameramen. A few metres down the touchline, Mourinho prepared his own side.

After fielding different teams in either half of single-goal victories over Club America and Suwon Bluewings, Mourinho had said he would start this match with his most in-form line-up. There were some surprises in it. Shaun Wright-Phillips started on the right wing ahead of Joe Cole and the injured, but spectating, Arjen Robben. Michael Essien and Frank Lampard made up the cental midfield, while Salomon Kalou was selected ahead of Andriy Shevchenko as support striker in a 4-4-1-1 shape that Mourinho had been developing in training as a new alternative to his default 4-3-3.

With Wayne Bridge recovering from a hip operation and Ashley Cole in the last stages of rehabilitation from post-season surgery, Tal Ben Haim drew the short straw of deputising at left back.

Second bottom of the MLS's Western Division and 20 points adrift of leaders Houston, Galaxy had won just three League matches this year and lost their last two. They returned to strategic basics here, Frank Yallop setting them out in a pressing 4-4-2, wingers instructed to hit their twin forwards with early, high crosses.

Chelsea's haste in the tackle helped the home side gain free kicks in dangerous territory, and Petr Cech was forced to punch uncomfortably away from Alan Gordon then turn Cobi Jones' snapshot away for a corner.

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