The David Beckham era in American sport, eagerly awaited but repeatedly delayed this summer, was finally inaugurated last night as the England midfielder made his first appearance in a Major League Soccer game.

To a tumultuous welcome and amid wild cheering from the opposing fans that greeted him every time he touched the ball, Beckham played as a substitute for the last 20 minutes of Los Angeles Galaxy’s 1-0 defeat by DC United at RFK Stadium, a few miles from the White House in Washington.

A capacity crowd of almost 47,000 – only the fourth sell-out in DC United’s history - witnessed the biggest moment in the popular but underachieving US sport since Pele took the field for the New York Cosmos 32 years ago.

Uncertain whether Major League Soccer’s most expensive acquisition would play following the ankle injury that has kept him out of all Galaxy’s competitive games in the last month, fans still arrived in a state of high excitement and amid a carnival atmosphere. The gates opened hours before kick-off and in the car parks of the stadium thousands of fans engaged in the traditional American sporting tradition of tailgating, cooking on barbecues from the backs of trucks and station wagons, while weighing the odds of a Beckham appearance. As the teams took the field, the star took a bow with a brief wave before returning to the Galaxy bench. After 36 minutes, he began warming up, prompting more cheers from the crowd than they had voiced ten minutes earlier when Luciano Emilio had put the home team ahead

As light rain turned into a fierce downpour in the second half, Beckham played his much anticipated debut to maximum visual effect, stripping down to his naked torso in the 71st minute before donning his signature No 23 Galaxy shirt and trotting onto the field.

He looked sharp and engaged in his brief appearance, touching the ball 14 times in 21 minutes, including a precision-perfect long pass to team-mate Landon Donovan late on that could have produced a penalty. Earlier he had used his one free-kick opportunity to curl a low cross from the left touchline towards the near goalpost only to see the resulting glancing header sail over.

Afterwards Beckham reported no ill effects from the ankle as he sounded relieved to have finally made his start in US soccer.

"It felt a lot better tonight than it has for a while," he said. "It's difficult after eight weeks doing hardly anything, but I was happy to be back on the field tonight."

Steve McClaren, the England coach, was in the stadium watching ahead of the friendly against Germany later this month.

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