France's Franck Ribery celebrates his goal from the penalty spot during their friendly football match against England at Stade de France stadium in Paris yesterday. The French team wore a black armband as a mark of respect to French TV soccer commentator Thierry Gilardi who died yesterday. On the shirt is written 'For my friend Gilardi'. - AP
SAINT-DENIS, France (AP)
David Beckham got a yellow card in his 100th international game for England and was taken off in the 62nd minute of his team's 1-0 loss at France.
Despite speculation that the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder would be on the bench, England coach Fabio Capello named him in the starting line-up for yesterday's friendly at Stade de France.
"I was happy to start the game, but it was more about getting on the pitch, getting that 100th cap," Beckham said.
Beckham didn't have a shot on goal, made little impression with his trademark long passes and spent much of his time covering for right back Wes Brown.
Beckham was overlooked for Capello's first game in charge, a 2-1 victory over Switzerland at Wembley last month, because the Major League Soccer season had finished and the former England captain was not playing any matches.
Beckham was third from last running out on to the field as the teams came out and waved to the fans. But he was whistled by the French fans whenever he had the ball or ran over to take corner kicks.
He was shown a yellow card in the 38th minute for pulling Frank Ribery's shirt and hauling him down as the Frenchman, who had given his side the lead from the penalty spot, tried to run past him.
Under instructions to cover Brown, Beckham did well to race back and tackle Florent Malouda, who went on a dangerous run down the left.
When he went off the field to be replaced by David Bentley, the whole crowd stood and loudly applauded him as he trotted to a place on the bench.
Beckham was dropped by Capello's predecessor, Steve McClaren, after the 2006 World Cup and missed nine England matches. He was recalled a year later by McClaren following a string of poor results.
England's failure to qualify for the European Championship had left Beckham with 99 appearances.
Goalkeeper Peter Shilton has played the most games for England with 125 between 1970-90. Next is Bobby Moore (108), Bobby Charlton (106) and Billy Wright (105).
HONDURAS 2 COLOMBIA 1
Meanwhile in other friendlies yesterday, Hendry Thomas' goal midway through the second half led Honduras over Colombia 2-1.
Before an evenly divided Honduran and Colombian capacity crowd of 18,886 at Lockhart Stadium, Florida, Thomas broke a 1-1 tie in the 63rd minute. Thomas was positioned near the far post when he received Amado Guevara's free kick from the right wing and headed in a shot past goalkeeper Agustin Julio.
Julio De Leon's long pass near the midfield circle to David Suazo on the left wing bounced off Colombia defender Aquivaldo Mosquera and back to Suazo, who scored in the 30th.
Colombia equalised through Wason Renteria's header off Camilo Zuniga's right cross in the 54th.
David Villa scored with a late volley to lead Spain over Italy 1-0.
The Valencia striker met Fabio Cannavaro's headed clearance just inside the area in the 78th minute and curled his left-footed shot past diving goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon into the top left of goal.
Villa, who came into the match having scored two goals against Real Madrid in Spanish league last weekend, took his tally to 13 from 30 games for Spain.
Spain, which beat World Cup finalist France 1-0 last month, extended its unbeaten run to 14 games over more than 16 months.
"It was a difficult match ... but we executed nearly perfectly," Spain coach Luis Aragones told state TV. "There's still a lot of time until the Euro though."
The United States capitalised on a corner and two free kicks to beat Poland 3-0 in one of the biggest upsets on a full day of international matches.
Landon Donovan's free kick was headed in by Carlos Bocanegra in the 12th minute and Donovan curled in a corner to Oguchi Onyewu 23 minutes later to put the Americans in control. Eddie Lewis added a goal from a left-footed free kick in the second half to give the Americans two consecutive victories on European soil for the first time.
"We are pleased with the result," US coach Bob Bradley said. "I thought it was a strong team effort and that's necessary to play in Europe and against a good team like Poland."
COMPARED TO PELE
Alexandre Pato only needed 12 minutes to give Brazilians more reasons to compare him to Pele.
The 18-year-old striker scored on his international debut to give Brazil a 1-0 win over Sweden in a friendly rematch of the 1958 World Cup final - when a 17-year-old Pele got his major breakthrough by scoring twice in a 5-2 win in Stockholm.
Pato's feat was not quite as spectacular - he needed a major blunder from substitute Sweden goalkeeper Rami Shaaban to break the deadlock in the
72nd minute.
Shaaban ran out to clear a ball outside the left side of the area but hit it straight at Pato, who controlled the ball and sent a curling lob into the net from a tough angle. The AC Milan striker had come on as a substitute 12 minutes earlier.
"It was a great goal, with the technical quality," Brazil coach Dunga said. "It was his first (international) goal and it's always good. It builds his confidence."
In Switzerland, Mario Gomez scored twice and had an assist for Germany to beat Switzerland 4-0.
The 22-year-old Gomez, battling for a place in coach Joachim Loew's starting line-up for the European Championship, provided the first goal in the 23rd minute by whipping in a curling cross from the right that Miroslav Klose tapped in from a meter away.
Gomez bent in the second goal from 20 metres in the 61st minute after Clemens Fritz had dispossessed Tranquillo Barnetta, dribbled past another Swiss midfielder and sent the ball forward.
The game was put out of reach when Gomez beat the offside trap in the 67th, latching onto substitute Lukas Podolski's pass and chipping it off the hand of goalkeeper Diego Benaglio and into the goal.
Podolski added a fourth in the 89th minute.
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