Tokyo, Aug 06: Manager Carlos and teammates praise David for his man-of-the match performance and his first goal for Real Madid in a 3-0 friendly win against FC Tokyo. Fans were rewarded with a vintage performance by David Beckham who opened the account in a 3-0 defeat of FC Tokyo on Tuesday (August 5) in Japan. The sell-out 54,000 crowd in Tokyo, hushed with anticipation as Beckham retreated for his run-up, exploded as he swerved the ball with pace from the left of the box into the opposite corner. The England captain Beckham, who completed a $40 million US dollars move to the Spanish champions on July 2, was all smiles as he met journalists after the match in which Argentine midfielder Santiago Solari scored the second with Ronaldo completing the 3-0 score. "Obviously is a great achievement for to score my first goal so early even knowing is a friendly, you know. I enjoyed as much as it being in a Cup final (or) winning the Spanish league, so hopefully I can score a lot more," he said. Beckham was booked -- another first for his new club -- after just nine minutes for a professional foul and benefited from the absence of injured Zinedine Zidane to take charge of midfield, mostly in the second half.


"I enjoyed, I always said I like playing in the middle, so I get more involved but you know it's nice but also let's see what happens."


Answering about his progress to learned Spanish and understand his team-mates, Beckham said it was no big deal. "No, because that's one thing I've had to learn straight away is communicating in the pitch to the players and learning certain words. So I think I find easy when I am on the pitch to communicate with the players and in the future in the next few moments I will learn to communicate off pitch a lot more."


Roberto Carlos, one of the players who is helping Beckham to overcome the language barer and, according to Englishman, teaching him the swear words, always also full of praise for his new teammate.


"He is doing well, adapting slowly and for us is very important that David Beckham feels comfortable, like at home."


Manager Carlos Queiroz paid tribute to Real Madrid's latest reinforcement as the official post-match news conference.


"He was David Beckham - simply that. This is what expect of David Beckham. In two games, we try him in four different formations, he has done well in all of them but today he performed like David Beckham. When we changed his position (to central midfield), I know him very well and analysed him playing there for Manchester United and for England, I knew very well that David is a fantastic player. I think today he had a great match, he played very well," said the Brazilian left-back.


Substitute Ronaldo made it 3-0 in the 89th minute with a mesmerising step-over and shot from the edge of the penalty area as Real finished in style.



"I think the match started with a strong marking by the Japanese team. They pressed a lot but then got tired and we started to find more space on the wings. When I came on in the second half, I took a chance and scored a goal. I go home happy and I believe the Japanese fans too with our display," Ronaldo said.


Real Madrid captain Raul added that despite the long travelling, the Asian tour will help Real Madrid as they prepare for the season which starts with the Spanish Super Cup final first leg, on August 24, against Real Mallorca.


"We happy with the work done so far, we have not travelling like in Europe so it is not that easy. But for the moment but we are managing it. I must also say that we are facing weaker teams but I think we assimilating the ideas of the new manager and things are going well. The most important is that we come to 23 of August to play the SuperCup against Mallorca in our best conditions. These are preparation matches but they help to boost our confidence as everything is fine until now," Raul said.



Real are scheduled to play matches in Hong Kong and Bangkok before returning to Spain.


Bureau Report