Beckham scores on free kick, Galaxy tie Impact 1-1

MONTREAL — David Beckham bent in a free kick in the 62nd minute to help the Los Angeles Galaxy tie the Montreal Impact 1-1 on Saturday at Olympic Stadium in front of 60,860 fans — the largest crowd for a professional soccer game in Canada.

“The majority of people here tonight were cheering the Impact on, but the fact that there were 60,000 fans is incredible,” Beckham said. “We thank all the fans, whether they’re Impact fans or just football fans. It was a great day for the game.”

There was a mix of boos and cheers each time Beckham played the ball, even when he scored on one of his patented free kicks that beat goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts inside the right post from 23 yards.

“Donovan is such a talented goalkeeper,” Beckham said. “With the free kick, I knew I had to put it pretty precise to beat him.”

Ricketts played for Los Angeles the last two seasons before joining the Impact.

“I’m guessing that if there was another goalkeeper playing for them we would have won,” said Galaxy veteran Landon Donovan.

Beckham’s second goal of the season came 6 minutes after he was shown the yellow card for an elbow to the face of Felipe Martins, which might have been embellished by the Brazilian.

Davy Arnaud scored for Montreal in the second minute.

“After the first goal they got on top of their game and we just weren’t as sharp as we normally are,” Arnaud said. “We were a little heavy. In fairness to (L.A.), they probably got the goal they deserved. But at the end of the day, we didn’t lose the game even though we weren’t at our best, which is important.”

Los Angeles is 3-5-2, and Montreal is 3-5-3.