Time will tell if Beckham suits up for Super Clasico

David Beckham played the entire match on the right flank for England in 2-1 loss in a friendly against Germany at Wembley Stadium in London Wednesday, showing no signs of exhaustion from travel or the 90 minutes he played in New York an Ocean away Saturday.

The next question will be, can he fly all the way back to California and contribute solid minutes when the Los Angeles Galaxy host CD Chivas USA in the third installment of the Super Clasico in a Major League Soccer fixture on Thursday night at The Home Depot Center.

"Only time will tell," Beckham said after the game in New York Saturday. "I have to see how (the ankle is tomorrow). It is swollen up at the moment but that was always going to happen. I'm traveling (Sunday) morning to London to meet up with the (English national) team. Hopefully I'll be playing some part of the game Wednesday and then Thursday morning I'll be flying back. I'll sleep hopefully all of the way on the plane, get some rest and then play some part of the Chivas game on Thursday night. I think it is important for me to get back and to be there. I'll definitely be at the game and hopefully play some part of the game."

That's a pretty crazy schedule for a player who has had just one training session with the Galaxy since joining the squad from La Liga's Real Madrid over a month ago because of a nagging ankle injury.

"I don't think he is coming back to quickly, the injury is fine," Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop said Saturday in New York. "If anybody knows or can understand about the schedule we just had or what we are sort of going through at the moment, I think it kind of showed tonight (in a loss). At times we just cannot maintain the type of pressure and the type of play that we would like to do for 90 minutes because of the schedule we just had. And its nobody's fault, but it is out there and we have to deal with it. I think David came through the game well. Whether he is ready to play and start the game Thursday for us against Chivas, I guess we'll see when he goes to the England squad. I guess we'll see how much he plays and how much he figures into what they are going to do against Germany on Wednesday."

The Galaxy will be desperate for points Thursday when they return home after gaining just one point on the four-game road trip they concluded with a 5-4 loss in front of 66,000 fans at Giants Stadium Saturday. Currently, they are 12 points out of the final playoff spot, although they have numerous games in hand.

To make the team's East Coast trip even more taxing, the Galaxy had a home match against D.C. United in the semifinal of the SuperLiga last week, forcing the team to fly across the country and then back to the East Coast for the New York fixture. The Galaxy won the SuperLiag semi to earn trip to the final of the inaugural North American club championship against Mexican champion CF Pachuca on Aug. 29 at the Home Depot Center.

"Just at this point, we are trying to pick up points in league games," Yallop said. "We might want to swap a couple of those results (in SuperLiga) if we had (the choice) for league points, but we are proud to be in the final of the SuperLiga representing MLS. We are going to try to win that game against Pachuca but our next game is important to hopefully kick start out season."

The Galaxy's other big-name player - Landon Donovan - could also suffer some jet lag after playing a friendly for the U.S. National Team Wednesday at Ullevi Stadium in Sweden, a 1-0 loss.

"The same with Landon," Yallop said. "Both of those guys want to come back and be part of our team (Thursday). It shows a lot about their determination and their will that they want to do that."

Chivas, on the other hand, played Saturday but had three weeks off before that game - a 2-0 win at Toronto - meaning they should be a more rested side for the L.A. derby. One player, defender Jonathan Bornstein, played for the U.S. National Team Wednesday, but he too should also be ready for Thursday's fixture.

Chivas are in pretty good shape, winning three of their last four while holding the next-to-last playoff spot, also with games in hand on the teams in front of them. They are the confident team heading into the Super Clasico, even though they are 0-1-1 in the other two meetings with the Galaxy this season.

"We need to keep our mentality right in training," Bornstein said. "The past couple of weeks we've been working really hard trying to instill this mentality in the team that any where we go we can win and we'll just take care of every team. So we've got to keep that up and within the next week before the Galaxy game we've got to prepare ourselves and get ready to play them in another good stadium with a big crowd."

After Thursday's derby, L.A. hits the road again, heading to Colorado for a Sunday fixture while Chivas hosts Real Salt Lake the same day.