Beckhams touch down in LA

David and Victoria Beckham have finally arrived in Los Angeles to begin their new lives.They were greeted by a huge scrum of journalists, photographers, camera crews and fans.The England footballer be unveiled as a Los Angeles Galaxy player for the first time later.The 32-year-old will be paraded in front of an invited audience of season ticket holders and sponsors' guests in what has been billed as a "low-key" presentation ceremony.Beckham will take to the stage in the 30-minute ceremony at the 27,000-capacity Home Depot Centre stadium alongside his new head coach Frank Yallop.The promised formal approach is a far cry from the glitz and glamour expected in American sport, particularly so close to Hollywood, but Galaxy officials say they do not want the ceremony to overshadow a season still in progress.A Galaxy spokesman said: "It's meant to be low key. We've got games coming up and an important tournament next week."We don't want players getting distracted or being prevented from training."But even so, the club's website has been counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until their star player's arrival and Major League Soccer has launched a 30-second television commercial to publicise the England midfielder's expected Galaxy debut against Chelsea on Saturday July 21.Made to promote the live television broadcast of the game on national cable sports network ESPN, the advert is set to the Beatles' song Hello Goodbye and shows Beckham leaving Madrid as fans in the Spanish capital either look forlorn or protest at his departure.A young girl is shown crying, as is a woman reading a newspaper, while there is a shot of drinkers in an English pub shaking their heads in disbelief.Then Beckham appears in the new all-white Galaxy kit as he walks up a players' tunnel and the message: "Say hello, America" followed by "Beckham arrives" brings the commercial to an end.The star's transfer, in a five-year deal worth an estimated £128 million, to a team which have won only three times in 12 MLS games, were knocked out of the US Open Cup by a semi-professional team two divisions beneath them, and in a country where "soccer" is mainly played by young girls, has puzzled many football fans.But the so-called "Brand Beckham" - which has seen virtually every move the couple makes followed closely by fans and the media - is in full swing with campaigns for adidas and Motorola under way.His pop star wife Victoria, 33, also embraced the family's move to LA and US television station NBC will broadcast an hour-long reality TV special, Victoria Beckham: Coming to America, on Monday.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

ITN | July 13, 2007

Tags:. .progress. .league. .promote. .frank. .brand