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Real Madrid takes the Supercup

Real Madrid with their trophy after winning the Supercup by beating Mallorca 3-0 in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

David Beckham headed a 73rd-minute goal on his home debut as Real Madrid downed Mallorca 3-0 and won the Spanish Supercup on a 4-2 aggregate.

The star midfielder netted his landmark goal by nodding home a cross by Ronaldo for Madrid's third goal, after earlier strikes by Spanish international Raul Gonzalez and the Brazilian striker, to earn the Spanish powerhouse its first silverware of the season.

"We fully deserved to win the Supercup. I was pleased with a lot of our attacking movement and the discipline of our game. We have lots of work to do but it is still early in the season," Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz said.

Given a huge cheer by some 50,000 spectators at the Santiago Bernabeu when his name was announced before the match, Beckham looked more comfortable on the turf of his new home and was much more involved than in his two previous games in Spain with Madrid.

"Beckham played a good game but he can play better. You have to remember that players are human beings not machines. It's hard for a player to leave his country. It's not easy to change but little by little things get better," Queiroz said.

Beckham spent most of the match on the right, but it was from a narrow angle to the left of the goal when he almost opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a swerving free kick which flew just wide.

The star midfielder had no fortune with two more deadball shots before the 20th minute, with one hitting the Mallorca wall and the other sailing well over the crossbar.

"We didn't have the luck that Madrid had," Mallorca coach Jaime Pacheco, who said that Beckham's goal should have been disallowed due to a previous foul by Zinedine Zidane on midfielder Toni Gonzalez.

In the meantime, Madrid, lacking midfielder Claude Makelele and defender Francisco Pavon, made a slow start. Mallorca, which inflicted Madrid's last two home defeats in the Spanish league -- most recently a 5-1 thrashing in May -- made regular incursions into the Madrid half.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o and Argentine midfielder Ariel Ibagaza, who is expected to leave Mallorca on Thursday for Atletico de Madrid, were frequently involved as Madrid looked stretched in defense. But with Queiroz urging his players forward from the touchline, Madrid slowly took charge with Zidane at the fulcrum of its best moves. Just before the interval, Madrid went into the lead when 'keeper Leo Franco could only parry Zidane's low shot, allowing Roberto Carlos to step in and pass for Raul to tap into the empty goal.

However, Madrid's two-goal lead had cheered its supporters and when the England captain was presented with his fourth free kick of the game on the edge of the area, the Bernabeu crowd chanted "Beckham, Beckham." Madrid's newest star sent the ball narrowly over the bar.

Mallorca battled back and almost scored twice in the 69th minute. Ibagaza had a delicate chip just tipped over by Casillas and from the resulting corner the Madrid goalkeeper performed heroics to palm substitute Jesus Perera's header on to the bar.

Four minutes later, Beckham finished off Mallorca's resistance with his headed goal.
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