Curbs happy despite MLS defeat

Alan Curbishley was pleased with his West Ham side's fitness workout following their 3-2 defeat against the MLS All-Stars on Thursday.

The Hammers boss watched his side take the lead in the game, played in front of a stadium-record sell-out crowd of 20,844 in Toronto, thanks to Dean Ashton's 26th-minute effort. However the MLS side, which included David Beckham, hit back with first half goals from Christian Gomez and Mexico's Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

Ashton equalised on 67 minutes, but MLS All-Stars won the encounter thanks to a penalty from Canada's Dwayne De Rosario.

"I think for everyone concerned it's been a success," Curbishley said. "There were goals scored and the chances that were created there could have been a bit more of a scoreline but I think everybody came away with something tonight.

"We needed the fitness work and we certainly got it tonight. The MLS players scored two terrific goals and it was a good evening.

"Everybody can be well pleased with their efforts."

Meanwhile Beckham was full of praise for the way his side battled on to secure a win against the Hammers.

The England international midfielder said: "Any good player that's passionate about soccer is committed in every game that we play and every player out there was committed to winning the game.

"We said we were going to take it seriously and we wanted to win the game and we did that.

"We also wanted to put in a good team performance because we are a bunch of players that play against each other every week and haven't played with each other.

"But we proved tonight that we can come together and we played as a team, we worked as a team and we won as a team.

"So, overall, it was a very good performance."