David Beckham assisted on Landon Donovan's goal and then scored the tiebreaker on a corner kick to help the Los Angeles Galaxy beat the Chicago Fire 2-1 on Saturday night.
Beckham sent in a cross from the sideline in the 58th minute that Donovan headed into the net from the back post to make it 1-0. The assist was Beckham's seventh, the second-most in Major League Soccer.
Beckham has been dealing with a slight stress fracture in his spine that forced him to miss two games last month. He said he was in pain the last few days, but woke up on game day feeling better than he had in a while.
''Personally, it was great,'' Beckham said. ''I didn't expect to play 90 minutes. With 25 minutes to go, I seemed to get a second wind.''
Cristian Nazarit scored in the 62nd minute for Chicago (2-5-12), using his head to finish a cross from Patrick Nyarko.
Beckham's kick from the left corner in the 66th minute that skipped untouched through a pool of players to help the Galaxy (10-2-9) extend their league-best unbeaten streak to 6-0-6.
''I don't know how that went in,'' Galaxy coach Arena said. ''That's what we pay him the big money for.''
Los Angeles became just the 10th team in league history to have a streak of at least 12 games without a loss.
Tempers flared in stoppage time when the Galaxy's Chris Birchall made a hard sliding tackle on Nyarko. Players from both sides came together near the sidelines before order was eventually restored.
Birchall, who hurt his ankle on the slide, received a yellow card. Chicago's Josip Mikulic was on the bench but was sent off with a red card for his role in the skirmish.
''It was a bad foul,'' Fire interim coach Frank Klopas said. ''Hopefully the league will review it and act accordingly.''
The Galaxy were coming off a pair of scoreless draws, and their offense didn't generate many chances in the opening half. But Donovan snapped the scoring drought with his ninth goal of the season, tying him with New York's Thierry Henry for the league lead.
Beckham would then take advantage of another set piece for the game-winner. He said it was only the second goal off a corner that he's scored in his career.
''I saw the goalie cheating a little out of goal and saw a gap,'' Beckham said. ''I knew if I put it in area, it was going to get a touch off somebody or go straight in. Luckily, it went straight in.''
The loss snapped Chicago's eight-game unbeaten streak, which included ties in the last four games. Klopas was dealt his first defeat since taking over for Carlos de los Cobos on May 30.
''We hurt ourselves with the set pieces,'' Klopas said. ''When you give opportunities to set pieces to the player that is the best in the world at that, we put ourselves at risk. We should have done better with the marking.''
Galaxy starters A.J DeLaGarza and Mike Magee missed the match because of injuries. DeLaGarza suffered a head injury in last week's meeting with Seattle, while Magee was out with a right hamstring strain that occurred during training.
