MLS All-Stars 3-2 West Ham: Ashton to the double

West Ham suffered the first defeat of their pre-season programme last night at the hands of the MLS All-Stars in Toronto.

The annual fixture has previously seen the pick of the North American football league defeat the likes of Fulham, Chelsea and Celtic, and last night a team featuring LA Galaxy's David Beckham continued their unbeaten record in a five goal thriller against the Hammers.

Watched by a capacity 20, 844 crowd - a record for the BMO Field - West Ham took the lead in the 26th minute when Dean Ashton latched on to Carlton Cole's flick-on and lashed his shot past goalkeeper Matt Reis.

The All-Stars struck back immediately as the impressive Cuauhtemoc Blanco - later voted the game's Most Valuable Player - released Christian Gomez with a skilful backheel, and the Argentinean striker beat West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green from inside the box.

The MLS players' superior fitness told as they finished the half strongly, eventually taking the lead thanks to another fine piece of skill from Blanco. After deceiving Hammers midfielder Scott Parker, the Mexican playmaker curled a sweet shot past Robert Green's outstretched hand.

Despite drawing level after Dean Ashton's 67th minute speculative long-range pot-shot took a wicked deflection to deceive Reis, West Ham finished the game in training mode, with several youngsters taking to the field as the second-half wore on.

As such, it was no surprise when the MLS All-Stars scored the game's decisive goal with 20 minutes to go. Having been fouled in the box by Hammers captain Lucas Neill, Canadian midfielder Dwayne De Rosario scored the resulting penalty himself.

A minute later, the All-Stars thought they had a fourth goal but former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel's strike was ruled-out for offside.

"Every player out there was committed to winning the game, we took it seriously," said a delighted David Beckham after the post-match presentations.

"We wanted to win and we did that."

West Ham United: Green, Neill (c), Davenport, Ferdinand, Widdowson, Faubert, Mullins, Parker, Etherington, Cole, Ashton
Subs: Walker, Spence, Collison, Stanislas, Reid, Stokes, Boa Morte

MLS All-Stars: Reis, Bornstein, Hejduk, Conrad (c), Mastroeni, Beckham, Gomez, Joseph, Toja, Blanco, Cooper
Subs: Onstad, Brennan, Ralston, De Rosario, Buddle, Angel, Donovan

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