David Beckham faces a fitness test today to determine whether the England midfielder flies with the Los Angeles Galaxy squad to Texas for their must-win SuperLiga clash with FC Dallas tomorrow night.

Beckham has not played or even trained with his new team-mates since his brief debut for the Major League Soccer club against Chelsea nine days ago and has continued to struggle to overcome an injury to his left ankle first sustained on England duty against Estonia at the start of June.

Galaxy leave for California tonight for Dallas, where they must win their final group game in the eight-team tournament if they are to progress to the knockout stage of the competition between MLS and Mexican clubs.

With a return to the league campaign next Sunday in Toronto, however, Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop will not risk a seven-hour round trip to Texas if Beckham cannot prove his fitness and a decision will be made after training at the Home Depot Center.

The England star watched from the dugout on Saturday night as the Galaxy were beaten 2-1 by Chivas Guadalajara in front of 37,337 mostly Mexican fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum in a performance team captain Landon Donovan described as "awful."

Donovan, who scored his team's goal 88th minute consolation, said: "We're disappointed with the way we played. I think I was actually happy with the way we started out tactically a little bit but with the ball we were awful.

"And if you keep giving the ball away and you're defending over 90 minutes against a team like that then you're going to lose. It's simple.

"We were doing a lot of the right things then making bad passes, or making one bad decision. They didn't do that.

"They kept the ball for two or three minutes and we were running. We get the ball back and give it right back to them and we're running again. That wears you out a little."

The performance was a big reversal of the form shown during Beckham's debut against Chelsea, which Jose Mourinho's men win 1-0, and against Mexican champions FC Pachuca last Tuesday, when the Galaxy won 2-1 for their first victory since July 4.

Yet general manager Alexi Lalas insisted the defeat, which was the Galaxy's fifth in their last six matches, was not a cause for panic.

"It doesn't set us back," he said. "We played a good team but there were points where we could have tied the game up and didn't.

"Having said that, I think this team, watching this game, will get the motivation and the education that it needs to take it to the next stage.

"In a week or so we've played four completely different styled teams, from Tigres to Chelsea to Pachuca to Chivas. They're all very different.

"The ball possession the Mexican teams have and the patience they have is something we have to get used to because these are teams in our regions and we're going to be playing them more and more.

"We need to figure out a way to keep possession and to put other teams under pressure when they play against us.

"We've taken a positive couple of steps but we've still got a long way to go. I just want to see this team be given some time to gel and to figure it out on and off the field.

"I think they're going to surprise some people but we have some individuals that need to improve and collectively we still need to improve but I'm really pleased with the way things have come together over the past couple of weeks."

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