DaMarcus Beasley

DaMarcus Beasley
Personal information
Full name	DaMarcus Lamont Beasley
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Left winger
Team information
Current team	Rangers
Number	20
	‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 October, 2008

DaMarcus Lamont Beasley (born May 24, 1982 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American soccer player who is currently playing for Scottish Premier League side Rangers as well as the United States soccer team. He plays mainly as a winger.

Beasley was one of the most prominent players in MLS, a star for Chicago Fire before making a move during the 2004 season to Dutch team PSV Eindhoven. He was then loaned to Manchester City in 2006, later being signed by Rangers in June 2007 for £700,000. He has scored more goals in Europe's highest club competition, the UEFA Champions League, than any other American player. Beasley's older brother, Jamar, is also a footballer.

Club career

Early career

Beasley joined the IMG Soccer Academy, the United States Soccer Federation's Residency program in Bradenton, Florida. Before moving to Florida, Beasley played at South Side High School for 2 years with his brother Jamar. Beasley starred in the 1999 U-17 World Cup in New Zealand, winning the Silver Ball as the tournament's second best player, behind teammate Landon Donovan.

Chicago Fire

Beasley signed with MLS on March 16, 1999, and was allocated to the Los Angeles Galaxy. However, without playing a single game, he was traded to the Chicago Fire, with whom he excelled from his debut in 2000. In four seasons in MLS, Beasley scored 14 goals, recorded 20 assists, and was named to the league Best XI in 2003. But his stay with the Fire ended on July 19, 2004, when Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven agreed on a transfer fee with MLS worth $2.5 million. He signed a four-year contract.

PSV Eindhoven

PSV manager Guus Hiddink brought Beasley in as the successor to Arjen Robben (who went to Chelsea), and because of that, Beasley was granted the number 11 jersey. In his first season in the Eredivisie, Beasley played 29 games, scored 6 goals in 34 domestic games of the Dutch season and had a small role in helping PSV win their 18th league title. On May 28, 2005, PSV advanced to the final of the Dutch Amstel Cup by beating Feyenoord Rotterdam in a penalty shootout after Beasley's goal in the final minute of regulation tied the match.

In addition to making an impact on the domestic level, Beasley became the first American to play in the semifinal stages of the UEFA Champions League against AC Milan.^[1] In the first leg, PSV lost 2-0 at the San Siro. In the second leg, PSV won 3-1 at Philips Stadion, but they were eliminated based on the away goals rule. Despite the loss, Beasley was a key player, leading his team with 4 goals in 12 Champions League games.

DaMarcus was fined €1,500 (US$1,852) for driving under the influence of alcohol as a result of an incident on January 16, 2006. His Dutch driving privileges were suspended for the next three months, followed by a three month probationary period.^[2]

Manchester City

After a disappointing season for Beasley in which PSV won their 19th championship, in August 2006 the pacy winger joined Manchester City on a season-long loan from PSV.^[3] His first few weeks at the Manchester team however were troubled by injury limiting his ability to play.

On December 30 2006, Beasley netted his first goal for Manchester City, a game winner in the 83rd minute against West Ham United. He went on to score three times more before returning to PSV after making 22 appearances in total.^[4]

Rangers

File:Damarcus.JPG

Beasley played a key role in Rangers Scottish Cup final victory over Queen of the South.

In June 2007, it was reported that he had held talks with Rangers manager Walter Smith regarding a possible move.^[5] His transfer to Rangers for £700,000 was confirmed on June 27, 2007. He is the second American to play for the club, after Claudio Reyna. On August 4, 2007, Beasley made his Rangers debut, playing a full 90 minutes in a 3-0 win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.^[6] Beasley scored his first goal for the club against FK Zeta in a Champions League qualifier on August 7, 2007^[7], becoming the first American to score for two clubs in the competition. During the match, Beasley was subjected to racial taunting by Zeta fans, along with fellow black team-mate, Jean-Claude Darcheville.^[8] He urged UEFA and FIFA to do something about the chants, which prompted an investigation intended to crack down on the crowds at soccer matches.^[9] Beasley scored his first Scottish Premier League goal in Rangers' 2-1 win over Kilmarnock on August 25, 2007.

On October 2, 2007, Beasley was influential in Rangers 3-0 win against Olympique Lyonnais in the Champions League group stage. He was involved in all three Rangers goals in a victory for the Scottish side. His inswinging corner was headed by Lee McCulloch to give Rangers a 1-0 advantage. Beasley's wide pass to Alan Hutton allowed him to spring free and set up Daniel Cousin for the second. Finally, Beasley took a 50 meter aerial pass from Cousin while on the run, controlled, and finished. Beasley was named Man of the Match. ^[10]

During a UEFA Champions League match against VfB Stuttgart, Beasley was hurt in a collision with goalkeeper Raphael Schäfer. This left him unable to complete the match and he was substituted. The true extent of the injury meant that he was expected to miss the rest of the SPL season.^[11] However, Beasley was named in the Rangers squad for the match against Dundee United on May 10.^[12] Beasley made his return on May 19 against St. Mirren. His first start for Rangers after his injury came in the Scottish Cup final against Queen of the South, he notched a goal and an assist in the 3-2 victory.

On 23 August 2008, in a Scottish Premier League game against Aberdeen at Pittodrie Stadium, Beasley looked to have scored his first goal of the campaign, however the goal was wrongly ruled out for offside, despite Beasley being at least a yard on.^[13]

Career statistics

As of 12 September 2008^[update] Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000||rowspan="5"|Chicago Fire||rowspan="5"|Major League Soccer||18||2||5||0|||||||||||| |- |2001||24||2||3||0|||||||||||| |- |2002||19||3||1||0|||||||||||| |- |2003||21||7||4||2|||||||||||| |- |2004||15||0||0||0|||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||rowspan="2"|PSV Eindhoven||rowspan="2"|Eredivisie||29||6||1||1||colspan="2"|-||12||4||42||11 |- |2005-06||27||4||2||0||colspan="2"|-||5||0||34||4 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006-07||Manchester City||Premier League||18||3||4||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||22||4 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2007-08||rowspan="2"|Rangers||rowspan="2"|Premier League||11||2||1||1||1||0||8||2||21||5 |- |2008-09||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||0 Template:Football player statistics 397||14||13||2|||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 456||10||3||1||colspan="2"|-||17||4||76||15 Template:Football player statistics 418||3||4||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||22||4 Template:Football player statistics 413||2||1||1||1||0||8||2||23||5 Template:Football player statistics 5184||29|||||||||||||||| |}

International career

Beasley has also excelled for the United States national team, getting his first cap January 27, 2001 against China. He played for the Under-20 team at the 2001 World Youth Championship in Argentina. DaMarcus then earned a place with the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad, and since secured his place as the team's starting left midfielder.

Beasley, along with midfielder Landon Donovan, was harshly criticised by fans and the USA coaching staff for poor play during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He set up the USA's only goal (scored by Clint Dempsey) and had a goal disallowed against Italy when Brian McBride was ruled offside.

He was a key part of the United States national team that won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2002, 2005 and 2007.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	2002-01-19	Pasadena, California	South Korea	2-1	2-1	2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup
2	2002-05-12	Washington, D.C.	Uruguay	2-0	2-1	Friendly match
3	2002-05-16	East Rutherford, New Jersey	Jamaica	5-0	5-0	Friendly match
4	2003-06-19	St. Etienne, France	Turkey	1-0	1-2	2003 FIFA Confederations Cup
5	2004-03-31	Płock, Poland	Poland	1-0	1-0	Friendly match
6	2004-06-13	Columbus, Ohio	Grenada	1-0	3-0	FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifying
7	2004-06-13	Columbus, Ohio	Grenada	2-0	3-0	FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifying
8	2004-06-20	St. George's, Grenada	Grenada	3-1	3-2	FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifying
9	2005-07-05	Seattle, Washington	Cuba	3-1	4-1	2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup
10	2005-07-16	Foxboro, Massachusetts	Jamaica	2-0	3-1	2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup
11	2005-07-16	Foxboro, Massachusetts	Jamaica	3-0	3-1	2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup
12	2005-09-03	Columbus, Ohio	Mexico	2-0	2-0	FIFA World Cup 2006 qualifying
13	2007-06-02	San Jose, California	China	1-0	4-1	Friendly match
14	2007-06-12	Foxboro, Massachusetts	El Salvador	1-0	4-0	2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup
15	2007-06-12	Foxboro, Massachusetts	El Salvador	4-0	4-0	2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup
16	2008-10-11	Washington, D.C.	Cuba	1-0	6-1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying
17	2008-10-11	Washington, D.C.	Cuba	2-0	6-1	2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying