HE was already playing in the Premiership when David Beckham was just launching his career and come the end of the month he will be the first Major League Soccer manager to face the Los Angeles Galaxy with their new star player.

Steve Morrow may not have hit America with the same fanfare but he is one of the foreigners in America who are doing much to raise the league's status.

Morrow, 36, spent ten years at Arsenal, another four at Queens Park Rangers and will always have to endure being remembered as the man who scored the winning goal in the 1993 League Cup final and then got dropped on his head by Tony Adams.

With FC Dallas he is carving out a very promising career as a manager . . . while Beckham's LA Galaxy languish fifth out of six in the Western Standings, Morrow's side are joint top.

On 31 July, Beckham's LA Galaxy will face Morrow's team in the SuperLiga Cup, which features eight teams from America and Mexico.

For Morrow, who has built his reputation in America after ending his playing career here with two years at Dallas Burn . . . the predecessors of FC Dallas . . . it will be a long-awaited chance to show the world what a good side he has built. In his squad he has former Newcastle and West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop and former Manchester United trainee Kenny Cooper.

Morrow is a fierce defender of the standards of the MLS . . . "to put it very bluntly I am sick and tired of hearing people says it's no good" . . .

and is adamant that after Championship football, playing in America was a step up.

"The level is very, very good and if I had to compare it I would say the top teams could survive in the Premiership without a problem, " he said.

"It is a different type of game, it's strong, athletic and fastpaced. It's technically better every year and the younger players are getting better.

"I think you can see that with the American players in the Premiership. For example, Claudio Reyna is a former Premiership player who is now playing in New York and, without being disrespectful, he is not even one of the top players in the league. It is a good standard and it doesn't get the recognition it deserves in England." As for the arrival of Beckham, it is a factor that Morrow hopes will help MLS managers like him recruit players from Europe more easily. He narrowly missed out on signing Edgar Davids at the start of the season and says European players will have to demand less money in return for enjoying a much better standard of living in America. He hopes to sign the former Brazilian international Denilson, the 29-year-old who was once the world's most expensive footballer at Real Betis. It is the South American players who are more amenable when it comes to moving to the MLS.

"I think there will be a certain group of fans who just turn out to see Beckham and don't know the game, " Morrow says. "They will be expecting him to dribble past nine players and score a goal.

It's one thing that Beckham as an individual will have to deal with but the core of fans here know the game really well and are very knowledgeable.

"I think it will help attendances a lot. People will want to see him whether it is an initial reaction or longer lasting. The people here are very smart and they know someone like David Beckham will really take off in this country.

No matter where he goes he will be playing in front of full stadiums. The more fans who will come out, the more will stay and keep coming back to games."

Beckhman too was upbeat.

"I think most of America is positive about me coming here and about soccer in general, so I can never be worried about selling out stadiums, " he said.

"I have had pressures all through my career, especially this year."

The former England captain added, "I have had a rollercoaster year where I have been in the team and been out of the team on the club and country side.

"That turned around and Real Madrid ended up winning the league and I ended up getting back into the national team. So of course there have been expectations here but there have been expectations all the way through my career."

Beckham is not the first player who has arrived in the US hoping to persuade the nation to take the game of football to its hearts but he says his situation is different to the time when Pele, George Best and Franz Beckenbauer tried to ply their trade in America.

Pele was at the New York Cosmos in the 1970s but, while the influx of stars helped promote the game, the momentum and interest evaporated.

"I wouldn't say Pele failed because when he was here he was bringing in stadiums of 80,000 people, " stated Beckham.

"And, seeing the reactions and DVDs of Pele it was a pretty incredible time.

"It was just afterwards the stability of the league was not there. Now there is more stability in the MLS and, hopefully, it can go to a different level but it is going to be tough.