Blog: Shaken awake on Beckham fans' big day

David Beckham talks to Wellington mayor Kerry Prendergast (L) after she presented his LA Galaxy team with Pounamu (greenstone) pendants. Photo / Reuters

Paul Smith will be in Wellington for the arrival of Beckham, the buildup to Saturday night's LA Galaxy clash and the match itself. * Have you seen Becks around Wellington? Send us your photos

David Beckham got an early morning wake-up call at 6.49am today.

It didn't last long, but the quake, measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale and centred just across Cooks Strait near Picton, was enough to announce it was match day.

Another series of rumbles came two hours later, suggesting it won't only be the Phoenix players' legs wobbling today.

It wouldn't be surprising if the players are nervous given there has been so much talk this week of how the Beckham visit signals the start of a love affair with soccer in Wellington.

That is probably over-stating it. Once Beckham has gone and the fever has died down, the capital will return to being a rugby town like the rest of the country. But the Phoenix have definitely got a toe-hold in a way that the Knights never did in Auckland.

But things can change in sport. Hell, the Black Caps even won a game in South Africa this morning.

Certainly, the growing number of children in Phoenix or Galaxy shirts on the streets in the past 24 hours has been more like an English city where you can't avoid Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal shirts.

Transferring the kids' interest, as shown in yesterday's crazy training session, to adults will be the big job.

An Associated Press report on Beckham's arrival, carried on some international news sites, sums it up: "Soccer is minor sport in New Zealand, widely played by school children but followed by few adults in a nation of four million people obsessed with rugby union."

Expect a 35,000 sell-out tonight, but the Hurricanes and the Wellington Lions probably don't have anything to worry about. Except earthquakes.