The coach of MLS club LA Galaxy, Bruce Arena, has thanked Newcastle for putting on a great show during their recent visit down under. The Galaxy were in the Northern New South Wales city for three-and-a-half days, which included Saturday night's match at EnergyAustralia Stadium against the Newcastle Jets as well as a clinic for around 200 schoolchildren on Friday plus a handful of media engagements.

Galaxy players and officials were treated well by all involved, especially the locals, who even though were struck by David Beckham hysteria, respected the star's privacy when he was out in public.

After the match on Saturday, Galaxy coach Arena spoke highly of the event, rating it as a success even though his side was beaten.

"It has been a short visit for us but a great visit. We are happy that the evening was so successful. It was a wonderful turn-out and a lot of people left with smiles on their faces and that was one of the objectives and to accomplish that was great," he said.

"I think the game had its good moments as well and I think the fans enjoyed it. That was the objective of this and it was real positive and I grateful we had the opportunity to do this and we look forward to coming back again."

Arena was confident ahead of the match but was not surprised to see the Jets perform so well on the night whilst hinting at a potential rematch in the future.

"I think exhibitions are hard way to judge teams but I thought the Newcastle team played well," Arena added.

"It is hard in these exhibitions - we used 20 players and I am not sure how many they used, so the game wasn't as fluid as it would normally be obviously, but I thought they did quite well and they scored two good goals for sure.

"We'd love to be able to do that (host the Jets). I know our organisations are in talks to do just that and hopefully we can host Newcastle down the road. It would be fabulous to have this relationship."