NEW YORK – The LA Galaxy won’t fondly remember their first visit to Yankee Stadium, a humid summer affair in which both sides seemed to wilt equally under the Bronx afternoon sun. It could indeed have ended in a draw, if it weren’t for David Villa’s sixth-minute goal, the only one of the game. It proved fatal to the visitors, giving New York City a 1-0 win and leaving the Galaxy sweat-drenched, marching gloomily back to their locker room, the only sound the click of boots on concrete.
And not everyone in the visitors’ clubhouse thought Villa’s goal – already the subject of much internet discussion – should have stuck.
“My initial thought was it was offside,” said Galaxy forward Robbie Keane, chalking it up to a gaffe by the referee. “After that, he was putting his flag up quite a lot, including some times where I don’t think many people were offside, including, especially, Ashley [Cole] on a few occasions.”
But Keane seemed more resigned than angry about the referee’s call. “He missed it. He made a mistake,” he said. “What can you do?”
Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena, meanwhile, placed the blame solely on his squad in his post-game press conference. “There was not a whole lot of quality to our passing in the last third today,” he said. “The couple chances we get, we’ve gotta put the ball in the back of the net. That’s the name of the game. The conditions were tough for both teams, and that’s it.”
No Galaxy fans looking for silver linings post–game would be cheered by Arena or Keane, either. How about, say, those saves by LA goalkeeper Clement Diop?
“He was okay. He made a few inexperienced mistakes, almost gave away a goal at the end of the game,” Arena said. “I don’t think the linesmen slowed the play properly.”
Again, it was everyone’s fault. “We missed the mark,” he continued. “That’s life. We didn’t do well on anything.”
Keane, for his part, put it equally bluntly. Any positive takeaways from the team’s first rumble in the Bronx? “Nothing,” he said, turning and walking away from the locker room, Louis Vuitton dopp kit in tow.
