NEW YORK – The LA Galaxy’s won’t be looking back to their trip to Yankee Stadium with any fondness.
Los Angeles fell 1-0 to New York City FC on Saturday afternoon in a match that featured few clear-cut chances from both sides. Despite struggling to string together passes in the final third, the Galaxy had their share of opportunities to overturn David Villa’s first-half strike, only to come up short each time.
After the defeat, the frustration was apparent when Robbie Keane provided a succinct response to a question about whether there were any positives to draw from the loss that snapped the team’s nine-game unbeaten run.
“Nothing,” he said bluntly.
On a narrow field that made it difficult for either side to find their rhythm, the Galaxy were unable to provide service to the likes of Keane, Gyasi Zardes and Giovani dos Santos. Although the attack fell flat, the Galaxy did have several golden opportunities to equalize.
The first came in the 20th minute when Nigel de Jong fired an uncontested shot from inside the penalty area wide of the NYCFC net. De Jong nearly found the back of the net minutes later when New York goalkeeper Josh Saunders pushed away the Dutchman’s bicycle kick attempt. Later in the 71st minute, the Galaxy again couldn’t find the frame after Keane’s header toward an empty net sailed clear of the goal.
“Those couple of chances that we get, we have to put one in the back of the net. That’s the name of the game,” head coach Bruce Arena said. “The conditions were tough for both teams, and that’s that.”
Added Keane, “Listen, it was obviously a tough game. It was different with how the field was and I think a few guys were all over the place in that respect. We still did enough to maybe get a goal. I should have scored with that header…it was one of those days, and it wasn’t meant to be. They did okay.”
After an afternoon to forget, the Galaxy turn their attention to Wednesday’s clash with the Chicago Fire where they’ll try to salvage some positives from their Eastern road swing.
“We tried to do our best, but it didn’t work. I think everyone put hard work on the field, but the result was not there,” goalkeeper Clement Diop said. We need to react really quickly for Chicago on Wednesday.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
