PORTLAND, Ore. – The LA Galaxy were at the wrong end of a milestone in league history on Sunday afternoon.
The Galaxy saw a 14th-minute goal by Gyasi Zardes overturned when referee Drew Fischer consulted Video Review and determined that the striker committed a “clear handball” to score his goal. The strike could have put the visitors up 2-1 after a wild 15-minute start to the match, but after the overturned goal, the Galaxy lost their momentum, ultimately falling 3-1 to Portland.
The call was just the second instance that a goal had been overturned using Video Review since Major League Soccer implemented the procedure this weekend.
Galaxy boss Sigi Schmid, a proponent and former consultant on practice, agreed with the call and said his team needed to do better in their response.
“The goal gets disallowed. It was the correct reasoning, but we should have just headed it in,” Schmid told reporters at Providence Park after the loss. “I tried to call some players over [to the bench] to say that the call is going against us and to keep our heads up. But, that’s something we have to keep working on as well.
“Video replay is fine. It’s important to get the calls correct, and it certainly got the call correct.”
Following the overturned goal, Portland wrestled back control of the game, scoring a pair of unanswered goals from Diego Valeri and Alvas Powell to extend the Galaxy’s winless streak to seven games. Although there was no dissent from the Los Angeles locker room about the validity of the decision, goalkeeper Brian Rowe admitted that the players struggled to keep their energy following the review.
“You get the energy burst after we score the second goal and thinking that it’s time to defend to waiting a couple of minutes for the review and then the goal gets called back,” Rowe said. “You find yourself in a different mindset once the game is tied again. It adds an extra layer to [the game].”
As Video Review becomes a regular fixture of the game in MLS, the Galaxy believe that it’s up to them to adjust the next time it is called into action.
“VR getting introduced changes the flow of the game a little bit,” Rowe said. “It’s something that we’re going to have to get used to as players.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
