Game Recap – LA Galaxy vs. NYCFC

August 23, 2015

LA Galaxy have reclaimed the top spot in the MLS Western Conference, and have done it with a bang.  They deserve their standing, and have been the strong and solid team that won three MLS titles in the past five years.

New York City FC had lived up to its name today, and had shown that for now it is a football club, and still has a long way to go until it becomes a team.

Frank Lampard was not included in the squad, not even on the bench, due to his quadriceps injury.  Lampard could have been of great assistance in this game, as Pirlo sat deep at the back and David Villa seemed to be alone with little to no support from midfield.

In the first fifteen minutes New York actually came out strong, was on the attack, possessed the ball and the Andrea Pirlo-David Villa axis seemed to be working and creating pressure on Galaxy’s defense.

Half way into the second half however, NYCFC lost focus, concentration, formation, and worse of all – started losing balls.  And soon thereafter the LA Galaxy attacking machine went into power drive, and started taking advantage of New York’s errors.

The Galaxy started to dominate and create chances midway in the first half, some that have not materialized earlier, until Robbie Keane sends an accurate shot from the top-left corner of the box to Gyasi Zardes, who was all on his own in the box.  He scores the first goal of the match (36’).

LA Galaxy 1 – 0 NYCFC

Coming back from half time, Keane continues his mission of NYCFC destruction, and sprinted into the box with a ball he clipped into the net right before jumping above New York’s keeper Josh Saunders (54’).

LA Galaxy 2 – 0 NYCFC

Giovani Dos Santos got his name on the scoreboard, receiving the ball from Robbie Keane in midfield, carrying it all the way through and again jumping above Saunders inside the box to find the back of the net (67’).

LA Galaxy 3 – 0 NYCFC

Three minutes later, Sebastian Lletget took advantage of NYCFC’s confused defense and shot from the center of the box a pass he received from Gyasi Zardes (70’).

LA Galaxy 4 – 0 NYCFC

NYCFC got a very small consolation in the form of a penalty kick, due to LA’s Dan Gargen tripping Patrick Mullins in the box.  David Villa took the penalty and converted (80’).  Villa did not even celebrate the goal, nor any of his teammates – as it was far too little, far too late.

LA Galaxy 4 – 1 NYCFC

Robbie Keane finished off the game with his second goal of the match, again from the six-yard line in the center of NYF’s box, with no New York Defenders in sight (81’).

LA Galaxy 5 – 1 NYCFC

As written here at MLSGoals and all over the media, there was great expectation for this game to be an MLS spectacle, displaying at one match so many of the world’s biggest soccer stars that had Major League Soccer as the next stop of their career.  Regardless of a result, that was expected to be in LA Galaxy’s favour, given it is a more established club; there was excitement in the air in anticipation of the stars of each side displaying some of their legendary soccer skills.  Sadly, it was not the case.

Let’s still put things into proportion and remind ourselves that LA Galaxy is the best team in Major League Soccer, and NYCFC is an MLS expansion side.  Still, although hosts LA Galaxy sure lived up to the expectation and displayed inspiring soccer tonight, the NYCFC side never bothered to show up to the game.