SAN JOSE, Calif. –The LA Galaxy were left fuming on Friday after a controversial second-half red card awarded to defender Leonardo derailed their four-game winning streak and saw LA fall 1-0 to their California Clasico rivals, the San Jose Earthquakes.
A Shea Salinas goal in the 19th minute put the defending MLS Cup champions in a hole early, but the pivotal moment of the match came in the second half with head referee Jose Carlos Rivero’s red card call.
Just two minutes into the second half, Galaxy center back Leonardo was whistled for a foul on San Jose’s Quincy Amarikwa. On With the Galaxy protesting the call, Rivero consulted with assistant referee Jeff Hosking before sticking by his decision to send off the Brazilian. On replay, it looked as if Amarikwa tripped over his own feet.
Short-handed, the Galaxy tried to find an equalizer but were ultimately unsuccessful as San Jose took the win and the Cali Clásico season series.
After the game, Galaxy boss Bruce Arena had just two words for the work of Rivero and his crew on Friday, “bad officiating.”
“We deserved to lose the game with the way that we played. We played a crappy first half. We played better with 10 players than we did with 11 and obviously, if you’re playing with 10 players for 43 minutes or so, you’re not putting yourself in a good position,” Arena told reporters. “That’s life. If there is any group of officials that get together and show stuff then that’s a classic example of poor officiating that they could use and hopefully learn from it. They ruined the game, I think.”
Arena’s words were relatively tame compared to Galaxy captain Robbie Keane who questioned not only Leonardo’s sending off but Robbie Rogers’ yellow card and repeated challenges on Giovani dos Santos.
“Listen, first and foremost congratulations to San Jose. The goal that they got was a good goal and they deserved it. No problem with that. No problem with them,” Keane said. “I do have a problem when you’ve got a referee who thinks it’s all about him instead of actually all about the players. The referee should never be mentioned in the game. Never. That’s the sign of a good referee. Never ever be mentioned in the game.
“Just concentrate on his own job instead of trying to be the center of attention. It’s no good. No good for the game and it’s not going to enhance this league, if they continue that. That’s probably the worst performance that I’ve seen from a referee. The worst.”
Although the Galaxy will now have nearly two weeks to prepare for their next match against the Montreal Impact, there was no doubt that the defeat left a bitter taste in the mouth of Keane who has been so instrumental for LA’s recent run of form.
“It puts a bad taste in my mouth because full credit to them for scoring the goal. I have no problem with that. We lost the game on that. Full credit to San Jose. I haven’t got a problem,” said Keane. “I have got a problem when some decisions are just terrible, terrible decisions. Everything was about him. It was about the fellow in the yellow jersey. He didn’t care about San Jose vs. LA Galaxy. He just cared about him. I just hope there was an assessor watching today.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
