LA Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney revealed frustrations over a blown call in the 94th minute during their 2-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park, labeling the call “obscene.”
Though refereeing may always be questionable, for the Galaxy, bad officiating has led to dropped points. That’s how Greg Vanney felt post-game as he spoke to the media about the missed handball call in the 94th minute.
“Three games in a row, these guys don’t know what handball is. It’s getting to be obscene,” Vanney said in frustration.
“Honestly, it’s ridiculous. And the game is about margins. They have VAR. They’re the only entity in the entire game that gets a ‘redo.’ None of us else get a redo. They get a redo. And it’s three times they can’t get it right. That’s their job. That’s their job.”
Late in the match, when the Galaxy was pushing for an equalizer, midfielder Mark Delgado put a cross into the box, which subsequently hit the tucked arm of Sounders left-back Nouhou. Delgado and the rest of the Galaxy immediately put their hands up to get the attention of head ref Allan Chapman and his sideline crew, to no avail.
The Galaxy fought their way back into the match with a Jalen Neal goal in the 63rd minute and wanted this potential handball to materialize with the hope of at least getting a point. However, the Sounders held on with goals scored by Jordan Morris in the 21st minute and Leo Chu in the 35th minute to give them their fourth victory of the season.
The irritation from the Galaxy is natural, seeing that Vanney’s men have had a rough start to the season with only three points through six matches – still winless.
“We’re grinding, we’re in the margins, we deserve better. We deserve better. We controlled this game, we controlled last game. We deserve better,” Vanney continued.
“Yes, we need to execute better. That’s on us. But what we deserve we should get. That’s fair. Those three were not fair and that’s frustrating. I’m fighting for my guys. My guys are sitting in there dumbfounded they can’t get a call and that’s why I’m sitting here to say it’s unacceptable by them. Unacceptable.”
The Galaxy return the MLS this weekend as they take on the Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas.
