After a fantastic match late Saturday night, the talk of the country was the offensive and attacking display from both LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls. During the game, there was some animosity shown by Luke Rodgers who was very angry at Landon Donovan for his behavior of working the referee.

What everyone remembers in the 70th minute of the game was Luke Rodgers going after the ball and trying to poke it past Donovan Ricketts, but Ricketts got the ball and Luke Rodgers did try to hold up his lunging attempt. After an apology from Rodgers both men shook hands and that looked to be the end of it, but Landon Donovan went up to the referee asking for some form of punishment and Rodgers held up his hand and did the talking muppet motion.

On Monday, May 9th the Red Bulls met with the local New York media to give their reports about their opinions of the game and none were more vocal than Luke Rodgers as he was very upset at how Donovan worked the officials all match long. Apparently after Thierry Henry scored in the fourth minute he was already screaming at the near side assistant that the play was offside.

Every time there was a Galaxy player fouled Donovan kept on working the officials and when Rodgers apologized to Ricketts, Donovan came over wanting him sent off and that’s when he had enough. He talked to the NY Post’s Brian Lewis at Montclair State about the situation. “In this league, he’s a respected person, but he’s telling Titi to (screw) off” said Rodgers, “The kid’s a (*$%@#)head. I don’t care. I just think the kid’s a (friggin’ jerk). I tackled the keeper. He’s running [the] whole length of the field to tell the ref I should be sent off. He needs to be a bit more humble.”

More came from Rodgers who was not happy about Donovan’s actions on the field. “I just think he talks too much. You don’t need to. Put it this way, someone like him, he’s done OK for himself, played in MLS, scored a lot of goals, he’s in all-star teams, played in the Premiership and I know people in the Premiership who say he’s done really well when he was there. You’ve got people looking up to him, and he’s trying to get people sent off. Is there one rule for him and one rule for the rest of us?”

What was the response from Donovan after all of this happened? From his Twitter account he replied, “I’m confused; who is Luke Rogers?” After he re-watches the game tape, I think Landon will know who he is. But after a wonderful game that showed plenty of heart and plenty of scoring chances this type of fire and war of words will be lingering before the Galaxy makes their cross country trip to the New York City area on Sunday night, August 28th. I know that the fireworks will be ready for the return leg and it should be another cracker of a game.