By Alex Baker
(Carson, CA) – The LA Galaxy fought Tottenham Hotspur to a 1-1 draw in an international friendly Tuesday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson. The visiting EPL side drew first blood when Welsh winger Gareth Bale connected with a pass from Gylfi Sigurdsson and headed it past Galaxy keeper Brian Perk to make it 1-0 in the 17th.
But the reigning MLS champs held it together and equalized just 10 minutes later when the Galaxy Brazilian defender David Junior Lopez collected a pass from Hector Jimenez and slotted it past Spurs keeper Carlo Cudicini to make it 1-1 in the 29th minute.
“I’m very happy, I scored a goal,” said Lopes, speaking through a translator. “I’d be a lot happier if it’d been in league but it’s still against a big club from a big league and overall I’m very happy.”
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena also seemed pleased with his side’s performance against Spurs, who finished forth in the EPL last season.
“We’re certainly pleased,” said the Galaxy coach. “I thought Cudicini made a couple of good saves the first half on Keane. Perhaps we could have snuck in another goal. Obviously the Spurs had a number of good opportunities especially in the second half so I can’t argue with the result but I don’t think the result is that critical in an exhibition like this.”
Newly-appointed Spurs coach Andres Villas Boas was also impressed with the home side’s performance in the match.
“Of course the Galaxy was missing two extremely good players – Donovan and David, which are influential for their team” said the former Chelsea boss. “But still, fantastic I think. They created lots of problems in their possession. I don’t have full knowledge of the extent of LA Galaxy but I was pretty impressed with what I saw.”
Villas Boas also had positive things to say about the state of US soccer in general.
“The way they’ve evolved in the past it’s been quite amazing,” said the Spurs coach. “It’s always a difficult one because you are competing with sports that are the number one sports in the US. But I think if in the next 20 years US soccer does exactly what it did in the last 15, I think there can even be more talent coming through which normally arrives in the Premiership with great success.”
Tottenham will continue their preseason US tour when they face Liverpool in Baltimore on July 28th. The Galaxy will be back in league action that same day when they play away at FC Dallas.
“I’m very happy,” said Lopes speaking through a translator. “I scored a goal. I’d be a lot happier if it’d been in league, but it’s still against a big club from a big league and I’m happy, overall I’m very happy.”
