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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;CARSON, Calif. \u2014&amp;nbsp;On Saturday night, it was already decided New York City Football Club\u2019s match against the Los Angeles Galaxy would not feature the latest installment of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard\u2019s famous rivalry. The allure of the \u201CBritish Invasion\u201D aside, David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, Giovani Dos Santos, Robbie Keane and Gerrard playing on the same pitch surrounded the game with an amount of hype unprecedented for a regular-season MLS game.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the final whistle blew on Sunday afternoon, it was clear that NYCFC had made the right decision in keeping Lampard out of the match due to his lingering quad issue.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even at his youthful best, the Chelsea legend wouldn\u2019t have bridged the gulf that separated the two teams on the field on Sunday. Los Angeles absorbed early pressure from the glitzy expansion team from the east coast in the game\u2019s opening stages. Then, over the last 70 minutes of the match, the Galaxy showed NYCFC the difference between talented names on a roster and a talented team with a complete and dominating performance in a 5\u20131 win.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWe could have had eight goals today,\u201D Galaxy assistant coach Dave Sarachan said after the match. \u201CThey had a lot of the ball early but didn\u2019t do anything with it, and we got the first goal. The team that scores first gets the lift, the team that\u2019s scored on gets deflated. I think that\u2019s what we saw today.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, in the first 14 minutes of the match, NYCFC had five on-target attempts. L.A. had one. But in the final 30 minutes of the first half, L.A. racked up 14 shots while NYCFC was held mostly quiet. The only exception was a near miss over the crossbar by midfielder Tommy McNamara in the 38th minute after Gyasi Zardes had put L.A. in front with a header assisted by Robbie Keane in the 36th. At halftime, NYCFC had completed over 100 more passes than L.A (266/163) at a higher success rate (86.8%/ 84%) but was behind.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CNew York City FC was all over us to start the game, but once we settled in we played pretty well,\u201D Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. \u201CGive them credit. We didn\u2019t play well in the early going. It was a real team effort. We\u2019re real pleased with Robbie\u2019s performance and the guys that score goals, but it\u2019s all about the team here.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the second half, Los Angeles\u2019s talent-laden outfit displayed chemistry that NYCFC, five months into its inaugural season, continues to search for. Perfect passes through NYCFC\u2019s back line created eight shots, five on target, and produced four goals for L.A.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The understanding that Dos Santos and Keane are rapidly developing continued to net results; Dos Santos assisted Keane\u2019s goal in the 54th minute and Keane returned the favor 13 minutes later. Gerrard sprayed the ball accurately all afternoon. He recorded an assist on Sebastian Lletget\u2019s goal in the 70th&amp;nbsp;minute and also paired very well with Juninho in the midfield, keeping the ball moving into the attacking third and helping on defense.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CListen, you\u2019ve got good players here,\u201D said Keane, who finished L.A.\u2019s scoring with a goal in the&amp;nbsp;81st minute. \u201CGood players can always settle in real good when they are playing with other good players. Everything just seems to click.&amp;nbsp;We have a solid structure around us of quality players. Add that all together and it\u2019s the mixture for a very good team. You\u2019ve seen that today.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;New York City\u2019s designated players were not without their moments.&amp;nbsp;Pirlo displayed his skill early and often in the first half; the Italian maestro had two passes to Villa and Kwadwo Poku, in the fourth and fifth minutes, respectively, that put each player in excellent position to score. Villa\u2019s shot was blocked. Poku didn\u2019t get an attempt off. By the time Pirlo left the pitch in the 75th minute, L.A.\u2019s fans were comfortable giving him a resounding ovation because, for all his world-class skill, the score was 4\u20130 in their favor.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Villa had four shots on target blocked and missed another three attempts. By the time he opened NYCFC\u2019s scoring from the penalty spot in the 80th&amp;nbsp;minute, he\u2019d spent much of the game with his hands in the air or on his face.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For all of the attention paid to the designated and national team players in this match, it was the supporting cast that proved the difference. L.A\u2019s big names played off the rest of the team like they\u2019d been doing so for some time.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NYCFC\u2019s supporting cast wilted in the bright spotlight. New York\u2019s back line, which is taking much longer that L.A.\u2019s attack to gel, continued to allow space for passes and runs. There were individual moments in the midfield, but it continued to lack cohesion as a unit. None of that came as a surprise to Arena.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CExpansion teams are difficult,\u201D Arena said. \u201CThere\u2019s a little more of a discrepancy of talent in the first 11. Ours is a little closer together. When Gerrard came in here, it wasn\u2019t like we had to depend on him to have a good team. That was the case with Robbie Keane as well, we had David Beckham and Landon Donovan. When Beckham came in he didn\u2019t have that. It was difficult and his first years with the Galaxy weren\u2019t good.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;MLS had every reason to advertise this game to be the star-studded affair that it turned out to be. A crowd of approximately 27,000 came to the Stubhub Center not only to see a soccer match, they came to witness the tangible progression of the league. But it takes more than marquee names to win in between the lines. A combination of chemistry and talent at all positions is key, because the best teams in the league have so much of both. The Galaxy reinforced that lesson to&amp;nbsp;NYCFC on Sunday.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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