ON SUNDAY, ROBBIE Keane’s Los Angeles Galaxy played out a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire in a mid-afternoon Major League Soccer clash at Toyota Park and the Irishman was furious that the game went ahead to begin with.
The Windy City didn’t exactly stay true to its nickname with minimal breeze and sweltering temperatures. It got up to 33 degrees and players on both sides struggled in the extreme conditions with Galaxy defender Dan Gargan forced off before half-time due to exhaustion.
In a dour game, Jeff Larentowicz opened the scoring for the hosts with just over twenty minutes to go before Landon Donovan equalised shortly after.
Afterwards, Keane vented his anger at the league for allowing the game be played in the middle of the day, when temperatures were at their highest.
I don’t know who makes these fucking stupid decisions. Play a fucking game at three o’clock in the afternoon? Who wants to watch that crap? Do you? I don’t want to watch that crap. These people who haven’t got a clue about soccer make these decisions when we play a game. Why not play at eight o’clock? It wasn’t on national television.”
It’s so stupid. They need to look at these games and use their head and be clever. No player wants to play in that humidity. Everyone was affected by the heat. Why would you want to play at three o’clock in the afternoon? On the hottest day of the year so far here in Chicago, knowing it is going to be that hot. And you can’t blame the LA Kings- Chicago Blackhawks (ice-hockey) game because you didn’t know that was going to happen until two days ago. This is absolutely ridiculous. We have to stop. We have to listen to the players instead of listening to people who have never kicked a soccer ball in their whole life.”