It’s not easy going up against a defending champion, especially if you’re new to the league. New York City F.C got a taste of the MLS defending champions, the LA Galaxy yesterday afternoon. It was the first match-up between the novice and the experienced, evidently, the experienced team walked away with a 5-1 win.

Even though NYCFC is new to the league, their line-up is full of stars such as David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, Mikkel Diskerud and Frank Lampard. Having all the stars doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily shine the brightest as the Galaxy’s stars were brighter. In their biggest defeat, NYCFC had no answers for the five-time champions and were brushed aside like leaves.

If you could point out one flaw in that match-up, you would see that NYCFC never owned the mid-field. One of the most crucial parts to a squad, NYCFC’s mid-field was overrun by Galaxy’s Steven Gerrard, Gyasi Zardes and Juninho. Even with Pirlo’s talents and experience, he was stopped in the matter of minutes which prevented him creating chances for Villa and Kwadwo Poku.

The mid-field was a major issue for NYCFC as head coach Jason Kreis believes the absence of Frank Lampard is hurting them. Lampard has been sitting out for the past two weeks and has only been featured in two matches since coming from Manchester City.

Pirlo could’ve used Lampard as seeing that match-up against Gerrard would be interesting. It wasn’t only the mid-field that had troubles, but mainly the defense. It was obvious that veteran Robbie Keane and Giovani Dos Santos being upfront would be NYCFC’s biggest threat and evidently it was. Keane netted two goals and assisted on Dos Santos’ goal.

This match-up was arguably NYCFC’s biggest challenge and they failed. Instead of taking one step forward and pushing towards that clinching spot in the Eastern Conference, they took two steps back. Kreis needs to consider his line-up, especially his defense if he wants his squad to be a contender.

The Galaxy are a well established team that have picked and fixed their flaws, something NYCFC needs to do. NYCFC have some key matches in the next coming weeks and they should take this loss as an experience.