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The New York Red Bulls-Los Angeles Galaxy cross-country rivalry has some added spice to it.
Major League Soccer's two high-spending, marquee-market teams played to an exciting 1-1 draw Saturday night, but the fireworks didn't stop at the final whistle. Landon Donovan took umbrage at a late challenge by Thierry Henry and refused to shake the Red Bulls' captain's hand after the game.
Free-speaking New York forward Luke Rodgers called out the Galaxy captain on Monday, referring to him with colorful language and alluding to the fact that the U.S. national team star spends too much time complaining to referees about calls.
"In this league, he's a respected person, but he's telling (Henry) to (screw) off," Rodgers told the New York Post. "The kid's a d—head. I don't care. I just think the kid's a (expletive).
"After Henry scored he's running the whole length of the pitch to shout at the linesman. He must have eyes like a hawk to tell if he's offsides. I tackled the keeper, he's running whole length of the field to tell the ref I should be sent off.
"Is it one rule for him and one rule for the rest of us? He needs to be a bit more humble. He's just a bit annoying. Just a bit annoying when it's like you’ve got two referees on the pitch. He's running up to the referees telling him what decisions make. I’ve never ever seen nothing like that."
Donovan's sole response to the comments came via his Twitter account.
"I'm confused, who is Luke Rogers?" Donovan tweeted on Monday. It's up for debate whether he spelled Rodgers' last name incorrectly on purpose.
The regular-season rematch between the Galaxy and Red Bulls is slated for Aug. 28 at Red Bull Arena.
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What do you think of the mini war of words? Think Rodgers was out of line considering he's only played against Donovan once? Does he have a point? What'd you make of Donovan's response? What did you think of Donovan's actions during the game?
Share your thoughts below.