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Keane’s hat-trick and Rogers’ LA debut steal show as Galaxy rout Sounders

Robbie Keane

By IVES GALARCEP

The Los Angeles Galaxy had lost three of their past four matches, and limped back home to face a red-hot Seattle Sounders side that had won four of five and put together a six-match unbeaten streak heading into Sunday night. Their clash had all the makings of a mismatch.

A mismatch it was, though not by the team that came into the match on a roll.

The Galaxy dismantled the Sounders, 4-0, on the strength of a first-half Robbie Keane hat-trick that put the match out of reach before the Sounders ever mounted a viable threat.

Seattle had no answer for the Galaxy’s quick passing attack, which didn’t miss a beat in the wake of the departure of standout midfielder Mike Magee, who was traded for Robbie Rogers on Saturday.

Rogers was the story of the night, coming in in the 75th minute, a moment that made history as he became the first openly gay male to play in a top U.S. pro sports league in the modern era.

Rogers had a rather uneventful 15 minutes, but the significance of his Galaxy debut was clear for all to see.

From the soccer standpoint, the Galaxy simply dominated the Sounders, who sorely missed the presence of Osvaldo Alonso in central midfielder. Shalrie Joseph and Servando Carrasco struggled to keep up with the Galaxy attack, and rookie forward Gyasi Zardes proved to be a handful for the Seattle back-line all night.

The lead orchestrator though, was Keane, who converted a pair of penalty kicks and scored another in the run of play while also setting up Sean Franklin for the opening goal of the night.

It was a night to forget for the Sounders, who failed to register a single shot on goal after posting consecutive four-goal games in victories.

The Galaxy reside in fourth place in the Western Conference, seven points behind conference leader FC Dallas. The Sounders now reside in sixth place in the West, but they have multiple games in hand on all five teams ahead of them in the standings (except the Galaxy, who they have one game in hand on).

Both teams will be traveling  across the country to play in the U.S. Open Cup, with the Galaxy playing the Carolina Railhawks in North Carolina on Wednesday, while the Sounders face NASL side Tampa Bay on Wednesday.

Here are the match highlights:

What did you think of the match?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. a couple of other observations from last night

    Sarvas was great, who along with Juninho led the Galaxy midfield in exposing Seattle’s midfield when Alonso is out. LA bossed the flanks and center of the field in one way traffic

    Gonzo was dominant on his mark all night, AJ too

    how about Zardes’ hold up play? dominated that role all game and saved Villareal from having to endure 4 or 5 fouls from behind in the 1st half

    Galaxy are deep

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  2. Keane had a great first half when Zardes was the target and Keane could roam. When they switched in the second half their productivity fell.

    In a game when LA dominated, I thought Donovan had a terrible game. He was nowhere to be found in the first half and skewed simple passes all second. His confidence is still shot. Saying that his corners were mostly ace. He’ll be in the Gold Cup, but tonight’s performance showed he needs consistency.

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  3. Teams will have eggs throughout the course of the year, this was clearly one for the Sounders. They were missing their most important player (alonso) and caught LA when they really needed to turn it around after losing 3 of 4. I do have huge issues with Sigi’s personnel choices, benching an extremely in form Neagle is indefensible. Yes the ref gave away a horrendous penalty but Seattle was outplayed I can’t really get upset about it. Although I laugh at people hyping up a hat trick that had two PKs, one of which was actually saved but a rekick was done for an arbitrarily enforced rule. They have had a tough stretch of games in May, even with this loss it was still a great month.

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  4. Wait a minute. Robbie Rogers is gay? I must have missed the thousands of times it was said this weekend. Let’s hope this symbolic trailblazer quickly returns to being a pretty good MLS player so we can move beyond the fabulousness of his presence in sports and just enjoy watching him as a soccer player. I’d bet that most MLS fans already know he’s gay and don’t care. But I guess a part of me also wouldn’t mind seeing him tick off someone like Alan Gordon.

    Keane’s a man. More DP’s like that guy, please.

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  5. Fwiw, I’m a long time soccer fan and have always seen a play as if a player gets the ball first its not a foul. Having said that, I just am getting into refereeing and during the weekend clinic they referenced the “I got the ball” and showed us a copy of USsf email to referees saying how it doesn’t matter if you get the ball first, the fact is it was a dangerous tackle (trailing leg took him out). So I can see why it was called a ok.

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    • I assume you are talking about the first penalty. If you think that was a penalty I wouldn’t want you reffing my game. Yes the trailing leg came through. You are generally always going to make contact on a tackle like that and it is always going to be after you get the ball since if you do it before its a foul. I reffed and played for years, that simply wasn’t a penalty. If that was a penalty every single game should have one cause that is a routine tackle in the box

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    • I think we can all agree that the first PK was a bad call but it had ultimately did not matter. That game was one-way traffic from beginning to end. That was a purely dominant performance.

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  6. There’s no doubt the PK was a bad call. Fair is fair and it really was a bad call. That said the Galaxy really did dominate the game. It would be nice if they could place like this all the time. I think LD did well but he needs to step up and play better if he’s going to get called to the national team. He had some good passes and I think he played better in the second half, but maybe that’s because he seemed to be getting more of the ball. I’m not sure the right midfield is the best position for him. But the Galaxy need help there because I don’t see that they have a lot of good options on the right. Nevertheless, the Galaxy played well.

    Does anyone know about Gyasi Zardes’s eligibility to eventually possibly play for the U.S. National Team? I know it’s too early to think that way but I can see him developing into a very talented forward.

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  7. Joseph is far too slow and his touch far too poor to be starting in MLS.
    That coupled with Yedlin having a really bad first half meant that the Sounders’ defense was wide open. Good debut from Cochrane, who spent the first half occupying the left side of the field and putting in crosses; he out-Yedlined Yedlin.

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    • Cochrane did not debut last night he has been solid as a left back. He has been the rookie of the year for the galaxy. Can’t ask much more from him.

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      • .
        This is the first I’ve seen him. While Cochrane needs to work on his crossing and shooting he is impressive. The other unsung hero is Stephens who has quietly improved quite a bit from last year.
        And of course, Zardes is better than I thought he would be.

        Arena’s young guys are coming along nicely

  8. “Keane’s hat-trick and Rogers’ LA debut steal show as Galaxy rout Sounders”
    No! The Memorial Day Tributes (after the give me of the first 2 goals) is what stole the show…

    Reply

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