BY ADAM SERRANO
The Los Angeles Galaxy made quite the fuss throughout the week welcoming Robbie Keane to the club and on Saturday, he repaid them with a star performance.
The Irish forward scored in the 21st minute of his debut for the Galaxy as Los Angeles defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 in front of 27,000 at the Home Depot Center.
The Ireland international got the start going 72 minutes with a number of quality chances at the net. The Galaxy added to their lead late in the match when Keane's substitute Mike Magee scored. Following the match, Keane admitted that it was a dream start to his career in MLS.
"When you come to a new team it’s always nice to score your first goal. If you go a few games without scoring it can play on your mind. Hopefully there’s a lot more to come," said Keane. "It couldn’t have gone obviously better for me. It’s always nice to score a goal but the most important thing is the win and the three points."
Keane received an enthusiastic reception from the capacity crowd at the HDC and appeared incredibly lively from the start. After being called offside on two early chances, Keane brokethrough in the 21st minute of play.
The play began when David Beckham sent in a looping ball forward that Earthquakes defender Jason Hernandez failed to clear, allowing Keane to catch the ball off the bounce. The Irishman then bypassed goalkeeper Jon Busch and calmed finished his first MLS goal.
“We’re elated with Robbie,” said Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena. “I think he had a great 70 minutes for us tonight and we think there are a lot of great games for Robbie in our team.”
In the second half, San Jose dominated the run of play as the Galaxy appeared to lose their attacking shape. Although the Earthquakes controlled possession, they struggled to create real scoring opportunities before eventually going down to 10 men in the 81st minute.
After being bypassed by Landon Donovan, Quakes defender Steve Beitashour brought down the Galaxy captain and proceeded to cleat him in the knee. Following the red card, the Galaxy doubled their lead on Magee's goal just moments before the end of the match.
"I thought our performance was not the worst," said Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop. "At least we moved the ball around, created some great chances, we had five shots on net. Which is a positive. It’s hard taking a positive from a 2-nil loss."
The former Galaxy head coach was extremely complimentary about the role that Los Angeles' new troika of designated players performed against the Earthquakes.
"They have three quality players, when you have three quality players of that caliber on the field at the game time, you’re going to be a pretty dynamic team," Yallop added.
The Galaxy and their new Irishman will now look ahead to Thursday when Los Angeles takes on Alajuelense in the CONCACAF Champions League. San Jose hopes to right their own sinking playoff hopes on Saturday on the road against Toronto FC.
While the Galaxy must now shift their focus to Thursday and an arguably must-win match in the Champions League, it was no question that this night belonged to Keane. With the weight of the Galaxy's lofty aspirations on his shoulders, Keane promised the club that more goals were on the way.
“If you’ve seen me play over the years, I like to play with energy,” Keane said. “I’ve always done that. I had a good night’s sleep last night, so I wasn’t really too worried about [jet leg]. There is certainly a lot more to come from me.”
It did look awkward, he hardly acknowledged anyone but Beckham. Hopefully he’s more friendly with his own teammates off the pitch.
@Fred: Name me a team that has a 100% win ratio. Every team loses sometimes. Even the best teams. Barcelona, Man U, R.Madrid, Inter Milan, yes, even LA Galaxy; they all post losses eventually. Pointing out the occasional loss doesn’t detract any quality from a great team, no matter how annoyed you are about it.
Busch and the San Jose center back both thought they were going to get an offsides call. You can see Busch stop and then start again, and you can see at least one of the SJ defenders pull off with his arm in the air. Not to defend the San Jose defense – this is the pros after all, and they should know better – but the AR’s on both sides were off with their offsides calls all night. Keane was probably thinking “well thank you ref!”
Nice goal, nice celebration also.
No sure what Jon Busch was trying to accomplish by jumping around the way he was.
Nice to see Keane score, but I am sure he was shocked by how terrible the defending was on his goal. The attempted clearance was laughable. I am sure he will be happy to play against some defenders in MLS…
:D)
^ troll face
Ding ding ding… I think this is the ‘trolliest’ comment I’ve ever read.
We have a winner.
washed up euro scores in first game in minor league soccer…WOW!! HEADLINES
I guess you’re right.. Portland beat the best team in the league a few weeks back..
As I mentioned upon his signing, the PRIMARY difference between this signing and other big name-Euro’s is simple: Keane is coming to MLS **healthy**.
Hence why the assumption he’d “start slow” or wouldn’t get on his feet until year two wasn’t realistic.
He’ll continue his solid start and it’ll carry over into the postseason/CCL.
You are reading quite a lot into a quick nudge.
Yeah, the first 30 min were a thing of beauty, then the rest of the game was choppy and ugly. LAG should have kept the ball moving with those 10-15 yard passes like when they started. They had a lot of good off-ball movement. Then they looked like a different team. What gives?
One thing LAG does better than anyone in the league by far though is that they bend but never break. When they are off and only have one goal, they can look shaky at times, but they don’t give away goals.
Umm…LAG lost to Dallas 2-1 in June after an odd thunderstorm night. But I think you are forgetting that LAG BEAT Dallas two weeks ago 3-1 when Dallas had the chance to tie it up on points, and yet Dallas choked under the pressure. After Dallas lost to Seattle tonight at HOME (hmm two losses for Dallas to good teams in two weeks) the LAG are now 8 points ahead of FCD. So which team beats up on the bottom dwellers?
I’m pretty sure he was looking for Beckham the guy who fed him.
Sorry to burst your bubble. We’re coming for ya (I’m just glad we don’t have to play you …)
Only thing that could have made the victory any sweeter would have been a draw from the Seattle/Dallas.
Haha. I was watching that too. It looked awkward. Was he selectively celebrating with some players while pushing others away? Maybe he had a feeling on how terribly clumsy and slow Cristman would look for the rest of the game and figured he didn’t want to associate with him…
Yeah there are other good teams out there, but LA is clearly a tier above the others, and they’re firing on all cylinders while others sometimes struggle.
then*
Did anyone see Donovan jump on Keane after the goal like they’re best buds in the world and the SHOVE Cristman when he wants some love too?!
I found that odd
They beat up on the bottom dwellers.. lost to Dallas
His goal/debut was the only bright spot on a clumsy and unattractive game. Hope he frees up a few players (Becks/Landon) so that the style of play improves.
he JUST turned 31 in July. i wouldn’t consider that old man
LA is the best team in MLS by a mile now, they got the real championship (shield) down cold and perhaps they will dominate the champions league too
Old man still has what it takes… He’ll thrive on MLS.
Brazil defeated Portugal with an Oscar hat-trick to win the U-20 World Cup.