CARSON, Calif. – Robbie Keane is back with a bang.
The 35-year-old Irishman returned to the Galaxy after a five-game absence for the European Championships and didn’t miss a beat as he scored the game-winning goal in the Galaxy’s 2-0 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Monday night.
After spending the last month and a half with the Republic of Ireland, the Galaxy captain didn’t miss a beat in his return to Major League Soccer.
“I get paid to score goals. It’s my job. Obviously getting three points is the most important thing. It was obviously nice to get that early goal for the team; I think it’s always important to do that,” Keane said. “If you do that, teams come out at you a little bit more and to be fair to them; they didn’t do too much. And to get that goal early in the second half killed the game off.”
The goal was a vintage effort from Keane.
With the game still in the early stages, Keane received a clever pass from Steven Gerrard and launched a curling shot from beyond 20 yards out that flew past Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted. Although the Irishman was unable to find the back of the net again, he looked very sharp throughout his 77-minute appearance.
Keane’s goal left Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson, an old friend of the Irishman from their time in the English Premier League, a bit annoyed.
“Robbie [Keane]’s been putting them in the top post for 20 odd years. Sick of seeing it, to be fair,” Robinson told reporters with a smile. “He did have a smile at me, and I didn’t want to give him a smile back, but he’s a top, top player. That changed the first half because I thought we were excellent in the first half, but the reason Robbie gets paid a lot of money is because he’s able to do that.”
Having Keane around for an extended period of time will give added firepower to a Galaxy squad that has missed his presence for much of the summer.
And that has Keane’s teammates excited about the possibilities.
“We knew getting Robbie [Keane] and Gyasi [Zardes] back into the team that gives us a lot more firepower,” midfielder Steven Gerrard said. “We all know, and everyone knows in this league if you give Robbie Keane chances he'll score goals, and it's my responsibility and the rest of the guys responsibility that we keep feeding him ammunition because we know he'll fire the shots.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
