METAPÁN, El Salvador - Jack McBean may just be 17-years-old, but the second year forward looked like a wily veteran on Thursday, scoring a pair of goals as the LA Galaxy defeated Isidro Metapan, 3-2 at the Estadio Jorge "Calero" Suarez in Metapan.
From the outset, McBean was a handful for the Salvadoran defenders, forcing Metapan to use an early substitution to get additional bodies on the towering teenager. After creating a few early chances, McBean finally broke through in the 38th minute as he nodded home a cross from Bryan Gaul for the game's first goal. McBean would strike again in the 62nd minute, as a play that began with a Marcelo Sarvas free kick, ended with a Bryan Gaul header sailing past Pat Noonan, to a waiting McBean for his second goal of the night. The brace puts McBean with the second highest goal total all-time for the Galaxy in the CONCACAF Champions League with three goals. McBean is just a one behind Juninho, who has four over the span of two years.
The teenager's performance left head coach Bruce Arena impressed as the Galaxy boss commented that after a slow start, McBean roared back with a strong performance in the game's last 55 minutes.
Below McBean gives his thoughts on the match...
"It was a real hard fought game. I thought for 90 minutes, we put it all out there on the field and I thought we did okay with the conditions," said McBean. "It was a hard field and one that were not used to playing on. There was a rough crowd and some calls didn't go our way, but we grinded through and go the win."
(On the club being strong mentally after the goal and braving tough conditions...)
MCBEAN: "Especially when we went up 2-0 and they were tying us both times, when we got that third goal, we all knew that we'd have to shut it down and not let that third goal in. We played Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico and that was a good test for us as well, but the more experience that we get, we play well as a group together, and I thought we deserved to win."
(On his development...)
MCBEAN: "I've been putting in a lot of hard work this year, and it’s finally paying off. I’m happy about it"
