MONTREAL – The LA Galaxy will have the services of their captain for Wednesday’s match against the Montreal Impact after Robbie Keane rejoined the team from international duty in Montreal.
During his time with the Republic of Ireland, Keane made two appearances for the Boys in Green, including a 75-minute shift in their dramatic 2-1 victory over Georgia in Tbilisi to start their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign on Sunday. Against Georgia, Keane was often left isolated as a lone striker against a physical Georgian defense, but still managed to aid in the buildup of Ireland’s opening goal.
With three points on the board in a fiercely competitive Group D and matches against Gibraltar on Oct. 11 and World Cup champions Germany on Oct. 14 looming, the victory over Georgia gave Keane’s a perfect start to qualifying.
“It’s always important when you start off any campaign to get points on the board fairly quickly and we did that against Georgia,” Keane said after Galaxy training in Montreal. “It’s a tough place to go and they’re going to be a team that is going to take points from people. We’re delighted with the result; it was a good team performance.”
Immediately after finishing his work with the Irish, the Galaxy captain hopped on a flight from Tbilisi to Dublin before moving on to Montreal where he met up with a team that endured their own nearly 2,600 mile flight from Los Angeles to Quebec.
For Keane and the Galaxy, managing that heavy travel will be half the battle against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday.
“You have to have the right mentality on the road and settle yourself so you don’t get beat,” said Keane. “Listen, everyone has to travel and you have to switch that out of your mind straight way. If you start thinking negative things about travel, you can get caught up. If you get good rest, then you’ll be fine.”
Keane returns to a Galaxy team that hardly missed a beat in his absence. In the lone game that Keane missed, the Galaxy offense erupted in a 6-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids, in what was the team’s largest margin of victory since the 1998 season.
They’ll look to continue that scoring tear against a Montreal Impact team that finds themselves at the foot of the MLS standings. Despite earning just 20 points on the year, the Impact have improved as of late with two wins in their last four matches, but still boast a defense that has conceded a league-leading 48 goals in 2014.
“We’re in good form at the moment and it’s important that we keep doing the right things,” said Keane. “We’ve been scoring goals and playing well. If we continue to do those things, we’ve got a chance to win the game [against Montreal]. If we can stick to the way that we’ve been playing lately then we certainly have a chance to get three points on Wednesday.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
