CARSON, Calif. – The King has returned.
LA Galaxy captain Robbie Keane made his first appearance in nearly two months by going 34 minutes in the team’s dramatic 1-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo. Keane has missed seven consecutive games due to a groin strain suffered on April 4 but the Irishman did not miss a beat as he assisted on Alan Gordon’s winner deep in stoppage time.
The forward made an impact from the moment that he stepped on the field as he combined with Jose Villarreal, and later Gordon, to test a Dynamo defense that stayed resolute for 90 plus minutes.
However, in the second minute of stoppage time, Keane unlocked Houston’s defense with a cross to Gordon who nodded it over goalkeeper Tyler Deric for the winner.
“It was nice [to be back]; I’ve been looking forward to it for a while so it was nice to get back in the swing of things,” Keane said. “I’m not a player that eases into things. As soon as I’m ready, I want to jump right in and help the team as much as I can.
“Obviously, I did that tonight and I’m delighted with the lads’ performance even though it wasn’t pretty at times. When you’re going through a little bit of a rough patch as we are at the moment, what is important is winning games.”
After the match, Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena offered praise for his captain.
“He’s an influence and obviously, he had an assist on the game winning goal,” Arena told reporters after the match. “He’s been out for so long and to ask him to play for 35 minutes is pushing it a little bit. I think under the circumstances he did really well.”
Added Villarreal, “He is the MVP for a reason, so it’s not surprising for us. That’s what he does, and we’re happy when he does things like that.”
Keane showed no signs of rust late in the second half when he completed a 30-yard sprint with the agile DaMarcus Beasley for a loose ball. Although the 34-year-old Irishman was unable to rundown the fleet-footed Houston left back, Keane admitted afterward that his ability to make that run showed that he’s healthy again.
“Of course, I wanted to test myself and do the best I can for the team, and certainly if anything was going to test my injury, it was going to be that run,” Keane said. “Fortunately afterward it felt fine and I was lucky.”
Despite stretching his endurance on that long run, Keane is quick to concede that he still has work to be done to get back to full fitness.
“If you’re out for that length of time, it’s going to take some time no matter how much training that you do. I’ve been in the gym doing some running but I only really started training on Tuesday with the team,” Keane said. “It’s only been three days so it’ll take me a while to get in the swing of things but I’m quite clever on how to use my runs and how to save myself which I did tonight. Of course, the more training that I do, and the more games that I play, the fitter I’ll get.”
But given his assist on the game-winner and his strong second half performance, will Keane be back in the Galaxy starting lineup when the team returns to action on Wednesday against Real Salt Lake, right?
Well, not so fast according to Arena.
“First of all, we have to see how recovers,” said Arena. “He’s going to need a little more time. We’re going to obviously see how he responds in the next couple of days.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
