CARSON, Calif. – There was no shortage of star power on the StubHub Center field on Sunday but no one shined brighter than LA Galaxy striker Robbie Keane.
Keane tallied two goals and two assists as he led the Galaxy to a confident 5-1 win over a New York City FC squad that boasted the likes of David Villa and Andrea Pirlo. Not to be outdone by any of the other superstars on display, Keane was the most dangerous player on the field as he terrorized City’s defense from the opening whistle.
The Galaxy forward has a total of 15 goals this season with 13 of those tallies coming in the club’s last nine games. With the forward in scintillating form, Keane’s teammates believe that the Irishman is ready to make a run at a second straight MLS MVP award.
“When the guy is in form, sharp and injury free, he’s always going to get you goals,” midfielder Steven Gerrard said. “His movement is clever, but the one disappointment that I have personally is that I couldn’t get him that third goal and the hat trick.
“Everyone in this dressing room is desperate for Robbie to go and achieve the MVP again. We all have a responsibility to keep serving him and keep providing goal scoring opportunities for him.”
Added midfielder Sebastian Lletget who registered a goal and an assist himself, “He’s playing exceptional. We just have to keep feeding him and keep getting him in front of goal so that he can finish. He’s outstanding.”
Although the match ended in a blowout win for the Galaxy, without the leadership and killer instinct of Keane, the game may have played out much differently. Initially, the Galaxy were forced to weather early pressure from the visitors, but in the 36th minute, Keane helped break New York hearts with a well-timed cross to Gyasi Zardes for LA’s first.
Once the Galaxy got on the board, they never looked back as they capitalized on every mistake by NYCFC. The 34-year-old club captain doubled LA’s lead in the 54th minute and then played distributor in the 67th on Giovani dos Santos’ second goal of the season.
Lletget gave the Galaxy their fourth goal in the 70th minute this time with Gerrard and Zardes providing the service. Keane finished the scoring in the 81st minute when Robbie Rogers got behind the New York defense and found the Irishman for the final goal of the afternoon. The goal was the 1,000th goal in LA Galaxy club history helping them become the first team in league history to reach that mark.
“He played very well. I think he and Dos Santos have a great relationship,” said Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena of Keane. “It’s been a real team effort and I am pleased with Robbie’s performance and the guys who scored goals, but it’s all about the team here and I think today we continue to see this team grow in this first eleven get better and better the more they play together.”
Despite the MVP chatter from Keane’s teammates, the Irishman shied away from talk of another individual award. Instead, the Galaxy’s 2015 leading goal scorer shifted the attention to LA side that is seemingly scoring at will.
“It’s up to us to continue this. We have the players on the team who are quite capable to continue to do this. Listen; if we don’t concede too many goals, we’re going to be a hard team to beat. We’ve got quality on the side and players that score goals,” Keane said. “It’s certainly exciting times ahead, but we just continue and not get carried away with how we’re playing. We just need to continue playing how we’ve been playing for the last month.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
