Robbie Keane was in top form Monday night against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
By Ivan Yeo
On the night of the Galaxy’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show, the Los Angeles Galaxy got some fireworks of their own back onto the field.
Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes made their return to the Galaxy lineup on Monday night, and Keane immediately made his presence felt. Keane’s gorgeous strike in the first half set the tone, the Galaxy added another goal early in the second half, those two goals combined with Steven Gerrard’s contributions enabled the Galaxy to a 2-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at StubHub Center.
Keane’s strike occurred in the 12th minute. It started when Steven Gerrard sent a laser of a forward ball right at Keane’s foot. Keane took a quick touch, then fired a ball that curled towards the far post and sailed out of the reach of keeper David Ousted and tucked into the far post net to get LA on the board.
“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 much.”
Keane’s goal turned out to be a much need one for LA, as Vancouver dominated possession the rest of the first half and buzzed around LA’s net numerous times, but couldn’t produced in that final third. The Galaxy’s next goal came just two minutes into the second half, as Gerrard sent a corner and Jeff Larentowicz, despite seemingly getting away with a push on Jordan Harvey, nevertheless headed a ball into the back net to double LA’s lead.
“Pretty straight forward,” Larentowicz said of the goal. “Stevie [Gerrard] played the ball to the back post, they got [Kendall] Waston in there who’s a big body, trying to miss him out, it came over his head and I think I got away with a push and scored a goal.”
The win however did not come without a little controversy, and once again, it was Nigel de Jong that found himself in the middle of it. It occurred in the 74th minute, as de Jong was locked in a battle with Blas Perez, Perez delivered a shot to de Jong’s face before breaking free, de Jong quickly raced back and performed a slide tackle that caught Perez’s right foot from behind. Referee Robert Sibiga initially pulled out a yellow card, but quickly changed his mind and decided to issue the straight red to de Jong.
“It wasn’t a good tackle. I think you can pick your color card. I don’t like when the referee shows a yellow card then comes back and gives a red,” Arena said. “it’s awkward when you show a yellow then come back with a red. I think Nigel has to show better judgment. I think he got elbowed on the play and got a little angry. But I don’t think the tackle is a good tackle by any means.”
de Jong’s presence will be missed on Saturday afternoon, as the Galaxy travel to the Pacific Northwest to face the Seattle Sounders in a nationally televised matinee at CenturyLink Field.
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