Keane starts as he means to continue in LA

ROBBIE KEANE promised there would be more goals to come after he marked his LA Galaxy debut with a well-taken strike during their 2-0 win over San Jose on Saturday night.

It was the Ireland captain’s fourth time scoring on his first appearance for a new club, having also announced his arrival at Wolves, Coventry (a brace each time) and West Ham in the best way possible.

Unbeaten at home all season, LA maintained their grip on the Western Conference of the MLS with a third league win in four games in front of a capacity crowd of 27,000 fans who had been celebrating the prospect of the Dubliner’s first game at the stadium’s Guinness-stocked concession stands.

And Keane dedicated his 21st-minute strike to the LA supporters.

“I think it’s fantastic — the reception they’ve given me since I’ve come here. When I arrived at the airport, it was brilliant, and then the fans again tonight. I just hope I repaid them with a goal and hopefully, there is a lot more to come.

“The first 30 minutes was good. We kept the ball very well. The last 10 minutes or so (of the first half) we were sloppy. We gave them chances, and we made mistakes. The most important thing was to get the three points.”

Predictably, it was David Beckham who floated a ball over the top of San Jose’s static defence allowing Keane to run onto it, drop his shoulder, round flailing goalkeeper Jon Busch and slot home with his left foot from a relatively narrow angle.

“Fantastic finish on the goal,” said LA captain Landon Donovan. “He made Jon Busch look foolish and scored. It was a fantastic goal and that’s what we want from him.”

Keane acknowledged that it was an important strike given the scrutiny he had been facing all week.

“I think anytime you are with a new team it’s always nice to get your first goal and hopefully there is a lot more to come. When you play with good players, it’s always easy. I think you’ve seen that with my goal with David’s quick thinking and I was ready for it.’’

“I knew he was going to be running,” said Beckham. “I knew where to put it, but sometimes they come off, sometimes they don’t. He’s a player that obviously knows where to run and he can play the game well, he can read the game really well. If you’re on the same wave-length as him then you have a chance.”

Keane played 72 minutes before being replaced by Mike Magee, who grabbed the second for LA in the dying minutes.

“I didn’t run out of gas,” Keane said. “Bruce just took me off. I wanted to stay on. It was obviously the right decision with the travel and the few days. I felt good considering I’ve only trained once with the lads.

“If you’ve seen me play over the years, I like to play with energy. I’ve always done that. I had a good night’s sleep last night, so I wasn’t really too worried about that. There is certainly a lot more to come from me.”

LA now face LD Alajuelense in a CONCACAF Champions League match at home on Thursday then travel to New York for a league game against the Red Bulls three days later.

Meanwhile, Keane’s international teammate Caleb Folan grabbed his second goal in two games, his sixth of the season, as the Colorado Rapids dropped two points at home to Chivas USA, also on Saturday night.

An 86th-minute equaliser from second-half substitute Laurent Courtois gave the visitors a hard-fought point against Colorado in a 2-2 draw after ex-Hull striker Folan had opened the scoring with a close range header in the 13th minute.

However, Juan Pablo Angel, who had made way for Keane at LA during the week, scored on his Chivas debut after he beat the offside trap to slide home a well-taken strike in the 36th minute.

Rapids regained the lead through midfielder Jeff Larentowicz’s 69th-minute header only for Courtois’ 86th-minute leveller to deny MLS champions Colorado a fourth successive league win.