CARSON, Calif. -- Robbie Keane's return to the field couldn't have gone much better for the LA Galaxy, who Friday night followed their captain to their first victory in more than a month.
Keane, seeing his first action since suffering a groin injury in an April 4 defeat at Vancouver, ignited the Galaxy's attack after coming on in the second half, then set up Alan Gordon's stoppage-time header to beat the visiting Houston Dynamo, 1-0.
He'd missed seven matches and returned to full training only on Tuesday, but LA were a different side once the Irishman came on in the 56th minute.
“I'm not a player that eases into things. I think you probably know that,” Keane said in an overjoyed Galaxy locker room following the game. “As soon as I'm ready, I want to jump right in and try to help the team as much as I can, so I did that tonight, and I'm delighted with the lads' performance, even though it wasn't pretty at times.
“I think when you're going through kind of a little bit of a rough patch, like we are at the moment, I think the most important thing is winning games.”
Keane was pivotal in LA's first victory since their last-minute triumph April 18 against Sporting Kansas City, putting the Dynamo defense on its heels, then delivering the 92nd-minute cross that Gordon arced over goalkeeper Tyler Deric and into the upper-left corner.
“When you play with somebody, you pick up their tendencies, and that's something that I know that Robbie's going to look for,” said Gordon, also a second-half substitute. “If he's not going to shoot, he's going to try to look for me at the back post. So I faked inside and peeled back post, and he played a wonderful ball, and I did my best to get it [inside the left post] and just kind of looped it.”
On the winning play, Keane wasn't thinking of taking the shot.
“He's unbelievable, his heading of the ball,” Keane said of Gordon. “Every time I'm there, as soon as he's on the field, I always know where he's going to be. Find his head, nine times out of 10 it's going to be in the back of the net.”
The Galaxy have struggled to possess the ball and create chances all year, especially with Keane and others sidelined during a particularly thorny injury crisis, but they looked sharp all night while laboring to challenge Deric. They're finally getting healthy, bit by piece, and are hopeful the goal, and the three points it gathered, can be a turning point in their campaign.
“Yeah, but there's always the next game,” Gordon said. “We've got to still have that same mentality, that same work ethic. I think one of the best parts about the game was how hard everybody worked. Defensively, we were very good. We played well defensively. Everybody in the backline, everybody in the midfield worked really hard. Everybody working together was really key for us.”
Having Keane back just amplified it.
“You guys have seen this before, right?” Gordon said. “I mean, we've been missing Robbie for a number of weeks, and we've done our best without him, but it's sure nice to have him back.”
Whether Keane's ready to go the full 90 again, that's something else. The Galaxy play again Wednesday, at home against Real Salt Lake (10:30 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
“We've got to first of all see how he recovers,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said. “He's going to need, I think, a little bit more time, but we're going to obviously see how he responds over the next couple of days.”
Keane said he feels good, but he's realistic.
“When you're out for that length of time, it's going to take you time to get back in, no matter how much time you do,” he said. “I've been in the gym and I've been running, but I just started Tuesday with the team. It's only been three days.
“It will take me awhile to really get back into the swing of things. ... The more training I do, the more games I play, naturally, the more fit you're going to get.”
