Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane spark Galaxy’s 4-0 victory over New York
The Galaxy’s game against New York on Sunday night was considered a marquee matchup featuring two of soccer’s all-time best: Landon Donovan of the Galaxy and Thierry Henry of the Red Bulls.
Donovan has said this is his last year as a player, and there is speculation Henry also might be playing his final Major League Soccer season. That prompted the crowd at StubHub Center at one point to chant “One more year!”
But this game belonged to Donovan, who tied the MLS record for assists, and his teammates as the Galaxy cruised past New York, 4-0.
Donovan had three assists, giving him 135 and a tie with Steve Ralston for the most in MLS history.
“I’m proud of [the record] and to get an assist record you have to have a lot of people scoring goals,” Donovan said. “So it’s not just putting the ball in the right place, it’s people finishing. It’s a credit to all of them, too.”
Donovan scored his 10th goal, lifting his MLS all-time record to 144.
Forward Robbie Keane scored two goals, giving the Irishman a team-leading 17 goals, and forward Gyasi Zardes scored his 16th goal.
The Galaxy extended its undefeated streak to a season-best nine games and remained tied with Seattle for first place in the Western Conference with four games to play.
The Galaxy already clinched a berth in the playoffs and its five losses are the fewest of any team in the league. New York is fifth in the Eastern Conference.
Keane got the Galaxy on the scoreboard in the eighth minute when he took a pass from Donovan, evaded defender Roy Miller and lofted a chip shot from 10 yards over goalkeeper Luis Robles.
Had he sent the shot on a line drive, the result would have been different.
“I wouldn’t have scored, there was too much of an angle,” Keane said. “The only thing I had was to chip it.”
After New York’s defense stiffened and the Galaxy failed to score for the rest of the first half, Keane said he asked teammates to press hard in the second half.
“They have good players on that team that can change the game,” he said. “We got the second goal early [in the second half] and obviously from then on it was a convincing performance.”
The second goal came in the 50th minute when Donovan scored from 10 yards.
Zardes followed with his goal in the 69th minute. Zardes was inside the 18-yard box when he passed the ball to Donovan, who tapped it back to Zardes, who drilled a grounder past Robles.
Keane’s second goal came in the 82nd minute. As he weaved the ball around defenders in front of the Red Bulls goal, Keane got behind Robles and tapped the ball into the empty net.
