ROBBIE’S STAR STILL SHINING IN LA LA LAND
FOR Robbie Keane, the stars couldn’t be more perfectly aligned as the LA Galaxy roadshow rolls into Dallas this evening.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Keane’s arrival at the Galaxy and since then he has played in 99 MLS regular season games.
Given his sizzling summer form — eight goals in his last five MLS games — few would bet against Keane marking his ‘ton’ with goal number 65 in Toyota Stadium and celebrating with his trademark Robin Hood salute.
In his four years Keane has, arguably, become the most credible European import to MLS.
Unlike David Beckham, who was signed to make MLS successful, Keane was signed to make LA Galaxy successful — three MLS Cup wins and an MVP award are testimony to that.
Keane came to play, to win matches, and to score goals, not to wind down his career with a ceremonial wave or two.
He also arrived in Tinseltown as the incumbent Republic of Ireland captain, a position he still covets dearly even if he’s no longer guaranteed to start every game.
His outlook is in stark contrast to those who have flown the European coop as ex-internationals.
The likes of Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Andrea Pirlo arrived for flash-bulb welcomes after retiring at i nternational level.
Before them it was our old friend Thierry Henry.
All were older than Keane when they made their star- spangled bow, and each fitted the image of MLS as a glamour graveyard for creaking Euro sun-seekers.
MLS allows the decorated vets to stroll around for a season or two as designated dudes earning a few dollars more than their locker room comrades.
Ruud Gullit, who coached LA Galaxy for nine ill-fated months when Beckham was poster boy for the club and the entire MLS, subscribes to the view the league is akin to a footballing old folks’ home.
And the Dutch master doesn’t fear any dilution in the standards across Europe’s top l eagues through an openly aggressive MLS recruitment approach.
‘At the moment the players going there have already done everything in Europe.
‘They are basically in retirement mode,’ said Gullit.
‘New York lost last week with Pirlo, Lampard and (David) Villa, so it doesn’t matter.
‘It would be different if someone of 25 went, not 35. That would be a major shift,’ he said.
Can Gullit foresee such a change? ‘All the American kids who go to high school, they know there is not so much to earn in football as there is when you compare it to all the other sports. So sometimes that makes them decide to do something different.
‘But the potential is enormous and if the business and the money becomes involved in that sport, then you can have a shift.
‘The level of play is growing. You can see it already in the American national team. Things are changing a little bit in America.’
‘The most difficult part also in America is that you play in the summer, in 30-35 degrees, the humidity is 90 per cent, so it is not easy. You also have to travel a lot.’
For Keane, everything about MLS has suited him, except one thing: the plastic pitches. He hates them with a passion, especially after missing seven weeks with a groin injury sustained on synthetic turf.
It left him ring-rusty for the vital Euro qualifier against Scotland, for which he was a frustrated substitute.
Just turned 35, Keane retains his boyhood zest for playing, and his knack of sniffing out goals is as strong as ever.
He’s a certainty to figure in Martin O’Neill’s Irish squad next week for the Euro 2016 double-header against Gibraltar and Georgia in September.
Before that, there’s the matter of that 100th MLS regular season game, and maybe one or two more, before he checks in for another long-haul flight home for international duty.
As the likes of Pirlo, Gerrard, Lampard and Villa enjoy the September international time- out, Robbie Reliant will keep on rocking, to and fro the Atlantic.
Four years after he touched down at LA Galaxy, it’s debatable if MLS has ever had a better value brand ambassador than Keane to promote its game.