Any other night would have been Quincy Amarikwa’s night. The San Jose Earthquakes striker scored an opening brace.
Caveat: The Earthquakes were playing LA Galaxy with Steven Gerrard making his first appearance and he scored his first goal which leveled the score sweeping in Baggio Husidic’s cross. Gerrard had a hand in Robbie Keane’s opening goal, a penalty awarded after being fouled by San Jose’s Tommy Thompson in the box. He then assisted Keane in his second as his low hard free kick was turned in by the ROI front man. The Galaxy went on to mount a winning comeback sweeping the Earthquakes 5-2 as Keane, Gerrard’s teammate at Liverpool for half a season recorded a hat trick including 2 PKs. Substitute Sebastian Lletget scored the final goal in overtime.
The consensus was Gerrard was a player reborn. Unshackled from the dispiriting end to his Liverpool career and having to endure constant media opprobrium. He combined well with Keane and was an energetic presence in midfield, crunching into tackles, and bombing forward in characteristic fashion. He lasted 88 minutes, longer than expected. Gerrard had this to say after the match:
“I felt like a kid out there again. I didn’t want to come off – I want to play as much football as I can.
The LA Galaxy will be quite the unstoppable force with Gio De Santos, their newest acquisition and Gyasi Zardes joining them after the Gold Cup is over.