Robbie Keane scores as Galaxy top Sounders 1-0

SEATTLE – Robbie Keane won the game with his left foot.

But A.J. DeLaGarza saved it with his chest.

Keane scored in the 15th minute, and DeLaGarza blocked a shot in front of a wide-open net in the 53rd, leading the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders on Saturday.

It was Keane’s sixth goal of the season for the Galaxy (7-3-8, 29 points), who were outshot 22-7, but still won their second straight after a seven-game winless streak.

“A couple months ago, we probably would have lost,” Keane said. “Obviously, it’s a good three points away from home, especially coming her and defending against a good team.

“It was a good performance all around, even though it wasn’t the prettiest game.”

Keane’s goal came on a counterattack. Defender Dave Romney gained possession on the L.A. side of midfield and sent a long through ball down the left wing. Gyasi Zardes caught up with it and took it into the penalty area, crossing it toward the middle. Keane ran onto it and drove it past goalkeeper Stefan Frei.

Keane also scored in Monday’s 2-0 victory at home against Vancouver.

“Two games, two goals, two wins. It’s all right, huh?” he said with a grin as he walked away.

The Sounders (5-10-2, 17 points) are winless in their last four games. Forward Clint Dempsey returned after missing five games while playing for the U.S. national team in Copa America.

Seattle, last place in the Western Conference, had a prime opportunity to tie it in the 53rd minute when rookie forward Jordan Morris ran onto a through ball from Tyrone Mears. Goalkeeper Brian Rowe came out to challenge Morris, but went down.

That left Morris, whose team-leading six goals included the equalizer that salvaged a 1-all tie at Toronto last weekend, with a shot from 8 yards away. But L.A. defender DeLaGarza blocked it with his chest, 2 yards in front of the goalmouth.

“If it’s grass, the ball kind of skips by, maybe. The turf popped it straight up,” DeLaGarza said ot the bounce that gave Morris his opportunity. “At that point, I just tried to cover B-Rowe and hoping he could make a play so I didn’t have to. But luckily, (Morris) hit it pretty close to me, and I was able to just reach out and poke it away.

“We defended a lot tonight,” DeLaGarza added, “and we had to.”

The Galaxy have allowed just two goals in the last six games.

Rowe’s shutout was his fifth. He was credited with four saves. One of those came in the 76th minute when he leaped to deflect a Dempsey header over the net with his fingertips.

The Sounders, with a league-low 14 goals, had 61 percent of the possession for the game, including 60 percent in the first half, 63 in the second. Of their 22 shots, Los Angeles blocked nine of them.

“All you can ask of your team is to create chances,” Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid said. “If you look at the game today and if you landed from Mars and just looked at the game and nobody told you what the score was, who do you think the guy from Mars would say won the game? We battled, we fought, I felt we dominated the game. … It’s frustrating.”

Los Angeles was the third straight team to shut out the Sounders in Seattle.

“We’ve lost points in three of four similar games on the road,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said. “We’re growing and understanding what we need to do to close out games.”

AP-WF-07-09-16 2259GMT