The Emerald Exiles: How The Irish Fared Around The World Last Weekend

In The Goals

Robbie Keane scored yet again for LA Galaxy on Saturday but he wasn’t a happy Easter bunny as his side dropped points at Vancouver Whitecaps while there were several Irish women back in Toppserien action over the weekend. It’s The Emerald Exiles weekly round-up.

While Robbie Keane has struck four goals in the opening five goals of the MLS season to date, LA Galaxy have picked up just two wins from those five games, which is starting to get on Robbie Keane’s wick. Despite scoring from close range against Vancouver Whitecaps for the second successive week, a late Kekuta Mannah goal rescued a point for Whitecaps, much to their captain’s ire.

“You can’t go up five minutes to go and lose the game,” Keane said. “There’s no point in speaking about the two goals that we scored, because it’s pointless if we go away from home and play the way we played, how well we played, and then concede goals like we conceded. It’s schoolboy, under-12s kind of stuff.

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“You work your socks off to keep the ball, make things happen, come to a tough place — a very, very tough place — the field is not great, difficult to play on, but we made it good, and then we give two sloppy goals away.” So there. Andy O’Brien started for Whitecaps but was withdrawn at halftime. He was booked for a foul on Keane inside two minutes.

Also on the scoresheet this weekend, Republic of Ireland WNT international Ruesha Littlejohn found the net on her league debut for Norwegian Division 1 side IL Sandviken. They beat Linderud-Grei 3-0 on Monday afternoon.

Life At The Top End

Seven matches unbeaten, made up of five wins and two draws, FC Den Bosch are among the form teams ahead of the Dutch Jupiler League playoffs. With one game of the regular season remaining, Barry Maguire’s side move up to a season high of fourth position with a 1-1 draw with title challengers FC Dordrecht.

The 24-year-old created Den Bosch’s second half equaliser when his free kick was met by Ralf Seujtiens and he also cleared off the line late on to preserve the point which meant they moved above VVV Venlo, the club he left last summer in the table.

In Sweden, Kevin Walker captained GIF Sundsvall to a 2-0 win over Öster in the Superettan. GIF’s opener came when Walker’s ball over the top was latched onto by Daniel Sliper who slotted past the goalkeeper. That win sees them the bounce back after last week’s defeat and the promotion favourites have moved into fourth place after three games.

Joe Gamble and Roy O’Donovan both played for Brunei DPMM once again as they beat Hougang United 1-0. Both ex-Cork City stars Gamble and O’Donovan have played every minute of DPMM’s eight games this season and they sit a point clear at the league’s summit.

Mixed Bag for Ireland’s Women

As mentioned above, women’s football returned in Norway over the Bank Holiday weekend. While Littlejohn scored in the second tier, two of her international teammates were in Toppserien action, with mixed results for both Diane Caldwell and Shannon Smyth.

Balbriggan native Caldwell played 90 minutes on the right wing for her Avaldsnes, linked this week to Brazilian superstar Marta, in a 3-0 win away to Medkila. Smyth’s young Amazon Grimstad side los 5-0 to Stabæk.

In Spain, former Peamount United defender Louise Corrigan played 77 minutes for Sevilla’s women as they lost 1-0 to Levante while in Gemany, Fiona O’Sullivan started in SC Freiburg’s 1-1 draw with Duisburg in the Frauen Bundesliga.

And The Rest….

• Amid rising tensions and turmoil in eastern Ukraine of late, Shakhtar and Metalurh contested the Donetsk derby on Saturday, with Shakhtar coming out on top by 2-1 at the Donbass Arena. Darren O’Dea was an unused substitute but did make a late appearance from the bench in Metalurh’s 3-2 win over Chornomorets in midweek.
• The wait for a first ever NASL point goes on for Richie Ryan and Ottawa Fury after a 97th minute winner for Minnesota United sealed a 2-1 win on Saturday afternoon. The Clonmel man played 90 minutes for the new franchise who have not lost their opening two games.
• Shane O’Neill helped Colorado Rapids to a third clean sheet in six MLS starts in a scoreless draw with San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.

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