Kelyn Rowe and Chris Tierney scored in the first half and the New England Revolution beat the short-handed Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 Saturday night.
Saer Sene scored in the 65th minute to put New England (2-2-0) up 3-0.
''I think for us it was a good start. We came out and executed the game plan, which was we wanted to keep possession,'' said Revolution head coach Jay Heaps. ''We knew that L.A.'s so good on the attack and you know the old cliche the best defense is a good offense. We wanted to keep the ball as long as we could at times and then take our chances and that's what we did.''
The defending champion Galaxy (1-2-0), playing without captain Landon Donovan, sidelined by a quad strain, avoided the shutout when Robbie Keane knocked in a pass from Edson Buddle in the 78th minute.
Rowe gave New England a 1-0 lead when he converted his own rebound in the 10th minute. Tierney doubled the advantage in the 13th when he took a cross from Kevin Alston and beat goalie Josh Saunders.
''Our attack came from our good defense. We pressured them a lot and we tore about their defense a bit,'' Rowe said. ''Our forwards held the ball for us great and making runs off and people found us the ball in the right positions.''
Los Angeles nearly cut into New England's lead in the 39th minute. Beckham slipped on the wet surface, but his free kick forced Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis to make a spectacular palm save to push away the chance.
Reis came up big once again during first half stoppage time as he saved another free kick by David Beckham and then saw the rebound bounce off the post to end the half.
Although Beckham had the Galaxy's finest chances of a difficult first half, the midfielder was removed at halftime along with Marcelo Sarvas, for Michael Stephens and Mike Magee due to a coaches decision. After the match, Arena admitted that his English star was probably not pleased with being removed early, but declared that Beckham's absence was not the reason for the Galaxy's defeat.
''Hopefully he's ready to be part of the next game,'' said Arena. ''I'm sure he's not pleased about it but that's not the issue in the game. The issue for the game was 11 players for New England soundly outplayed the 11 players for the Galaxy.''
After starting their year with just one win in five matches spread across MLS and CONCACAF Champions League competition, Keane declared that it's time for the Galaxy to buck up after yet another difficult result.
''It's never good when you lose a game especially when you've got a week till your next game,'' said Keane. ''If there's a game in a few days' time you kind of have to get your head around getting yourself focused but it's going to be a long week for the boys. It's up to everyone to pick their heads up and be men.''
