Steven Gerrard spoke of his delight at breaking his LA Galaxy duck at the third time of asking in Friday's 5-2 rout of San Jose Earthquakes.
Galaxy fell 2-0 behind at the StubHub Center but former Liverpool captain Gerrard played a starring role in the comeback, first winning the penalty for Robbie Keane to halve the deficit before side-footing home the equaliser in the 37th minute.
There was more to come from Gerrard as his free-kick assisted Keane for the second goal of his hat-trick shortly after the hour mark.
Having missed good opportunities in his first two Galaxy matches - a friendly against Mexican side America and MLS Cup game versus Real Salt Lake - Gerrard was delighted to get on the scoresheet.
"It was very pleasing to get off the mark. I was quite disappointed in the previous two games not to get goals - I had two good chances," he told reporters.
"I'm starting to feel a little bit sharper, I'm very close to full fitness. [Head coach] Bruce [Arena] was shouting 'how you doing?' from about 60 [minutes] but I was pretending I couldn't hear him and kept looking away.
"I felt like a kid out there again. I don't want to come off - I want to play as much football as I can. One of the reasons why I've come to this team was to start all the games and play as many minutes as possible.
"I was determined not to become a squad player. I still feel like I've got energy, I still love the game, I'm enjoying training and I'm settling in pretty nicely."
