CARSON, Calif. – It was without doubt an emotional game for all of the LA Galaxy players and defender Sean Franklin was no different.
Franklin found himself targeted for wide stretches of the match by Metapán’s left sided midfielders—particularly Paolo Suarez—but the right back did not budge as he by and large prevented the Salvadorans from exploiting the flanks.
Below are Franklin’s thoughts on the match. On the emotional end to the match…) FRANKLIN: “It was pretty crazy. There was a lot of calls that obviously were a little unfair. It’s part of the game, there’s going to be bad calls and at times, you’ll have to play with a man down and I thought our team did well and handled that over the last 20 minutes of the game.”
(On dealing with the referees…)
FRANKLIN: “It’s all part of the game, it’s all about our character and how we handle it and I thought our team did well. I think we got two goals after we were down a man and we got to do the same thing next week when we play against Puerto Rico. We don’t know how the refs are going to be, we don’t know how the games are going to go. It’s all about adjusting to it and making sure that we do our part.”
(On getting a result…)
FRANKLIN: “It’s big, we got to win the games at home. We don’t want to drop points here and we knew that they were going to come in and play for a point. I thought that we did well at attacking them and I think the score could have been even higher if we finished our chances. They had some great chances too, but at the end of the day, we got three points.”
(On Metapán’s targeting of his side of the field…)
FRANKLIN: “They threw a lot of numbers on their left side. They had some good chances with a lot of crosses and they’re a little bit dangerous. But once we settled down and started playing our soccer, we showed why we won the game 5-2.”
