SANDY, Utah -- Bruce Arena addressed the media following the LA Galaxy's 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake.
Arena's comments are below.
(On Brian Rowe’s performance…)
ARENA: “He was outstanding. There’s no other way to put it. We obviously felt that, coming into the game, that he’s a good goalkeeper, however he had no experience in the league. You’re always concerned in the first few minutes of the game, but he looked pretty composed right from the start. He had a good save early, and had great concentration to make a bunch of saves throughout the evening. As I said, I thought he was outstanding.”
(On the performance of the younger players…)
ARENA: “Charlie did a good job. He kind of hit the wall a little bit in the second half, as expected, but a good first goal – a good first game. Again, he’s another player who played his first game tonight. We were really pleased that he got a goal in his first game. We can’t complain about that, for Rowe to get a shutout in his first game, on the road in Salt Lake.”
(On how the veterans helped the younger, less-experienced players on the road…)
ARENA: “They did a great job. There are seven veterans on the field, so it’s not like we just had a bunch of kids. The group of DeLaGarza, Gonzalez, Sarvas, Juninho, Magee and Franklin were giving our young players confidence in helping us get the result.”
(On Jack McBean…)
ARENA: “Jack was doing alright. Unfortunately, he suffered a difficult injury and obviously, we’ll find out more tonight, but Jack has been moving along.”
(On his team’s success defensively…)
ARENA: “Our team shape is very good. Our center backs did not stand and drive, they were organizing the group ahead of them, our line moved pretty well and we got good blocks in the midfield. Early in the game, [Real Salt Lake] tried to get behind us, and we dealt with that pretty well. When we needed a save, Brian [Rowe] came through.”
(On whether the game-plan changed for the second half, after going up 2-0…)
ARENA: “Yes, I told the team that if [Real Salt Lake] didn't score a goal, from what I know about the game, is that we’re probably going to win. We took care of defending, and we’re satisfied winning 2-0. If we got a third goal, we’d get a third goal.”
