Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 4, Philadelphia Union 1
Sunday, May 25, 2014
MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, Calif.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On Landon Donovan breaking the record:
“It was very nice. I think that the one who really wanted the hug was really me. I wanted to congratulate him. I’m real happy for him. It’s an unbelievable milestone for any athlete. It’s a great accomplishment. We are grateful to have him here. I know it takes a little pressure off him not having to worry about that record now. Others can chase him for the rest of his life.”
On the team’s performance:
“I don’t think we played well in the first half. Second half we played better, but it was a good performance. Philadelphia played us real hard. To get that second goal early in the second half was important. It broke their back a little bit. Second half we played a very good 30 to 35 minutes.”
On Leonardo’s performance:
“I thought he performed quite well today. Obviously, the goal was a big part of our success today. He had surgery two weeks ago. I don’t know if anyone knew. He had a compound fracture. We really brought him along slowly over the last two weeks. He was in a good frame of mind to play today. He’s thrilled with his performance. Leo’s grown a lot as a player. It’s great to see him perform today, coming back from that injury. I think it’s going to give him a lot of confidence.
LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN:
On today’s game:
“First of all, this is my job. This is what I get paid to do. Like I said yesterday, my teammates depend on me. I think I’ve played well this year, but I needed to contribute on the scoreboard. It felt good. A lot of relief in some ways, a lot of joy. Like I said yesterday, I feel like I’m in very good form right now. It was only a matter of time the goal game. I really feel good about how I played and this is a continuation of the last few months.”
On scoring his 136 goal:
“It’s been a lot week. It’s hard. I think you guys know me better well. It’s hard not to make it about me. I don’t necessarily want it to be that way, but you know, I’ve sacrificed a lot to get to the position I’m in. I’m very happy for myself. I’ve dedicated a lot to this. I think I deserved what happened today.”
On the support from the LA Galaxy fans:
“It’s incredible. You have no idea how many messages I’ve received--literally, thousands of messages from people around the country, around the world. People who’ve said, I’m a diehard Sounders fan, I’m a diehard D.C. United fan—I’ve hated you all my life on the field. I’m so happy for you. I respect what you’ve done and all those things. The support has been overwhelming. It’s funny the way things work out. I’ve said this many times in my life. I try to stay present. It’s been hard. All day today my mind was wondering on where else I could be today. I kept coming back to being present. Staying present, enjoy this game and do your best. I’m glad I was able to do that.”
On breaking the goal scoring record:
“To be honest when I scored, I wasn’t thinking of the record. It only occurred to me 10 seconds into the celebrating. It’s great. I mean, it really is. I think more importantly, I enjoy the rest of the season, keep helping our team. I want to get back to enjoying football. This has been a week where I had moments I fell out of love for it a little bit. I want to make sure I keep enjoying it.”
On his mentally going forward:
“Candidly, I’m exhausted. I won’t lie. I took a long nap today. I’m exhausted. I’m glad today’s done. I’m glad the record is done. My goal now and my challenge is don’t stop playing now. We aren’t even half way through the season. We’ve won a couple games. And now, we have two more games until the World Cup game. We feel should win both and we need to win both. That is our focus now. It’s going to be difficult. Chicago is a much improved team than their first couple of games. The Chivas game will be difficult. That’s my goal—to help us win those two games.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE:
On Donovan:
“I think the script was already good enough for him before the game. He broke that record, we all knew that was going to be a matter of time. I think the timing of it couldn’t have come any better for him.”
On his assist
“You have to be a team player. Landon or anybody else, you have to make sure that team comes first before anybody else. You got opportunity to put someone through, you do it. As we all know that relationship between me and Landon has been fantastic the last few years, and we saw that again tonight.”
On style of play:
“That’s how we like to play. The way we played tonight was old Galaxy. I said to you few weeks ago that if you let me finish, I would finish it. I said few weeks ago that there is a big performance coming from this team and tonight was one of those.”
On transition from first to second half:
“Second half they had to come out a little bit more. We were luck with the two goals we got—in the first couple of minutes and after the half time we caught them cold a little bit. It was good one-two between me and Landon, I was lucky enough to see him run, and the pass was right on his toe. So, once you got that, Landon personally and the whole stadium relaxed a little bit more. Once the second goal went in, you could see the relief in everybody, certainly Landon. The performance of the whole team in general was fantastic.”
On Landon Donovan’s WC snub:
“I think you have heard my comments already. Surprised than everybody else.”
On Landon playing at home:
“He could have been in the hotel room, and he would have scored those two goals…or on Play Station.”
On Landon Donovan’s return to the team:
“Anyone knows that it was devastating for him to be missing out such a big tournament. It’s unfortunate for him, but fortunate for us to have him back. We all know what he can do and if he produces what he did today from now until the end of the season, you will certainly see a strong Galaxy team. We certainly have players in this team to be the team that should be on the top of the league, no question about that. We haven’t been, but we are knocking on the door. After tonight’s performance, hopefully we will see the full gate opened.”
On Landon’s performance:
“I think I said it before. It’s probably a relief for him to be back. After all the nonsense that was going around in the last few days, he probably was just happy to be back on the field and just playing. I think you could see that in his performance and how hungry he was for the team. Obviously, he was fit for him to score two goals.”
On Leonardo’s come back:
“I think I mentioned last week that it’s important for everybody to pitch in goals. Tonight was the case, so for him personally it was great. Most of the center-halves should be scoring two or three goals in the season, and that was his first one, so he has got three more to go.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER LEONARDO
On his return:
“I feel good, better, I’m more confident and physically I also feel good because I was able to rest so I’m coming back strong.”
On his goal:
“I feel good; it’s a great feeling because I’m back. Two weeks after I’m back I score after three years against the team that I first scored against. Now I’m focused on the next game versus Chicago Fire. It’s kind of like how I scored my goal in 2011; I stayed on the offside line and we practice those plays every week. Thankfully, Landon was able to get me a good ball and I was able to head it in. You have to be intelligent, you have to be confident. It’s like Robbie Keane always plays on the offside line, it was very similar to that situation.”
On Landon’ Donovan’s goals:
“It’s important and I feel very happy for him. I think it was important for him in order to continue moving forward. Now that he scored two goals, I’m sure more goals will keep on coming. He has a team here to help him.”
PHILADELPHIA UNION HEAD COACH JOHN HACKWORTH
On tonight’s game:
“You have to give the Galaxy a lot of credit. On a night like tonight we should be talking about Landon Donovan setting the all-time MLS scoring record. Personally to be in this locker room and feel this way I am very happy for him.”
On the Philadelphia Union’s lack of creating chances:
“When you give up an early goal that way it’s really tough to come back against a team like the Galaxy. We have been a team all year that have been able to stretch teams out. Certainly with the way we move the ball we were able to have good rhythm and were able to do that. Midway thru the first half we finally got going. Really poor start from our guys. It looked like we had a lot of guys out there that were a little bit scared, didn’t want to play, fearful of having the ball in a tough spot. Once we got it going we were a good team that way. To start the second half the way we did is unacceptable.”
PHILADELPHIA UNION FORWARD DANNY CRUZ:
On tonight’s result:
“Really horrible result. We didn’t play well at all. From the very beginning we give up a goal two minutes into the game. We had to play from behind the entire time. It’s not the way we wanted to start the game. Obviously look at the end result it’s a poor performance and we are completely unhappy. You can’t start a game like that. We’ve continued to do that now week in and week out. It takes its toll on you. Every single game giving up a goal in the first ten minutes it changes the game completely. I think we didn’t have the ball in the first half because of it. Then three minutes into the second half we give up another goal it’s unacceptable. Hopefully things turn around. “
PHILADELPHIA UNION MIDFIELDER MAURICE EDU:
On tonight’s game:
“We let ourselves down. We gave a goal in the second minute. We picked it up a little bit going into half time then in the second half we came out flat and gave up a goal and then stuck our back up against the wall. Then our own errors were gifted goals to them. We have another game on Saturday here in LA again. It’s a chance for us to find a way to get back on the right track. We dug a hole for ourselves. Somehow and some way we have to find a way to stick together and find a way to get out of it.”
On the team trying to get back into the game:
“I think guys realized that there was nothing to lose and people played with a little less fear. It seemed at times we played a little tentative as if we were scared to make a mistake. Obviously we made a few mistakes early on that cost us goals. It seemed like we went through a stretch where guys were scared of making mistakes which in essence lead to more mistakes. Towards the end of the game we started to play more offensively. Playing the way we know how to play and playing without fear. That is when we looked better, we created more chances, we looked more lively and looked more like ourselves. We just have to find a way to do that for 90 minutes. We can’t keep playing in little segments in little glimpses because it is all for nothing. At the end of the day you are not going to win many games if you concede 4 and if you just play in spurts it hurts.”
