CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena addressed the media following the team's 2-2 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
(On the play Omar Gonzalez...)
ARENA: “Not one of his better games. I think he could’ve defended a little bit better on the two goals, but they obviously weren’t too dangerous going forward and somehow we managed to concede two goals. That’s the story line. Pretty sloppy defending on a couple of plays, and I give San Jose credit, good finishing on their part. In general, I think we played a fairly inefficient game tonight. Quality of our passing wasn’t good, the chances we created fell short on the night where we had the chance to score a bunch of goals, and didn’t get that done and conceded way too many given the kind of game it was.”
(On the importance of Galaxy dominating the game statistically...)
ARENA: “No, I don’t think it really matters that the statistics show that we had 70 percent possession. The only statistic that really matters in this game is the score. This time of year, and for the most part in our league, there is a lot of teams that play to get results, which they should be doing. That’s the name of the game, and tonight with the kind of defensive posture San Jose had to concede two goals in the first half, you make things real difficult. To our credit, we came back behind the goal on two occasions, that’s a real positive. But I think technically we weren’t good tonight and it ultimately cost us the game.”
(On the performance Landon Donovan...)
ARENA: “Landon [Donovan] had a solid game. He had a bunch of good plays during the game, Landon played well.”
(On the play of Gyasi Zardes...)
ARENA: “Gyasi [Zardes] played well. He didn’t get a whole lot of chances, but certainly he held the ball up well, scored an important goal for us; he continues to play well.”
(On San Jose’s attack...)
ARENA: “I don’t think they were that interested to start the game, but they certainly got two goals so give them credit. They came here to obviously get a result, whether that’s three points or one point, and give them credit, they accomplished that. And as I said, I think the difference in the game was probably our inability to do better in the last third of the field and attacking with our passing and just taking advantage of the opportunities that we created. Certainly I would say the first half our defending in those two goals could certainly be better, but again every goal is a mistake on both sides. We always look at is as we made a mistake, and they look at it as a great play and vice versa. At the end of the day, I think we created enough chances tonight to win the game despite the fact that we conceded two goals.”
