CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena spoke to reporters on Sunday after the LA Galaxy's 2-1 defeat to Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field that saw the team advance 2-2 on aggregate thanks to the away goals tiebreaker.
Arena's comments are below.
(On what it took to come back...)
ARENA: “We played pretty well in the first half then a turn of events with a sloppy 10 minutes. I thought they came out fairly passive. We had control of the game, made a couple mistakes and they burned us for it. We told our guys at halftime that we just have to get a goal to advance. Juninho finally hit the goal this year. It was a great goal and we had to hang on for our lives at the end there. The field was difficult to play on tonight. The surface is really slick and challenging for both teams. It was just a matter of grinding it out and having the right mentality, and we accomplished that. This was not going to be easy, by no means, and it wasn’t, but we knew the rules.”
(On what Juninho has meant this year...)
ARENA: “He’s had a great year, a fabulous year, and oddly enough, didn’t score a goal for us until tonight.”
(On the key to getting the win tonight...)
ARENA“Obviously that goal and then the way we were able to defend at the end. I give Stefan Frei a lot of credit. He came up with two big saves on Landon’s [Donovan] breakaway and [Stefan] Ishizaki’s header. That could’ve really put them away so he kept them in there. At the end, it got hectic when they sent [Chad] Marshall up and had a lot of big guys in front of the goal. Our guys hung in there and we managed to get the result that we needed.”
(On LA’s defense...)
ARENA: “When you play here under these conditions, you know there’s going to be some sloppy play, there’s going to be some crazy chances and possibly some crazy goals. We weren’t surprised, but again, knowing that if we got a goal back in the second half, we’d advance. We challenged them early in the second half, got some good chances and then Juninho hit the back of the net.”
(On advancing with a loss...)
ARENA: “I don’t really care. We lost here two years ago, too, didn’t we? I didn’t make the rules, you know? The whole objective is to advance and get to the MLS Cup Final. We’ve accomplished that and we’re going to have a real battle on our hands.”
(On how they approached this game...)
ARENA: “We tried to come in and win the game. We didn’t want to sit back, and we didn’t. We came out and were very aggressive. Obviously you know what the rule is and an away goal was important. Shutting Seattle out last week in the first leg was a big factor as well.”
(On Omar Gonzalez...)
ARENA: “Omar had a good game. I thought Dan Gargan and Leonardo played well. Robbie Rogers had a tough night, but he’ll regroup and be ready for Sunday.”
(On the second half...)
ARENA: “I was surprised. I thought the way Seattle came out in the first half, that they were just going to sit after halftime, drop their whole team back and make it difficult. But that game managed to open up and certainly, once Juninho scored, it really opened up. We had some chances as well to get the second goal.”
(On Landon Donovan...)
ARENA: “We didn’t change anything with Landon [Donovan] the whole game, he just played better in the second half. His second half was really good – his first half was so, so. That’s Landon. He’s a great player. He’s an experienced guy. He’s able to deal with the ups and downs in a game and he managed, over 90 minutes, to play real well. It was his running, his vision. He had to do a lot of defending tonight. Everybody did their share.”
(On the team’s celebration...)
ARENA: “To get this result and be in the Final at home, we’re proud of that. Again, we have a long week ahead of us to try to get our team recovered and ready to play a tough New England team.”
(On if experience won this game...)
ARENA: “Experience is a factor. We’ve been through this a lot this year and I think we’ve gotten better in the second half of the season. We’ve been able to protect leads and we did a good job tonight.”
(On if he still gets excited even though he’s been to several MLS Cups...)
ARENA: “Yes. Yes.”
(On how this team compares to the others he’s taken to MLS Cup...)
ARENA: “Don’t know yet. Until we get through this final game, then we’ll be able to summarize what we think about this team and other teams. They have an opportunity to be the MLS champions so we look forward to that challenge. It’s going to be a tough game.”
