CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena spoke to reporters following Los Angeles’ 4-2 victory over the New England Revolution on Sunday.
Arena’s comments are below.
On having Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard return to make appearances:
"It's good to get both of those players back. Obviously, they give us quality and experience. We know what those two players offer, and it would certainly be nice to get [Nigel] de Jong back at some point and start getting our team a little bit better assembled as we continue to move forward in the season."
On if he had a planned amount of minutes he wanted to play Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane:
"Yes. It was 60 and 30."
On his remarks a few months back about how he's waiting to see how good of a team LA is:
"I'm still waiting. I'm not smart enough yet. I need more time than that. Excuse my language, it was a bit of a sh** show in the second half for a good 20 minutes or so. That wasn't good. But that part of it... I do think we need to take our hats off and give our opponent credit. That team continued to fight. They could have just fell down and got run over. To their credit, I think that's something that they're going to be able to use to build their team as they get into the season. So give New England credit, but we didn't do well for sure."
On the how dangerous the trio of Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes and Giovani dos Santos was to New England:
"We can play better. Surprising, but I thought New England hit the wall in the first half physically. After 30 minutes they looked dead with the heat and we looked dead in the last 20 or so minutes. Who knows with all of this, but we are capable of being a pretty good team. We need a lot more work together, a lot more coordination...the challenges in the league will continue. Obviously, the game on Wednesday is going to be a real tough one to get our team ready to play. It's never easy. We've got some points now, and we're happy about that, but this is not a cakewalk by any means."
On what defensive issues exist for LA Galaxy:
"I'll worry about that after I look at a little tape or whatever. I think fatigue set in here. I don't think our midfield did a good job during that segment either.
On what Robbie Keane brought to the squad in the win:
"I think he, Giovani [dos Santos] and Gyasi [Zardes]did a real good job. They were dangerous for the most part, some really good movement. Out of the two of them, there was three goals produced. I thought Gyasi Zardes had one of his best games of the year. I thought he played very well. So it was encouraging to see our three highest players be pretty dangerous for most of the game."
