LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 4, New England Revolution 2
Sunday, May 8, 2016
2016 MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, California
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND GENERAL MANAGER BRUCE ARENA
On having Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard return:
"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 [minutes]."
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 shit 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:
"It didn't look like that to me around the 65th minute. They had a pretty good run at us for 20 minutes or so. 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 were 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."
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER STEVEN GERRARD
On the nice way to come back from injury:
“Yeah, it was not at the beginning. I was thinking, ‘Is this all my fault?’ It didn’t go well, the 30 minutes when I came on they came back into the game. They were showing an awful amount of more energy than us at the time. It was nice at the end to finish the game off and a good three points for us in the end.”
On how he feels after playing 30 minutes:
“Physically I am fine. I probably could have played a bit longer but Bruce [Arena] obviously thinking further down the line, we have a game coming up in 72 hours so I think it was sensible to just play 30 today and be available to more minutes come Wednesday.”
On how nice it was to have Robbie Keane back in the lineup:
“Yes, of course, he is our captain and he’s our leading goal scorer. You all know him better than me, what you’ve seen here over the years. To welcome that goal threat back into the team and the squad is great to see.”
On today being the second time all three Designated Players score in the same game:
“I hope it’s not a coincidence. I hope it continues. We enjoy playing together. Me and Giovani [dos Santos] haven’t been here too long and it’s always going to take time for us all to settle and get used to each other and for everyone else in the roster to get used to us as well. But we are all settling in and we are playing some really good stuff going forward. I think the learning thing for this team is when we get in front and we get that healthy lead we need to shut up shop and stop conceding goals.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On the match:
“It was a good result for us. The first half was obviously very, very good. We got three goals and we looked very comfortable. Naturally, in games, you’re going to get teams that are going to maybe push on a little bit and that was the case in the second half. We managed to hold on and with [Steven Gerrard’s] goal, obviously he eased the nerves of everyone in the stadium.”
On second half:
“You don’t want to concede goals, of course. To concede two goals in four minutes is obviously disappointing. We got the result, we got the three points, and that’s the most important thing of course. But we have to look at that, and as a group, certainly defend better, but at the end of the day, we got the three points.”
On the team’s formation:
“I said to the players before the game, I told them to not get caught up in systems and stuff like that. When you’re playing a game, you can set a system for the team, and you can write on the board and it’s obviously static there, but when you’re playing the game, everyone is running all over the place. If everybody works for each other and gets each other in decent positions, sometimes it could look like a 4-5-1, sometimes it could look like a 4-4-2… I think we rotated very, very well in terms of when we had to go in and drop in to help the midfield, sometimes pushing on the left and sometimes pushing on the right, we did well. I think [Emmanuel Boateng] and [Sebastian Lletget] certainly did well tucking in and helping Jeff [Larentowicz].”
On coming back from injury to link up with players:
“I think as you see today, my link up play has been very good and it was like that at the start of the season, but unfortunately, [Giovani dos Santos] got injured and I got injured. But it feels like at the moment that we’re getting people back and then someone is missing through suspension or injury. Come July, hopefully we get everybody back together, everybody fit and healthy, and I think you’ll see a stronger, stronger team. But certainly in the next 5-6 weeks, players are all over the place so it’s quite difficult to get a rhythm. But full credit to the players at the moment, we’re staying in there. You get the points on the board and keep us in there, and when you get everybody back, the team is going to look strong.”’
On the match against Philadelphia Wednesday:
“I expect to be playing. I’m back.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD GIOVANI DOS SANTOS
On his form:
“I feel very confident right now and personally, I’ve been working really hard. And also, I think the team has been doing very good. We’ve been playing so good and it also helps me.”
On his goal:
“I just tried to shoot, and I think it was a good goal. I don’t care about a goal – I know everyone is talking about the goal – but the good thing is that the performance today was good. We took the three points and are looking forward to the next game.”
On the formation:
“It’s a pleasure to play with Robbie [Keane] and Gyasi [Zardes] is doing a great job, as well. We are really confident and hopefully we can continue like this.”
On having Robbie Keane back:
“Robbie is very important for us, for the club. He’s a great player. I think the chemistry between me and him is getting better every game and for me, it’s always a pleasure to play with him.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD GYASI ZARDES
On playing as a striker with Robbie Keane and Giovani dos Santos behind him:
“I love playing up top, being the high striker. Just to have [Robbie] Keane and Giovani [dos Santos] behind me, I can’t ask for anything better. They are both great attacking players and they are threats.”
On how Robbie Keane and Giovani dos Santos playing behind him changes his play:
“It doesn’t really change anything. It allows me to really slip through the back line because I know they can find me, but not only that. I’m confident that if I give them the ball they will give it back.”
On the team’s chemistry:
“We communicate with each other and we understand each other, we try to work for each other. I think we are going to progress as we play.”
On Bruce Arena saying he played his best game of the season:
“I’m just trying to work for the team and if I’m the highest striker, I’m trying to connect with my forwards. If I’m playing out wide, then I’m just trying to do the defensive work and the attacking work. I just try to do the game plan. The coaches do a phenomenal job at getting the team prepared for our opponents and I just try to do what they ask of me.”
On having Robbie Keane back in the lineup:
“It’s very nice to have [Robbie] Keane back and healthy.”
On Steven Gerrard’s return:
“It’s nice to get Stevie [Gerrard] back in the game as well. He is a veteran of the game and he brings the team together during the last moments of the game.”
On the 3-0 lead at halftime:
“The game was never over at halftime. No matter what the score is, you have to fight it out for 90 minutes.”
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH JAY HEAPS
On the team coming back within one goal in the second half:
"It was a tale of two halves. I thought we came out in the first half and in the first ten or 12 minutes the game was going the way we wanted it to go. But we knew that at any moment they could strike. I feel like the first time they came down the field they scored - the first time they were dangerous. That was a real gut punch. The next two goals were pretty credible goals so I think we have to do better on not giving away the second and third goal in the half because if we go in 1-0 at halftime we can make some adjustments, which we did when we finally got to halftime we were able to make some adjustments. I thought the second half was a much better version of our team. We were more aggressive and moved the ball quicker and limited their chances when they got down on our end."
On what was going through his head when Juan Agudelo hit the crossbar in the 83rd minute:
"We've hit that crossbar before here. It was the MLS Cup crossbar. Is it regulation? Did they change the size in the second half? I did think that was going in and that would have been a great moment for us because we just pulled Jose [Goncalves] off with an injury. We had some concerns going into this came, Lee was carrying a bit of a knock and we had to be smart because it wasn't worth him getting more injured. We had a minute limit on him. We could have gone to 70, but I didn't want to see him get hurt and I was a little nervous about that."
On Robbie Keane's two goals and New England's lack of marking on him:
"It was poor marking on the first one. The second one I have not seen yet, but that one was a little different because they were inside our six. But the first one was just bad marking and if you leave Robbie Keane open at the back post it's not nine out of 10. It's 100 out of 100."
On if he felt that comeback was coming before his 60th minute substitution:
I thought it was coming. At halftime we had a real...let's just say it was a very emotional conversation in the locker room. I felt like we were going to test ourselves. I felt like I looked into a group of guys and said that first half was not good, we need to go out and win the second half. We need to win one play at a time, one goal at a time and I felt there was a real energy we left in the building. But you have to break them down and I think the guys that came in definitely gave us that lift that we needed to get over the hump. I thought Femi [Hollinger-Janzen] came in and did a great job. He was really dangerous. I thought Teal [Bunbury] came in and stretched the field and was able to open the space underneath for Juan [Agudelo] to get some balls underneath. So we made some tactical changes and put Kelyn [Rowe] in a position where we thought it was more of a 3-4-3 so he could get forward and help cover. In the end I thought it was good adjustments by our team to play smart in that second half. But, mind you, the first half was the completely exact opposite of that so we were disappointed in that."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD KELYN ROWE
On the team's performance and fight back in the second half: "It just wasn't good enough in the first half. We dug ourselves into a hole, but we did start to dig ourselves out of it. I thought we came out in the second half and played very well. Even though we went down a man with the injuries and using all our subs, we were still going for that third goal. There is a positive in this game, but it just wasn't good enough overall. So we just need to go into this next three-game home game stretch and do a lot better. But I like the second half."
On what the team can take from the second half:
"If we want to be the top team in the East and want to be contenders for this club, we need to play like we did in the second half with that fight, that little bit of edge, bit of urgency. I think we've shown bits and pieces, we just need to put a full game together."
On what his role in the second half was and how it switched at halftime:
"It was a little bit different. We wanted to try and exploit that left side and I think there were times where we found a lot of space out there with Diego [Fagundez] tucked in. I thought with all that space out wide we were able to get the ball in the box and use our big guys in the air. You saw a couple times where we could get 1-2s around the box and create a little bit of havoc.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD JUAN AGUDELO
On the game:
“In the first 45 minutes there was nothing to be proud about. We kept our heads up and at halftime we talked amongst each other and we said we have to take it personally. That’s what we went out and did in the second half and it felt like we were battling more.”
On New England scoring two goals back to back:
“We seemed like we were back at it. We seemed like we were a whole different team and this is how we should play every single game with a little bit of anger. We got a shot off the crossbar, unlucky, and it could have been a tied game and we would have been happy going home with a tie.”
On hitting the woodwork for a second straight weekend:
“I guess I have to hit the underside of the woodwork now. Besides that I feel like we showed a lot of fight but the first half of the next game we have to play like this second half.”
On his first start since coming back from injury:
“I felt good, specially playing 90. Felt good after 65 minutes. I tried to do anything that I can and fight to come out with something out of this game because it felt like in the second half we deserved it.”
On the upcoming three game stretch:
“It’s a huge opportunity for us and couldn’t have come in the right time. We’ve been tying games, given up a loss. Three home games coming up is a chance to get nine points and it will be huge for us.”
