LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 0, Colorado Rapids 0
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
2016 MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, Calif.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the game:
“It was a good hard fought game; our second half was certainly better than the first.”
On Jack McBean:
“I think Jack [McBean] had a good game, he did good job and made a bunch of good plays on both sides of the ball. We [thought] of taking him out actually, but he continued to play well so we kept him in there. I think he did a real good job, he held the ball up, drew some fouls, helped create a few chances and for his first game with us this year I thought he did very good.”
On Steven Gerrard’s and Giovani dos Santos’ return:
“I think they both did well. Giovani [dos Santos] played maybe 10 more minutes than we had planned. We have to be careful; both of the players are coming back from injuries, so I think we were able to do that. We think Stevie will move forward and we think by the start of July he is going to be 100 percent.”
On Jack McBean’s role moving forward:
“I haven’t gone through all that yet, so we’ll see. We won’t have our other strikers for a while. I am not going to worry about that a whole lot but obviously if he’s not in playing with the first team he’ll play with Galaxy II.”
On what he takes away from the team’s attack despite scoreless draw:
“They’re hard to break down, they did a good job dropping that back line, there’s no space behind them and that made it difficult and obviously if the ball is in the air and they have a pretty good center back in the air. Our best chance in the game was probably the one with Emmanuel [Boateng] at the end of the game. I think 26 blocked it off the line; I think it was a pretty good play by him. We got to the end of the line a bunch of times with Emmanuel Boateng but the service wasn’t quite good enough, I thought actually some of our set pieces were pretty dangerous. When [Steven] Gerrard got in the game I think centrally we had a couple combinations that were pretty close to finishing off but never quite got there. Overall, Sebastian [Lletget] created a few chances on the right side as well. We were just okay. Obviously Colorado’s efforts defensively were very good. They worked real hard on the defensive end of the field and were tough to break down.”
On Brian Rowe:
“Brian [Rowe] made two or three real good saves. He was important.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD JACK MCBEAN
On how he thought he played:
”I think I did OK. There’s definitely some room for improvement. I thought I worked pretty hard up there. I just need to make my touches a bit sharper. ”
On how Colorado Rapids were able to halt the Galaxy attack:
”They worked really hard and they were tough to break down. They had two big centerbacks who were physical with me and they fought for every play. ”
On when he knew that he was going to start against Colorado:
”Yesterday. Bruce talked to me and said that he was going to start me. So it was obviously a good feeling. ”
On how he felt to suiting up for an MLS match again:
”It’s weird. It’s been three years or almost three years, so to be back is good and I feel like I fit in a lot better this time than before and hopefully things only go up from here.”
On how he would compare himself as a player now to when he first signed with the Galaxy:
”I think I’ve matured. My game’s matured and my confidence is up. I’ve been scoring goals with Los Dos and I think that competition has really helped my game develop. ”
On how many pounds of muscle he’s added since he was first signed:
“A couple.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER DAVE ROMNEY
On how it felt to start against for the first team:
“It’s just nice to get in rhythm again. I haven’t played a lot of minutes this year, so it’s nice to get a game in and get my confidence up and feel more part of the team. I thought I did decently well. There were a couple crosses that I probably could have put in a little better, but I think with more time and more games and getting my fitness back up I’ll start doing a little better.”
On what needs to change about the Galaxy’s offense:
“We’ve been changing lineups a lot. A lot of guys in different spots because of guys away on international duty and guys injured and stuff like that. It’s just tough getting used to each other again. This game we probably did create a good amount of chances, but as a defense we also gave up some chances. We got stretched and Brian [Rowe] came up really big for us.”
On how disappointed he is that LA Galaxy have drawn in their last three home matches:
“It’s definitely tough at home since we’re usually so good at home. You don’t want to draw. You can maybe get away with a draw on the road, but we definitely want to get three points at home. They’re not terrible results, but you start slowly sliding down the table and that’s not what we want to do going into the summer.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER STEVEN GERRARD
On his performance as a substitute:
“I wanted a bit more time, but that’s always the case with players. We want to get on and get as much time as possible. It’s very difficult coming on as a sub to get your second wind. But I’m feeling OK and I’ll be telling the manager that I’m ready to start come the weekend. I’ll be in from the start of the weekend.”
On what has to happen for the team to regain its confidence on offense:
“I think looking dangerous is not good enough. Looking dangerous should be a gimme. Every single game we’ve got to look dangerous, you know, we’re LA Galaxy. A couple of years ago we were champions of this country. You should look dangerous every single game. That’s not an achievement. It should be a gimme. So we need to go a step further and start creating better chances and taking those chances and getting goals otherwise you’re not going to win football matches. I think that might be five or six now on the bounds that we haven’t won. We need to win ASAP.”
On if the team has just been unlucky:
“I don’t think we’ve been unlucky. I think that’s just an excuse. We’ve got very dangerous attacking players who’ve been missing. Giovani [dos Santos] has been injured. Robbie’s been away; Gyasi’s been away. I’m sure once we get everyone back and firing, everyone in this group knows we’ll be scoring heavily again.”
On Jack McBean’s performance:
“I thought he worked his socks off. He’d done himself no harm at all. He’s a very honest striker and puts himself about. Unfortunately he never got many clear chances, but he’s been doing exceptionally well with the second team and he deserved his chance tonight.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER NIGEL DE JONG
On what needs to happen for the offense to get back to its scoring ways:
“I don’t know – maybe we need to sign Messi. But all joking aside, we are rotating the offensive players the last couple of games and trying to figure out which system will work best for us especially in the front. But that’s how it goes. There’s the absence of two important players with Robbie [Keane] and Gyasi [Zardes]. We had some injuries with Steven [Gerrard] and Giovani [dos Santos]. But they are back now and in full fitness for the next game, so hopefully they can give us a little bit of creativity that we’ve been lacking the last couple of games. But it’s hard. If I knew what the reason was, I would have already fixed it.”
On how Giovani dos Santos and Jack McBean worked up top:
“I think they did quite well. You have to give credit to Jack as well. He stepped it up and got a chance from the coach and he took it quite well considering that he’s only played for the second game and this was his first game. He only had two training sessions with us. Considering that, I thought he did well and I think he provided a good battle for us up top.”
On the recent chemistry in the LA Galaxy midfield and if they play a part in the offensive struggles:
“Obviously. But I haven’t played with consistent players in that position for 15 games. It was me, or it was Stevie that was out, Baggio [Husidic] was out, Jeff [Larentowicz) came in. So we need to provide the offensive line obviously, also with more creativity. It’s not only the problem with the forwards. It has to come from somewhere - the back and the midfielders as well. I’m happy Stevie is back for the next game because he will provide that piece of creativity and let’s try to get a streak with everybody fit and that we can play with each other for at least 3-4 games so we can get to know each other and just get the hang of the movements of each other and things like that because you need that if you want to be a championship team.”
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COAH PABLO MASTROENI
On the game:
“I think we definitely want to exploit the wide areas and get behind, that’s something we’ve been focusing on the last couple of weeks since the break and I think we did a really good job of creating probably three or four clear opportunities on goal. I think with a little bit more poise in front of goal we would have nicked one. As far as the game plan is concerned, I think we executed to a tee. Obviously you are going to go through moments where you are going to withstand a lot of pressure. They’re a very good team, a well-coached team, but I think through the 90 plus minutes I think we did a very good job executing the game plan on offense and also defense.”
On exploiting the wide areas against the LA Galaxy:
“I think in this league the statistics will tell you that this league concedes more goals in crosses than pretty much any league in the world. At least that was the data I was presented with whether or not it’s accurate. So I think get the ball wide in the wide areas and good deliveries and more importantly the runs in behind. This is a league that there is a lot of transition moments and if we could exploit that with a bit of pace sometimes you win the ball and you want to slow it down and I said today ‘let’s win the ball, look forward and play forward’ and think we did a really good job on that and that’s where our quality opportunities came from.”
On Jack McBean:
“It was great to see him; I think Jack [McBean] was a really young man when I was playing here. I was shocked when I saw him on the team sheet. He handled himself really well tonight. I thought his hold up play was good, he was energetic, he was really mobile and so I think he’s improved quite a bit as a player. It was great to see that he gets rewarded with the opportunity.”
On how to continue unbeaten streak and momentum with Tim Howard’s addition and Jermaine Jones’ return:
“The thing that we talk about all the time is going one game runs and taking it one game at a time and not look too far ahead. We have a lot of work to do; we’ve had a lot of shuffling of positions. We’ve got guys that have some of the strangest situations where they can’t make it to games and I think that’s when team comes in. As an organization, we don’t rely on one guy to win everything; we don’t put that kind of pressure on anyone. The pressure that we talk about is who’s the next man up and who’s going to do a great job. So with the addition of Tim [Howard and Jermaine [Jones] back in the group, nothing changes. The expectations are the same. We came with the mentality to come in here and get three points.”
COLORADO RAPIDS DEFENDER JARED WATTS
On the tonight's game:
“Hard fought point for sure. Another western conference game, the Galaxy we know what they are about, dynamic players they have, they are tough to play here in LA. We knew that coming in but at the same time we really didn't want to change our game plan too much, we wanted to play on the front foot and I think we did that. We caused them some trouble but at the same time I think a draw is probably a fair result.”
On the team's performance:
“Getting back out there felt good but again we have seen this throughout the year no matter who we are missing guys step in and do their job and understand their role and do a good job with that. Obviously with Dennis [Castillo] coming in you have to give credit to the overall team, I think we have seen that throughout. It was 11 guys out there working together I thought it was good. I was a tough game like I said but we'll leave with a midweek draw and take it.
COLORADO RAPIDS DEFENDER DENNIS CASTILLO:
On his first MLS start:
“I feel pretty good I'm glad that it finally happened but more than anything I'm glad that we got a point and good way to start in the second part of the season.”
On getting a draw:
“The mission when we are on the road is to get a win or at least a point. It's pretty straight forward and I think it keeps us on the road that we are on and it's good. It gives us more confidence to keep going.”
On being unbeaten in 11 games:
“We know that goes around but we just take it game by game and move forward and right now we are focusing on the next game and trying to get prepared for the Open Cup game and after that we are just going to take it game by game and move on.”
