PORTLAND, Ore. – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena spoke to reporters following the LA Galaxy’s 2-1 victory over the Portland Timbers on Saturday at Providence Park.
On the difficulties of the second half versus the first…
ARENA: “It was a tough week for us. It’s our third game in a short period of time. The heat in the second half was probably 25 degrees hotter in the second half with the skies opening up, the sun out and the turf. That was difficult for our group. We had four guys who played on Wednesday, so that wasn’t easy. We knew it was going to be a little ugly and then the field got tough to play on. Give [Portland] credit. They pushed for the goal. I think our biggest mistake in the game was conceding a goal at the end of the first half. We could have been in a position to, I wouldn’t say sail through the game, but deal with it a little bit better in the second half.”
On scoring early goals and whether that was the gameplan….
ARENA: “We came out and played well. It was about 75 degrees in the first half and about 90 in the second half. We were sharper, and we had a chance to get a third goal as well. It was a really good first half, and guys battled and did all they could to get out of here with three points.”
On what the Galaxy’s identity is…
ARENA: “I don’t know how to answer that question, to be honest with you. We’re a team that leads the league in goals scored, and we’re second in goals against. Our identity is that we’re a solid team.”
On the team’s mentality and identity….
ARENA: We won the game. That’s what you do in soccer games. We were on the road in a venue where the team does pretty well at home. What are we complaining about? Then some moron will write that they had more shots than us thinking that’s important. Actually, analytics in soccer, if no one here has figured it out, doesn’t mean a whole lot. Analytics and statistics are used for people who don’t know how to analyze the game. I’ll be very honest with you, this isn’t baseball or football or basketball. We have a very important analytic, and that’s the score. That distorts all the other statistics.”
On Brian Rowe’s performance over the last few games…
ARENA: “He’s been good. He’s a young goalkeeper. At 28 years old, which is still young for a goalkeeper, but young in experience. I think when Dan Kennedy got hurt and [Rowe] had this run of games, it was critically important. I think that a good turn in form for him was in Montreal where we lost the game at the end of the game. We’ve lost our three games this year, two of them in the 95th minute. He made a mistake, and we stuck with him and gave him confidence. Since then he’s taken off, I think and played quite well. He continues to grow. He’s athletic, which you can see. He’s beginning to read the game well, and he’s made some big saves.”
On if his team is getting better at managing games on the road…
ARENA: “Yes. You need me to tell you that? Just look at… we’re doing that. Again, we’ve played two games 95 minutes that we lost in the 95th minute that should have been 92, 93 minute games. So we’ve played basically every game on the road this year we’ve had a chance to win the game or get a point. It’s not just recently. This is the whole season, we’ve been pretty good. We’re a little unfortunate in Montreal with the mistake at the end of the game and Colorado in the 95th minute as well. This isn’t anything new. We have a good, experienced group. I think [A.J. DeLaGarza] does a tremendous job with our guys in the back. When Ashley Cole’s in there, it really helps. The experienced players. Getting Nigel [De Jong] back is going to help. We have an experienced group of guys that if we need to protect a lead, we can protect a lead. I tell you, today, you could see the guys that played on Wednesday struggled over the last 20-30 minutes, and we knew that was going to happen. We hung in there, and that’s the most important thing.”