LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 1, Colorado Rapids 1
Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016
2016 MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, California
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND GENERAL MANAGER BRUCE ARENA
An update on Brian Rowe:
“He took some stitches. Staples, I should say.”
On what he thought of Emmanuel Boateng’s performance:
“He played well. I think our entire team had a good night tonight. Story of the game was we didn’t finish our chances. It was a game where we could have scored certainly two goals…maybe three or four. We played well. I think Tim Howard came up with a few big saves. He saved the one early on Gyasi Zardes. Then the chance we had with AJ DeLaGarza, you know, we’d like to think we can get it on goal. But we created some chances, I’m not certain how many they had, but they certainly buried the one they had. Give them credit for that. We just have got to finish off those chances. You know a team like Colorado, they’re a very good defensive team. They defend with eight, nine, 10 players the entire game. They’re not easy to break down so when you get a chance you’ve got to finish it off. And certainly, falling behind to that team is not a formula for winning. So I give our guys credit for getting a goal and certainly for pushing to get a second goal. But I think for me, on the night, we played well. We’re at fault for not finishing our chances and that’s that.”
On if he feels unlucky with the result:
“No, not unlucky. We’re maybe an inch away on Jelle Van Damme’s chance in the first half. Tim Howard made a real good save on Gyasi’s shot I thought. I thought maybe if AJ gets it off a little quicker and it’s on frame it’s a goal, but you know, that’s soccer. Don’t tell me that we had more shots, more possession and all that garbage. It’s 1-1. Just another lesson for you children out there that the score is the only statistic in this game that means anything.”
On what the chances are for Robbie Keane to play next week:
“Very good. If I’m not mistaken – and again, don’t take this as gospel – but I think he’s eligible to play tomorrow. There’s a concussion protocol that I think we missed by a day. And I don’t know what it is and how it’s run and all that stuff, but I would simply say this: I should have no say in that matter. The players should have no say in that matter. That’s the job of the medical staff of our team and our league and we’re following that protocol. And if I’m not mistaken, I think he’s eligible to play tomorrow. He trained on Thursday and Friday, but he wasn’t yet through the required protocol.”
On making sense of how often the team has to come back to win or draw:
“What makes sense is the other team scored first, that’s why. We had our chances to score early in the game. We didn’t. If we make a couple of those chances in the first half, we’re not trailing in the game. That’s the sense I make out of it.”
On if this is an improvement from Wednesday night’s match:
“On Wednesday night we played well. For lack of a better word, we played our second team against a so-called ‘best team in the league’ and we were five minutes away from winning. We had no control of the schedule. We had to play Sunday, Wednesday, then Saturday. You can’t do that with 11 players. We were five minutes away from winning on Wednesday and again, that’s our responsibility. But it’s a different set of players, so I don’t know how you’d do it.”
On his thoughts on Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos and how their responsibilities changed with the positions they were in tonight:
“Obviously Steven drops back a little bit to help Nigel de Jong. Gio moves inside playing underneath the striker. I don’t think for Gio it changes a whole lot, for Stevie it does a little bit.
On Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos’ performances:
“OK. Again, tough game for any team when the other team has such a strong defensive presence. So given that, I think there was some decent chances created. But we didn’t do well with our chances.”
On if Brian Rowe will have to go through the same protocol as Robbie Keane/his college education and connection with www.lagalaxy.com writer Larry Morgan:
“I don’t know. I have a Bachelor’s of Science. It doesn’t qualify me for a whole lot. I don’t know what the diagnosis is of the player. So how can I answer that? I’m a bit of an idiot so I wouldn’t be able to tell you that right now. Even if I knew what the protocol was, I probably wouldn’t do well. I got a D+ in chemistry at Cornell. Biology I took pass/fail and surprisingly passed it, but that’s the extent of my understanding of science and medicine. I’m kind of like Larry – Larry’s laughing over there. Larry and I were in the same class. Larry was the custodian in the class. He was in the back of the room.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD GIOVANI DOS SANTOS
On the game:
“I think they scored a great goal but we played great today. Our energy has been good and everyone is working hard and we have to continue in that line.
On what he saw from Colorado’s goal in the first half:
“They’re a difficult team, they defend very well. This season the chances that they’ve had they are making goals so we have to give credit to them.”
On learning from Wednesday’s Open Cup loss and changing mindsets for this game:
“It’s a difficult moment for us but we are professionals. We know we are still in a good position in the league so we are going to keep working hard.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER DANIEL STERES
On his goal:
“The goal that I scored was good just to get us back in the game and get a result out of it. We could obviously have added a few more; we had a lot of good chances. I wish we could have the one we let in back.”
On what happened on Colorado’s goal:
“I think we were just dropping in and we gave the guy, who’s got a good strike, open space on top of the box and he buried it. We talked about not giving that up to him before and we just weren’t focused enough. To be fair he had a good strike, a good goal.”
On Steven Gerrard’s corner kick that set up LA’s goal:
“He puts in a great ball and I thought over the course of the night that we had a pretty good advantage on set pieces. We were getting our heads on a lot of things; Jelle [Van Damme] had one off the post. A few others, so I think it was bound to happen and that was the one.”
On the team’s mindset for today’s match after coming from Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup loss:
“That was a tough result, the way it happened. So we just wanted to turn the page and move on and I though we put on a good performance tonight, probably deserved to get a win. We had a lot of shots so we just wanted to move past it and focus on the league now that that’s over.”
On feeling unlucky after not being able to secure a win:
“I think we deserved it. I thought we had the better chances, the keeper had a couple of good saves, a couple that we missed just over the bar a couple of inches wide. I think we probably deserves to get a win out of that but like I said, I am more disappointed in not being able to get a shutout.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD GYASI ZARDES
On how his chest felt returning from injury:
“It felt great. I wore this type of cast that won’t allow much movement so I don’t reinjure it because it’s still kind of tender. But it was fun to be back on the field.”
On if he thought he was going to score the first-half chance against Tim Howard:
“100%. I was very simple. Control it and play it. And sure enough, his trailing hand got a hand on it. He’s a great keeper.”
On if he thought this was a strong performance compared to recent games:
“I thought the Dallas [U.S. Open Cup] game we played extremely well. It is just segments, a couple minutes and two corner kicks. But I think we’re progressing as a team.”
On missed opportunities tonight:
“We’re still missing a couple guys that generally finish the ball on our squad… But Tim Howard is a great goalkeeper.”
On having the team all together to build chemistry:
“If we’re all together, you see numerous finishes. But with the guys who stepped on the pitch – [Emmanuel Boateng], Sebastian [Lletget] and myself coming back into the squad, I thought we all played extremely well.”
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH PABLO MASTROENI
On the team’s defensive effort and Tim Howard’s performance:
“Yeah. Obviously I think we’ve been a pretty good defensive team this year. Everything we do is predicated upon our defense. It ignites our attack. It keeps us in games. And when that hasn’t been the case, Tim has come up huge and tonight he had a great game for us. But again, the effort from Kevin Doyle up top all the way through the midfield and the backline against what is, obviously, the best attack in the league, the most potent attack in the league and for the guys to really put in a performance like this away from home speaks volumes of the type of the commitment they have towards one another. And more importantly to keep adding points and to keep making a run here.”
On how the team’s emotions and style changed throughout the game:
“Yeah. I think it’s only human when you go up a goal against a team like this – especially with seeing what they did against New York last weekend – when they want to turn it on, they can. And I think at the end there we did a really good job of defending set pieces, probably giving up too many. But again, with quality players that you’re playing against it’s difficult to take everything away. Goals change games. Goals change emotions. Goals change momentum. And I think when we scored we kind of dropped back a bit, naturally. And you know, they got on their front foot and it felt like momentum shifted when we scored the first goal.”
On if it’s different facing LA Galaxy when Giovani dos Santos plays in the middle rather than Steven Gerrard:
“Pick your poison. These are world class players and they’ll beat you different ways. You’ve got to just take something away, but you’re not going to be able to take everything away. So whether it’s Robbie Keane, Giovani dos Santos or Steven Gerrard…and even with those three playing in the hole, they do a fantastic job of playing off shoulders and finding ways to bring their teammates into the game and more importantly getting in the box.”
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER SAM CRONIN
On the team's performance:
“Obviously we want to play better but there is a lot to be said for a team when you play poorly and still get a road tie. I think it shows our character and a lot of stuff we need to improve on for next week but we can leave here with our heads high and feel good about ourselves even though we didn't play our best.”
On Tim Howard's performance:
“It's huge. That is really what a goalie is for when you are not playing well especially to keep you in the game and that is exactly what he did. We let ourselves down quite a bit in the first half and gave them opportunities and we are fortunate to keep it zero. That is obviously why he was brought here, just huge saves all night, first half, second half and we were able to nick one and hold on for the tie. He is man of the match for sure.”
On Shkelzen Gashi:
“He has been playing a little bit of a different role the last couple of games so I think that has allowed him to find little pockets a little more and find the game as he sees fit. Throughout the season you have seen him with his one touch finishing. His finishing on top of the box is really good and if he can get his feet under him and get the ball out in front of him and get a good strike on it he's one of the better ball strikers probably in the league so it's just a great goal.”
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD SHKELZEN GASHI
On his performance as of late:
“I think you need to work all day every day, every training and sometimes the ball goes in sometimes not and you need to always stay positive and today it was a great goal but I think 1-1 is not easy now because I think we played really good tonight and we could have won but one point is good too.”
On playing more of a number 10 role:
“For me it is important that I have a good conversation with the coach and that he says what he wants and that we can make it happen. For me I just want to play have fun and help the team.”
On Tim Howard:
“Tim [Howard] had a good performance tonight and we are happy that he is here because when you know that you have a good goalkeeper you they can make big saves. We are happy, he did a good job and he is a good guy.”
COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER TIM HOWARD
On the team's first half defensive breakdowns:
“It wasn't so much breakdowns it's just that LA is really good in the attacking third. They drop off in the pockets and they make them very hard to defend. More than anything we had to weather their storm. I think you saw in the second half we plugged those holes. It is not always breakdowns I think good teams put you in a position where you feel vulnerable and that is very difficult.”
On what happened during the Galaxy's goal:
“We had given away too many corner kicks all game and it was difficult to defend. Obviously Steven [Gerrard] whips some really good balls in and the big fellas are always getting their head on it. I think when you give LA too many of those they are bound to score.”
On tonight's result:
“Dallas drew today so we keep pace. Coming to LA and getting a 1-1, I thought we played pretty well for the most part we'll take that for sure.”
