LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 0, Vancouver Whitecaps FC 0
Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016
2016 MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Los Angeles, California
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND GENERAL MANAGER BRUCE ARENA
On how frustrating the 0-0 draw was to him:
“It’s not frustrating.”
On what he takes from the game:
“One-point game. That’s what I take from it. It’s not frustrating. Our guys gave a good effort. The played a good second half I thought.”
On if he has any concerns about the team’s six-game unbeaten streak:
“We’re probably going to fold the franchise.”
On if he has any injury updates on Jelle Van Damme or Steven Gerrard:
“I don’t.”
On the return of Robbie Rogers:
“It’s good to get him back; he’s a little rusty. If we had the opportunity, we maybe would have taken him out 70 minutes into the game, but burning two substitutions in the first half made that option really difficult. I think he did a good job hanging in there. He’s a little bit rusty, but it’s good to get him back.”
On the week of training ahead:
“The best thing to do is have a couple days off. It’s not the week of training, it’s the rest and recover really.”
On what changed in the second half:
“They obviously got tired and they were chasing the ball a lot. So we had a lot of the ball and just didn’t have the final product. We came close a couple times. That’s the tactical plan for every team to come in here pretty much. We’ve seen that now... probably since May or April. They’re very organized, they press us when we have goal kicks. They drop 10 players back in possession and look to counter and they almost got a goal off of our corner kick early in the game which would have made it real ugly. So we’ve got to be a bit sharper and the final product has to be a little bit better. The crossing is not good, the timing of our runs. And when you’ve got a shot, you’ve got to take it. We don’t shoot enough, but we’ve got to get a little bit better there. But we see the same thing, I think that’s our league. The league has become a league where, and rightfully so, every game is important. Teams are just trying to get a point. They tend to be very defensive in nature, very rarely do you see two teams going at it a little bit. Every point is sacred. They’re really hard fought games and they tend to have some defensive posture to it. So the demands on the attacking team is that you attack well and if you don’t, there’s a chance you’re going to not score a goal and we’ve probably seen that a number of times this year.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER BRIAN ROWE
On returning to action after his injury:
“I got real fortunate on Hurtado’s header that stayed out. Sometimes you’ll take a little luck. I think after that, kind of woke me up a little bit, it was able to set me back in and I felt normal after that.”
On Robbie Rogers’ first game back from injury:
“He looked great. He said he looked a little slow out there, but if that is slow, then I don’t know… He’s still looking fast out there. I thought he did a really good job. I don’t know what their plan was to give him the full 90 or not, but I think making those two subs in the first half and having Gyasi [Zardes] come off put the team in a bad situation, but he did a great job getting up and done the line. He had a good shift.”
On the team’s form going into the final part of the season:
“I think it’s good that we are able to get a shutout, defensively hold teams. I think we showed a lot of character tonight even though I don’t think we had the best chances going forward, we had a lot of possession in their final third but weren’t just quite able to break them down. Moving forward, I think it will come. We’ve gone through these kind of spells in the past and we’ll pick it up.”
On going through this form now instead of during the playoffs:
“If you’re going to go through this at all, it’s better to do it before too close to the end of the year. So if this is our little dry spell right now, we’re still getting points out of it, still getting shutouts, I think we’ll be okay going forward.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER ROBBIE ROGERS
On returning after coming back from injury:
“Pretty tired towards the end but I was really excited, especially the first half to be out there, even back in the locker room before the game with the guys. Just to be here in the stadium to play and to be a part of it. It's tough to be in the gym every day and doing extra fitness and doing all that stuff but it really pays off. So today I thought it was a little bit rusty but I was happy with how much energy I had running forward and kind of combining with guys so I think from here moving forward I just have to work on my sharpness but I was happy, happy to finish 90 minutes.”
On tonight’s result:
“It was frustrating, we need to get three points at home. That needs to be our mission, that needs to be in our heads from the beginning and I thought we kind of lacked that killer instinct going forward especially, and I thought we were pretty good defensively. We kind of shut down a lot of their moments going forward but I thought when we won it we weren't really finding that killer pass going forward. It was just slow, one guy, the next guy, and I thought if we could have maybe skipped a few guys and got at guys we could have been a little bit more dangerous.”
On not finishing chances on goal:
“Tonight we were trying I get crosses in and I think that's their strength, they have these big guys in the box, it's hard to beat them that way, so when it's not working out you have to see that, you have to be smart as a soccer player and realize we need to do something else so it seemed like that was our only option, I would get forward or Ema [Boateng] would go down the line or [Sebastian Lletget] or [Ashley Cole] and we needed to combine more to the middle I think and flip guys because they have big guys in the box and they would win it and then they would kind of counter on us.”
On the injuries early in the game:
“It was tough, I thought the guys who came in really stepped up and it seemed like they kind of gave us a boost so it’s really a difficult position to be in, especially coming in the first half when you’re not expecting it so I thought Gyasi [Zardes] did really well in the first half and then I thought Mike [Magee] came on and did well and everyone else so it was great.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ALAN GORDON
On the result:
“It’s frustrating; we’re kind of stalled right now, can’t get anything going offensively. It’s a little bit frustrating; this feels like a loss, we need points. We’re at home and all you can do is look at some film and rally together; we can’t let this bring us down. At the end of the day it is a point, everything is going to be close at the end and we have to move forward and get ready for a tough game next weekend.”
On Vancouver’s defense:
“Obviously we didn’t score, but I thought they did a good job. Two big guys in the back were eating all of our crosses up; they did a good job defending the cross. You have to give them a little bit of credit, I think that we could be a little bit more dynamic and mix it up a little bit more.”
On the early injuries and how that impacted the game:
“It’s tough. It’s always tough. Having to make two subs early limits guys coming off the bench giving some extra energy and taking some guys out like me that haven’t played as many minutes, so it affects things but we push through and at the end of the day we got a point. Like I said, and we have to just take it and run with it.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER SEBASTIAN LLETGET
On the team’s injuries early in the game:
“Having two injuries in the first half is never great for any team because I think we are a team that depend on fresh legs in the last 15 minutes but we couldn't get that today, it is what it is.”
On playing three games in seven days and how that affected the team today:
“I mean, personally I did, obviously I didn't play much in the New York game but got two 90 minute games in the last two and it definitely weighs on the body but it's a shame we didn't get the win, I thought we deserved it.”
On being in the final third of the season:
“Obviously you want to start well but I think this is where we really have to push and we are doing our best and think we just have to give another 10 percent and maybe it will work out for us.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC HEAD COACH CARL ROBINSON
On the team playing well despite getting a goal:
“Football is pretty simple isn’t it. You’ve got to keep the ball out the back of your net and put it the back of the opposition’s net. We’ve done a very good job of keeping the ball out of our net and we weren’t able to take advantage of the chances that came our way in a very difficult place. If not for lack of effort, maybe a lack of quality. But I can’t fault the guys in that. I have faulted them this year because I don’t think they’ve given enough in certain games, but I can’t fault them today. I can’t, so I won’t.”
On how Erik Hurtado’s shot didn’t go in the back of the net:
As a player you don’t mean to do that and his performance overall I thought was absolutely top drawer. For a young player - he’s still in only his third year as a professional - putting himself in the right area is key. That’s what top players do. That’s what Robbie Keane seems to do every week. We’ve got to try and learn how to do that and when you’re in those areas you’ve got to take those chances. So I can’t fault his performance. Obviously he’ll be disappointed with no goal, but it’s not from a lack of effort from his performance because I thought him and every other player was top class.”
On ending the team’s losing streak in LA:
“The league is very funny. It’s not to deflect. You talk to every manager in the league and they can be honest and open with you or they cannot be honest and open. And they can say things that might twist things up and throw out stats and all that. Listen, we’ve lost four games in a row and it’s not nice. It’s on us and no one else. Like I said, we’ll have more possession than teams and more shots, but you don’t pick up any points. Today was important for us. Probably no one gave us a chance to get anything from the game, but I firmly believed in the guys. We tried to be organized and disciplined, which we were. I thought we could catch certain areas, obviously we had a little bit of luck in the last 10-15 minutes of the game and obviously Bruce Arena picked up a number of injuries which he won’t be happy with. Maybe it was our night to get a point.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC FORWARD ERIK HURTADO
On his shot that hit the crossbar:
“I thought that it was going in. I headed it down it hit the ground I thought it was just going to go right into the goal but I headed it down too hard it hit off the crossbar and somehow rolled out for a goal kick.”
On breaking their losing streak:
“It is a good stepping stone to go forward for the rest of the season. Obviously we have to take it one game at a time but it's good . We come to LA we are disappointed with the tie so I think that is good and we just have to move forward for our game next weekend.”
On the positives of tonight's game:
“We got a point on the road in LA which is a hard thing to do.”