LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 1, Colorado Rapids 0
Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016
Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs: Western Conference Semifinals – Leg 1
StubHub Center – Los Angeles, California
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND GENERAL MANAGER BRUCE ARENA
On Colorado’s defensive strategy:
“They did what they’ve done all year. They played collectively as a group. They’re hard to break down. Most games they’re in are 1-0. It’s how the games look.”
On Jelle Van Damme’s performance:
“He’s done very well. He’s getting more accustomed to our league, the position, which has been new for him. He played a real good game today.”
On how LA Galaxy’s defense played:
“We played well. Our guys were pretty focused. I think we understood what this game was going to look like today and what it’s going to look like next week. We had a good collective effort as well. Our backline played well.”
On Landon Donovan’s performance:
“He was good – good and solid. His passing was very good. He was in good spots defensively. I think his ability to help us keep the ball, hold on to the ball, make the pass at the right times are important. It gives us a little bit of a breather and allows us to collect our team and get forward in the attack. He’s done a real good job for us.”
On the play of the midfield:
“I think our midfield played well today. I thought the combination of Lletget, Husidic and Dos Santos did fine. We had enough chances to get a couple goals today. You’re playing against a team that doesn’t concede many goals. You may disagree, but we certainly had chances to get a second goal today and we fell short there. Overall I think we played a pretty solid game.”
On any adjustments the team will make ahead of next week’s game:
“Everyone knows what the score is so, you can’t hide that fact. We go into a venue that’s difficult. You’re playing in altitude. So I think, typically, you never play the same game there as you do at home because of the environmental conditions. So it will be somewhat different.”
On Robbie Keane not starting due to tactics or fitness level:
“Coming back from injury and having a team that played a good game on Wednesday and deciding not to change the lineup. I think Alan Gordon has played well and deserved to get the start today. The decision was made that this is the right team to start in this game today. I can promise you Robbie is not happy with that. It’s the way it is.”
On if Jermaine Jones made things more difficult for LA in the second half:
“He’s a good, experienced player, no question about it. Bringing in fresh legs to start the half always helps, but I thought our guys did fine.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD GIOVANI DOS SANTOS
On the play that led to the goal:
“I think it was a great play by Jelle [Van Damme] then he crossed it to me and I just tried to put my head and it went in so I’m happy for that.”
On his goal:
“I was hoping it was a goal. I just tried to hit it so I was happy to get one in.”
On going against the organized Colorado defense:
“It was very difficult. I think they have the best defensive team in the league. We created a lot of chances, and in the end I think we deserved the win and we take the advantage.”
On what Colorado does good defensively that makes them tough to score on:
“They have been doing it the whole season, they press every single ball and they are very compact. They have a good defense. It’s not for nothing that they are the best defense in MLS.”
On pressing Colorado and whether that was part of the game plan:
“We just tried to move the ball quickly, pass and move, and I think everyone made a great effort today and we are happy for the win.”
On how he feels going into Colorado next weekend:
“We feel confident, we have six days to recover and plan the game for next weekend so we’re ready and excited for next weekend.”
On whether it was frustrating to feel like they couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net:
“I think everyone today was patient and we knew that Tim [Howard] is a great keeper and we knew that in every play we have a lot of players that could make a difference and today everyone had a good game.”
Sobre su gol de cabeza:
“Creo que fue una jugada muy buena de Jelle [Van Damme] y nada más traté de poner la cabeza y al final contento por el gol y por la victoria del equipo. Al final todos los goles valen lo mismo y como lo comenté creo que al final lo importante es el resultado.”
Sobre si en el partido de vuelta en Denver habrá espacios para poder buscar goles:
“Lo dudo mucho. Yo creo que son un equipo que predomina lo defensivo. Seguramente van a seguir igual de compactos, van a buscar el contrataque igualmente y nosotros tenemos que ser inteligentes y jugar un partido inteligente allá.”
Sobre si la ventaja de 1-0 es muy poca:
“Yo creo que en esta clase de partidos las ventajas son importantes y más contra un equipo como ellos. Son la mejor defensa de la liga, han recibido muy pocos goles y hoy se notó. Es un equipo muy compacto y nos vamos contentos por el resultado.”
Sobre si se divierte más en los partidos de Playoffs que en los de temporada regular:
“Realmente son partidos con un sabor diferente, en el cual se sienten diferentes cosas, la presión es mayor porque sabes que es casi casi matar o morir entonces lo estoy disfrutando y que mejor que con una victoria el día de hoy.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On getting a 1-0 win:
“It’s an advantage, of course. We said at halftime that 0-0 isn’t the worst thing in the world. We’d rather be 0-0 than 1-1. So we wanted to make sure that we didn’t concede and that we went forward in a smart way. So I thought it was really mature and very professional.”
On the possibility of getting an away goal in Colorado:
“We could play a lot of hypotheticals but we’re happy with the first half of this leg. There’s a reason why they are where they are in the table this year and they’re the team that’s expected to advance. We did our part at home, the pressure switches to them, and they’ve got to find a way to get a goal. If not, 0-0 gets us through.”
On if the game will change in the second leg:
“I would imagine. They have to be pretty aggressive. They were pretty tentative tonight as far as their attacking desires. I would guess that they’ll put more into it to try to push forward and score more goals, which plays into what we do very well. They’ll probably have a similar mentality like us, be smart early, try to push the game in the right way and try to get a goal in. For us, first and foremost, we’ve got to make sure we defend well but we have a team full of guys who can make plays and score goals.”
On Giovani dos Santos:
“He’s been excellent. And he’s not necessarily the Gio you saw at points of the year where he’s scoring a goal, getting two assists, scoring two goals, things like that. But his work rate has been terrific and he put in a lot of work over the last two games this week. I’m not sure he’s worked that hard in a long time, and he was tired after the game, you can see it. But he’s doing it because he knows it helps the team win. So when we comes back and defends, when he gets in good spots and puts the other team under pressure, it really helps us. And then his attacking abilities, I don’t need to talk about them. Everyone knows what those are.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER JELLE VAN DAMME
On the goal:
“I just tried something and it worked out. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck, so I tried something and it worked out. In the end it’s always nice to get and doing something.”
On if he feels more responsibility wearing captain’s armband:
“Not particularly, no. It’s nice to wear it, but no. I think normally, I always [get the guys fired up].”
On being a good teammate:
“The only thing I can say is that I think I’m a team player. You can’t do anything on your own, so you’re depending on other players. I think all my career I’ve been a team player.”
On defense:
“I think we did well. We didn’t give away a lot, so at the end for us defenders, the first thing we said is not to concede today and we didn’t, so that’s the good thing. We scored the goal, of course, I think we wanted to score two or three, but I think at the end of the day we created a lot of chances. We scored one and now we go with a good feeling to Colorado. Of course, we have to know before we go there that it is going to be hard and difficult, especially with the altitude. They have a very good home record. So we have to be ready, I think, mentally and physically.”
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH PABLO MASTROENI
On how he views his team’s position heading into Leg 2:
“I think we’re in a good spot. I think it was a hard fought game from both sides. I think it was exciting, a pretty open game. There wasn’t too many clear cut opportunities on either end. I think it was a bad break on our part to concede that goal. But again, we knew it was going to be a difficult challenge to come here tonight and beat these guys at their place where they’re coming off a big result and they’re using that momentum. Having said that, I thought we played well tonight. There was one spell in the game where we couldn’t get out of the cycle and that’s when they scored their goal. But other than that, I thought two-thirds of the field we were pretty good and I thought in the final third we just lacked that last play, last movement, last pass, last shot. So having said that, we’re going back home to a place where we’ve been very good this year. I like our chances of getting a goal in the waning minutes or going into overtime in altitude where teams struggle. We feel like this is going to be no different and we’re going to put forth a great performance in front of our home fans. Hopefully nine o’clock at night at 30 degrees and give them everything we got.”
On Jermaine Jones’ performance:
“I thought he came in and gave us some good energy. Had a few good looks on goal. Did a lot of dirty work in the midfield, won some balls. I think there’s moments in the game where he brought the tempo of the game down a little bit for us and gave us some good possession of the ball and some good territory as well. I think like everything else it’s going to take a little time but I thought his performance was very good and gave us a boost.”
On if Jones will start in Leg 2:
“There’s a possibility that he’ll be ready to go. Again, having been out for four months, my biggest fear is setting him back with an injury. You’ve got to put chains on him to keep him off the field, but I think tonight is a performance that shows that he’s relaxed. He’s not thinking about his knee. He’s moving well and making some good plays so I look forward to a good week of training this week and we’ll see where we go.”
On what Colorado did to counter LA’s pressure:
“I think they did a decent job. I just don’t think we were good enough with the ball. We were impatient at times and almost trapped ourselves by rushing into some of the traps that they set higher up the field as opposed to just making the field as big as we can and making them run a little bit. I think in the latter part of the first half and toward the end of the second half we were able to do that and when you get on this field and you’re calm…I think we were a little bit impatient. I think we wanted to defend a certain way with a little bit of energy and it felt like when we wanted, we wanted the same type of energy. There’s times in this games, especially it being humid in the middle of the day, where there’s got to be times where you catch your breath a little bit. I just think we got impatient with the ball and turned it over in some difficult spots.”
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER JARED WATTS
On the team’s performance:
“Tough game. You could tell it had that playoff grit and bite to it early on. We came out. I think we did a pretty good job just standing their first wave that came at us. We had some clearances that were pretty key. Tim [Howard] made a couple big saves and it went into the half 0-0 and that’s all that we could ask for. They came out in the second half and has us under a little bit. We just couldn’t get our lines up and couldn’t clear and I think that’s when they got the goal.”
On what went into the goal:
“It was just a sustained wave of pressure that they were putting on us there. We couldn’t get clear and our lines up. I think it was [Jelle] Van Damme over there that made a pretty good play, put a ball into the box and Dos Santos was there and got a head on it and I think we were just unlucky. Axel [Sjöberg] kind of hit it, he didn’t know much about it. It wasn’t his fault or anything, but I think they just came out and we couldn’t clear our lines. But I think our response was good after the goal to hold on 1-0. We knew what kind of attack they were going to have – dangerous guys out wide. Obviously [Alan] Gordon is always an issue in the box so, you know, they held serve but we’re going back to Denver with the altitude and we feel okay about it.”
On how he feels going into Leg 2 at home:
“We have one game left in our season, right? So that’s all we can play for. We’re going to come out and give it our all. There’s a reason that we are undefeated at home. We’re going to come out with the same mentality and the same mindset and push the game and we’re going to go for it. We’re going to put them under. We know they’re going to be well organized and come out with a game plan, but we have to execute and take the game to them.”
COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER TIM HOWARD
On the team’s performance:
“I think it was a bit sloppy at times. But it’s an away playoff performance, I thought we had to dig in. I think they got a little bit fortunate with the goal, but those things happen and we’ll get a good week of training in and hopefully get a clean sheet at home and go through.”
On how he plans to get the team fired up for Leg 2:
“Oh, that won’t be too hard. I think everyone’s excited to go through to the next round. I think everyone’s got their eye on the MLS Cup, no need to motivate this group. I think we’re prepared for this. We’ve shown we can bounce back after a tough loss all season so we’re going to need to do that again.”
On the team’s confidence at home:
“We’re a force at home. We’re going to need to do it again. There’s no Monday morning next week, so we have to do the business on Sunday.”
