LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 0 (1), Colorado Rapids 1 (3)
Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016
Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs: Western Conference Semifinals – Leg 2
Dick’s Sporting Goods Park – Commerce City, Colorado
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND GENERAL MANAGER BRUCE ARENA
On missing Landon Donovan in the second half:
“Sure we missed him, but what are we going to do. It is part of the game and after 90 minutes you kind of have to think that the game completely swings in their favor because of the altitude. And when you lose in a penalty shoot-out like that, you can’t blame anyone but yourself. To be there though, that was the ideal situation given the circumstances.”
On the team’s attack tonight:
“It was an intense and obviously a tight game because of the circumstances. I think generally, a poorly played game.”
On Jelle Van Damme’s performance:
“Jelle [Van Damme] was very good today. Probably the best player on the field.”
On tactics going into PKs:
“Obviously, they have a very experienced goalkeeper and we don’t. Maybe the difference was the goalkeeper today.”
On Pablo [Mastroeni]’s job this season:
“I think he’s done a good job. I think teams that play at altitude or on artificial turf should have a slight advantage in this league and I think they took that to heart. They’re a good solid team, not the greatest attacking team but they defend well and they take advantage of the home field with the altitude. They push hard as a team and battle for 90 minutes. I think it has produced results for them.”
On [Shkëlzen] Gashi’s goal:
“I think he hit a great ball. Maybe if our goalkeeper’s techniques are a little bit better, he has a chance to make a save. The ball moved, you could see it knuckle a little bit. I don’t think he was necessarily ready for the shot. It was the difference in the game.”
On [Sebastian] Lletget’s performance:
“I think he did okay. He’s had a good year for us playing in central midfield and at outside midfield, it will take him a bit more time but he had a very good year. The midfield play today was just a scramble with collisions and people on the ground too much.”
On Giovani [dos Santos]’ performance:
“Not much of a factor. It’s the whole part of his learning curve where he has to have a greater presence game in and game out to be a really special player. He has some great qualities and I think as we get into next year it will be a second full year of playing in his professional career properly. He should be more demanding of himself to have a greater presence game in and game out.”
On Robbie Rogers and Steven Gerrard’s performance:
“I think they did well. Robbie [Keane] didn’t take a PK because he hurt his groin and couldn’t take a penalty. I thought Stevie [Gerrard] did really well. Obviously, he’s been out almost eight weeks and it’s been difficulty getting back. Today, when called upon, he did his job and took his penalty the way you would expect Steven Gerrard would take his penalty.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER BRIAN ROWE
On [Shkëlzen] Gashi’s goal:
“I saw him lining it up when he had space with distance and he was trying to get back and get set. It looked like it started outside the goal and moved back. With the elevation and the way he striked it, it was a good goal off the post and in.”
On losing the game the way they did:
“PK’s are always a tough way to lose. You look back at the whole season and look at how well we’ve come together as a team and how well we’ve been playing for the last couple weeks. To have it come down to five penalty kicks is a tough way to have the season end. We fought the whole time and we were in it until the end – it was a tough way to lose.”
On the lack of time between PKs:
“I felt like it was a normal pace – just one right after another. With the first one on [Kevin] Doyle, I’m a little frustrated because I guessed the right way. That’s when he kind of jammed me a little bit. It’s tough when it comes right underneath you and fast. I think if I would’ve kept that one out, it would have kept the momentum going for our kickers.”
On the good momentum early in the match:
“When you get action early and you’re able to keep the ball, it definitely checks you into the game. It gets you going as a team. Coming into the game we knew that they would have a lot of energy early – with the altitude, with their pace – we thought they were going to be all over us. Being able to keep it zeroes in the first twenty minutes really helped us in the long run. It gave us a chance to still stay in it.”
On the team’s season:
“There’s always things to build on. I haven’t reflected the whole year yet. We’re still trying to take this all in right now. A loss is always tough and the season ending will kind of take some time to sink in. I think with some reflection of this year we’ll be stronger for next year.”
On if there’s more pressure knowing the other keeper is Tim Howard:
“No – I’m not going up against Tim. Being a goalie, I think the pressure in a situation like that is on the kickers. It’s one where they have to finish it and they’re expected to. You have to get up to the line and try to pick a way that you’re feeling and unfortunately that wasn’t right on a couple of them.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On the difficulty of coming off early with an injury:
“Everyone wants to be out there. We didn’t play great but we played well enough to get something out of the game. It was a tough way to lose.”
On having to watch the PKs from the sidelines:
“PK’s are always hard to watch on the sidelines. I would put our PK takers up against anybody and we have to give Tim [Howard] credit. He made a couple of great saves. We have as good of penalty takers – men who take them for their national teams and guys that have taken them forever. We have good kickers.”
On if LA got the possession they wanted:
“They’re a good team and they play well here. We knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy. I think where we made it hard on ourselves was that we didn’t make enough good passes to get out of pressure and we allowed them to keep coming at us. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. That being said we lost on probably a one in a one-hundred thousand type of a shot. At the end of the day, you have to tip your hat and say congrats.”
On LA’s energy after the Rapids goal:
“Nothing really changed. We were tied at that point. We knew we could give up another goal and it wouldn’t mean anything – we still had to score. It’s a little deflating when you have to give up a goal like that when you feel like you’re not playing poorly enough to be down a goal but that’s part of the game and we were fine. We wanted to get into half time and try to find a way to get a goal.”
On how frustrating it is to end the season like this:
“It is frustrating. I think in an ideal world you play this game with 11 guys that are fit and healthy the whole time. When you have to have several substitutions due to injury, it probably caught up to us in the end and it didn’t allow us to play how we wanted.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On his injury during the game:
“On the free kick in the corner, I kicked it with my left and then whatever happened. I sort of strained it or did something to it. Obviously, I couldn’t come off. It’s very frustrating but we got through it in the end. I made sure to keep moving but I obviously had an issue. Listen, that’s the way it goes in football. It happens but it doesn’t matter now unfortunately.”
On how the Rapids limited them offensively:
“They played in a way that suited them. Everything in the channel – chasing everything. They didn’t really let us play and the whole game we didn’t really have any chances to. Your first home game is very important. It’s always important to get that second goal because one goal is never enough as we have seen today.”
On not getting the chance to shoot a PK:
“It’s irrelevant anyways, they scored every one. If I could’ve stuck it in the corner or not, I don’t know. I would’ve maybe shot it in the middle. But it doesn’t matter – we’re out. Good luck to Colorado. I thank all the efforts from the players, all the staff, and all of you guys this season. It’s been up and down season for everybody and it’s never easy to go out straight on penalties – it’s a lottery. Once it comes to penalties it’s different. Their goalkeeper was very, very good today so there’s certainly no blame on anybody. We just came short.”
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH PABLO MASTROENI
On Tim Howard's performance:
“I think it's been beyond his performance in the shoot-out. It's been what he's brought to the group from a leadership perspective when he stepped foot in the locker room. For me, he's still one of the best keepers in the world, and week in, week out he proves that he's one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He's a team presence, a team guy who just wants to win more than anything else. That's the kind of people that we want at this club: people that are willing to give up themselves for the greater good. What he exudes as a human being has been transformational to the group.”
On progressing in dramatic fashion:
“It was a really emotional game. Having left LA 1-0 down I thought we were in a very good position to play LA at home. I felt that we stuck to our game plan which was not conceding here at home. I think we set ourselves up wonderfully throughout the game and some chances to score some goals and add to that lead. For not some more poison in the finish, I think we would've doubled the score. What I'm most proud of is being a part of a group that no one believes in and no one still believes in. The power of team was displayed today. There's not a lot of playoff experience in that group, there's very little playoff experience in that group. But what we have is a belief that's beyond most teams that I've ever been a part of. If you could bottle that up and sell that, that's the secret to a team.”
On Jermaine Jones' performance:
“I thought Jermaine in the middle of the field a little deeper is a position that he's the most comfortable in. What he did early on in that game with Sam was absolutely boss the middle of the field and brought our team in to the game. When you win the midfield, you have a good chance of imposing your will on your opponents. It was great to see after two games to see the Jermaine that drives this team forward that is committed to doing all of the little things. It was a big ask for him to go as long as he did today.”
On what the team's mentality was like going in to the shootout:
“I was in a place of comfort knowing we had Tim Howard in the goal. Bringing Marco in to the game, one of the more accurate, deceptive strikers of the ball in this league, Kevin Doyle who is a vet and has been in these situations time and time again. I felt confident in the experience we had taking the PKs. I thought it was fitting for the performance and effort that we put forth in that game to end up coming up ahead in the PKs.”
On [Shkëlzen} Gashi's goal:
“I see him do that in training and I see him execute. He's got a quick release, he tries to find little gaps to be able to shoot from distance. In big games, you need your big players to make plays. Whether it's Tim Howard making saves or Gashi scoring goals or Jermaine bossing that midfield, you need your big players to step up. I think tonight, across that field, the big players stepped up for us. The rest of the group did a great job of rising. Gashi is a difference maker and tonight he showed his class.”
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD SHKËLZEN GASHI
On his goal tonight:
“In a moment like that, I don’t think too much. The ball came to my side in a good position and I just took a shot. In this season, I’ve had a lot of shots and today, it was the right moment.”
On the play of his injury before half:
“I’m not sure if I made the foul or if Ashley Cole made the foul but it was a bad situation to be the last play in the first half. We went inside the locker room and I told them that I wanted to keep playing but after taking another step, I said ‘no chance.’”
On the importance of his goal and keeping the team alive:
“I love America and the people. I’m so happy that I’m here and I’m always a positive guy. I enjoy every day and every training. If I can help my teammates by scoring then I’m even happier. We’ve had a great season and broke a lot of records. We are not finished yet. We need to be focused this week and ready for the [Western Conference] Finals.”
COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER TIM HOWARD
On his thoughts on the PKs:
“Penalties after 120 minutes are different to penalties in run of the game. Guys are tired and they are cramping up. It’s hard to get a ton of power. So it was good to be lucky. I knew we had a cushion once Gio [dos Santos] missed and I made the save on Ashley [Cole]. I got a good read and a good jump. Most of them were pretty good penalties.”
On the end of the shoot-out:
“I did not realize it was over. I was kind of thinking that it was but when I saw the guys running towards me I knew. It was nice. It was a long day and a long build-up. Extra-time and penalties, there is a lot of drama because the game can change in a minute. Then it is finally over with you on top. You dream about it and you talk about it. There are a lot of words. But it is good to go out there and do it.”
On feeling the pressure of being a big-money signing:
“Yes, I think I do [feel it]. You have two types of DPs. There are guys who are here to collect checks and there have been a lot of them. Then there are a bunch guys who are wholehearted and want to put the team on their backs and feel a part of an organization. That is where I am.
I have said before that it keeps me awake at night. This is a good team. I am a piece of that. But there is a price tag that comes with that and there is pressure.”