CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Curt Onalfo spoke to reporters following the Galaxy's 3-0 defeat to Seattle Sounders FC.
His thoughts on the performance:
“Dismal, terrible first half. Better second half but not good enough.”
On substituting Emmanuel Boateng out of the game in the first half:
“Unfortunately he took the sacrifice, but we were just getting overrun and overloaded in the midfield. We were defending the entire half, so we had to make a change where we added another midfielder. It actually immediately worked, we began to gain momentum then we got scored on off the counter. If we didn’t give that goal away, I think everything would have changed.”
On the team’s lack of energy in the first half:
“I think it was more of their ability to possess the ball and move it. They had a very good attacking players with Dempsey and Lodeiro and Morris just pins you back because he’s so fast. Bruin came into the team and did a good job. They just outnumbered us, so we were basically defending the entire time. We expended a lot of energy which makes it difficult. And when we won the ball, our initial pass wasn’t good enough. We too often threw it away, and the times we did connect, we didn’t hold the ball up, so we ended up defending more. We really shot ourselves in the foot big time. I do have to say, though, that the strength of character in the second half to keep pushing….I thought that if we could have snuck a goal in the 51st minute when Giovani had a chance…momentum shifts a little bit. The guys kept fighting and pushing until the final whistle.
On Seattle’s success attacking the left side of the field:
“They just overloaded. Lodeiro has a free role and their left back gets forward really well. With Morris’ speed on that side of the field, it was a very difficult thing to deal with. We just didn’t do a good job with defending that part of the field.”
