LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena chose not to address the media following the Galaxy's U.S. Open Cup defeat to the Carolina RailHawks instead associate head coach Dave Sarachan spoke to reporters after the loss.
His thoughts are below.
On his thoughts on the match:
SARACHAN: “When we come here it’s always a game that’s going to be a battle. Colin [Clarke] does a good job getting their guys upward. We had enough chances to win the game. When you have that many shots on goal, and chances and don’t put them away then you keep teams in it. And that team fought like crazy, kept us at a zero and they made one play, this was a one play night. It’s the way soccer is sometimes.”
On how deflating the match was, after the Galaxy was not able to find the back of the net:
SARACHAN: “Well, it’s frustrating, it’s the way I’d put it. It’s frustrating. In a competition where if you lose, you’re out. We’ve seen it a lot in soccer, where a team dominates and doesn’t win and that was the way it was tonight. It’s very deflating and frustrating. Our guys have spent and put a lot of effort into this game and it’s a quiet locker room because they are disappointed and because they put everything out there.”
On what the team’s overall goal was going into the tournament:
SARACHAN: “It’s a competition for a trophy, and anytime you have competitive athletes like we do, what we talk about is we want to win trophies. Obviously by winning this trophy, it does get you into the [CONCACAF Champions League] but you don’t shoot for that immediately you just want to continue to advance and at the end of it you win a trophy and then get the spoils at the end of that. So that’s really where we were at.”
On why the “A” team was used this year as opposed to the previous two years in U.S. Open Cup action:
SARACHAN: “Well, over the past few years we’ve played this competition with a very congested schedule, and we had other competitions. So we had to mix and match, this was the year where we had an opportunity to bring fresher guys and more of a first line guys that were able to contribute and we still have had a layoff so I think a few of our guys were rusty tonight but on paper we clearly had our strongest lineup.”
On how the team now looks ahead of the match against San Jose on Saturday:
SARACHAN: “Well we have depth this year; we’re going to have to asses guys after the trip. It’s all part of the process. I think we are going to have some sore bodies no question so we have to then see where we are at.”
On his thoughts on the play of Carolina’s goalkeeper Scott Goodwin:
SARACHAN: “Well he made, I don’t know what the stats were, but he made a lot of saves tonight. A lot were in his range. I don’t remember him being really stretched to take one out of a corner but fair play to him and not only that, it felt like an NHL hockey game. That must have been, I swear, 30 blocked shots tonight. Guys diving in front of balls, crosses picked out, so that’s a testament to the group of fighting and digging in but the goalkeeper had a good night.”
On the field and the atmosphere:
SARACHAN: I think it was outstanding except the lighting was terrible. Whether that was taken into consideration, at 7 o’clock it’s terrific; at 9 o’clockit’s not great. So if I had any complaints, or there were any complaints, is that it’s not conducive to a night game to be fair. Now, did it play into us losing? Probably not, but if you’re going to host it, you need the proper set up. But other than that I thought it was a good environment, really. The field played great.”
