CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena addressed reporters following the Galaxy's 2-1 extra time defeat to FC Dallas in the 2016 U.S. Open Cup semifinal.
Arena's comments are below:
On his overall thought of the game:
Well it’s certainly frustrating. We did a terrible job obviously in the last five minutes of the game and lost the game after working our asses off for 115 minutes. Really a naïve performance at the end of the game.”
On his frustration at the added minute in extra-time:
“You know, I’ll be honest with you. You play 120 minutes. They stop the game in regulation on a goal kick. Giving extra time after 120 minutes…was there anything that was so obvious? Having said that we still allowed a goal and all that, but that’s very frustrating. I think that’s one of the things in our sport that has to change. The referee has too much power in those situations. You talk about technology and all that other stuff…you should just have a clock and that’s it. Extra-time can be a time scandal, I’m not saying it was there. But there was no injuries or anything like that. The whole game goes on where there’s balls kicked away, there’s balls out of bounds. They’re not adding extra-time for that and to do it in an overtime where the athletes are pretty well shot is surprising to me. But having said that, we have to take full responsibility for conceding two goals in the last five minutes on corner kicks.”
On what else he credits the loss to:
“We did fine. We should have walked off the field 1-0.”
On what he tells his team after a loss like this:
“You get on them and have them accept that responsibility for failing in that situation. And in the other locker room you obviously applaud them. But there’s no excuse on our end, we shouldn’t lose that game.”
