CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Curt Onalfo spoke to reporters after the team's 1-0 defeat to the Portland Timbers.
On the two yellow cards issued to Jelle Van Damme:
“I haven’t seen the plays. I haven’t been able to see the replays. I was told that the players dove, so that’s unfortunate. But he did get a yellow card for dissent, and we can prevent that. We dug ourselves a hole, regardless of if the referee made a bad judgment or not. We can’t put ourselves in that situation. We’re at home. We need points. And there in the 34th minute, we’re playing with ten men.”
On how the team should have defended Portland’s successful counter attack:
“It was a corner kick, an attacking corner. You just have to break up the play. There are players on top of the defense that have to break up the play. Then you have to run hard back, and it was a bad goal to concede early in the game.”
On why Giovani dos Santos was subbed off at the half:
“Gio has a slight strain to his hamstring or just tightness. We’ll know more tomorrow, but he couldn’t go in the second half, so we had to make that change.”
On the team’s effort while trailing and playing with 10-men:
“Just like I told the team when we got in the locker room, the effort and the way the worked, they were warriors. Sebastian Lletget led by example. I thought he was excellent. I thought he was the best player on the field in every aspect. A play that draws a lot of attention to me is when he has to run back, basically the length of the entire field, to help make sure that we didn’t concede that second goal and to keep us in the game. And that’s what happens when you grind it out, and you do all these things that you’ve got to do. Winning games is hard work. You’ve got to position yourself to make a play, and we had some set pieces that we’ve got to capitalize on. Jose [Villarreal] has the late header, and maybe you walk away with a point, and you’re feeling a little better. But I’m very pleased and proud of the effort that the guys put in and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”
On how hard it’s been to start the season with injuries, suspensions, and youth:
“You’re always going to deal with adversity through the course of the season. You don’t want to draw it up where it’s this early. I actually look at it differently. We’ll be better for this. We got some players some minutes, and they performed well. That helps create depth to our team. We were down five players today. That’s never easy. As we add the players back from injury and suspension and you look at performances like Sebastian had and Ema [Boateng] who was very good again today and had an excellent week of training. And all of the sudden, you have options, and it makes you better. It’s unfortunate. I’m a forward-looking person; I don’t look back. My job is to continue to make the group better, and that’s my focus.”
On Rafael Garcia:
“He wears his heart on his sleeve and he put everything into the game. He’s a warrior.”
On Clement Diop’s performance and the decision to play him:
“He’s an exciting young goalkeeper who’s only going to get better. I thought he had a good game. His passing game was good with his feet. He’s a guy that can make saves, and I thought he had a good performance. We’re dealing with a lot of adversity right now which means we’re testing our depth and we’re making our depth better. I want competition in positions, and I felt like it was a good opportunity to give Diop the game. He’s going to play for us. He’s going to play games this year, so if you just look at the track record, there’s often injuries to goalkeepers, and you need them to have minutes. I’m confident in him, and it’s harder when you’re going on the road. It’s better to give a game like that to a young goalkeeper at home and create competition in that position.
