CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena spoke to reporters following the team's scoreless draw with Club Tijuana.
Arena's comments are below...
His thoughts on the game…
I thought it was good exercise. I think especially with the newcomers – to see them be a part of the team and get to understand the time a little bit is good. But I think the younger players came in in the second half and did a good job. Overall it was good. You could see the difference in fitness between the two teams, but I think the exercise is real good for us.
On how this helps in preparation for Galaxy’s CONCAF Champions League matchup with Santos Laguna…
That’s a whole different exercise. But I do think you see a bit of Mexican football in the game tonight, but it was another game as well. Our guys won’t be totally surprised when they see Santos but they’re different teams and different issues, but I think it’s always good to see a little bit of flavor of Mexican football.
On Ashley Cole’s performance…
I think he did well. He’s a good player. He’s going to help us. We’ve got to be smart about his minutes. He hasn’t played much over the past six months or so, but we’ll build him up. You can see he’s a player with a lot of experience and quality.
On Boateng’s potential for the Galaxy attack this year…
He obviously has the speed effect. I think his work rate was real good tonight. I thought he did good defensively which was a bit of a shift for him, but I think he’s done well. However his role plays out remains to be seen but he and Lletget in that position there, I think we have a good 90 minutes there and have players that can come off the bench and help us in the last 20-30 minutes of games as well. I think that position has definitely been upgraded for us.
On Van Damme’s performance on the back line..
I think he did well. He has good experience, he’s comfortable on the ball, he communicates well; he’s a leader back there. The more games he gets in that position the better he’s going to get. I think he’s obviously a good addition to our team.
On Robbie Rogers performance today…
He did well. He probably played 85 minutes which is probably a few too many for him right now. But we kept him in there and he seems to be doing fine. I think he did well. He had a good night and #23 for Tijuana is a pretty good player and was a good challenge for him tonight and I think he did well.
On Jeff Larentowicz being unavailable…
He’s missed the entire preseason. He’ll be back in training probably in another week or so. He has surgery for a hernia and is recovering from it.
On why A.J. DeLaGarza was unavailable…
A.J. got stepped on the foot the other day. He’s probably going to train on Thursday.
