Head Coach Bruce Arena – LA Galaxy
On the amount of added time…
That was remarkable. Bad judgement. Bad judgement by the fourth official not to question it. That’s a 93 minute game at the most and to lose in the 95th minute is a crime. It’s disgraceful, it really is.
On Brian Rowe playing a great game…
He did. Let’s be fair, it was a crappy game. The conditions with the altitude, the wind, it was a crappy game. In all fairness, you walk off with a point and that’s it.
On how a draw in that game would’ve felt like a win…
Yeah, a point on the road is always nice. Our guys deserved better. Remarkable that five minutes of extra time is added. Remarkable.
On if he was happy with the way his team played in the first half…
The game was crappy, the whole game was crappy. I mean really, it wasn’t a good game. If you want to write that it was a good game, be my guest, but that was a pretty bad game.
On if it was a crappy game due to the play of the players or the referees…
Well, a little bit of both. I think the conditions are hard .Obviously the officiating was very inconsistent, but neither team played particularly well. It’s early in the year, the altitude is a challenge for both teams. So it’s always nice to have an extra few minutes added to the game as well in altitude. Completely ridiculous.
On if the wind was bad…
Yes, the wind was bad. You see how many balls are out of bounds, hit to the goalkeepers.
Goalkeeper Brian Rowe – LA Galaxy
On how frustrating losing late was…
Yes, it’s definitely frustrating. We battled, we definitely didn’t deserve that result. The guys fought their hearts out and we knew we were going to have to play ugly on the road here. The elevation; the guys were getting used to it and we knew it was going to be a scrappy game and one we were going to have to dig down. We really showed that we are capable of doing that. We were good for 95 minutes and it just wasn’t quite enough, which is frustrating.
On if he thinks he could have done anything differently on the goal…
I haven’t thought about it yet. I’m sure we will break down the film this week and see what we can do better. In the end, we fought the whole game and it’s just not a result we deserve.
On how he felt he played…
I felt good. The thing is, it’s a team sport and you kind of win and lose as a team. We were close to getting that shutout which I though we deserved. We felt good tonight, but just closing out those last couple of seconds and just being sharp until the end is something that we’re going to have to do especially on the road this year. It’s going to be tough.
On how difficult the wind and altitude made the game…
I wasn’t running around, so I couldn’t tell you about the altitude, but the ball takes off definitely and any crosses or shots come a little quicker. The ground was a little bumpy, the wind definitely picked up and was swirling in the second half. We knew in the second half going into the wind, we weren’t going to be able to play as much and we wanted to get out of there with zeros. If we had a chance to get one by chance, we would take it. We fought well and it’s the game we have to play on the road here. At home we can pass the ball around and break teams down, but we showed a lot of class being able to dig in and to fight until the end.
On the backline’s performance…
I felt they did well. A.J. [DeLaGarza] came in at the last minute and we moved Robbie [Rogers] across so there were a few changes last minute, but I thought everyone did well.
Defender Daniel Steres – LA Galaxy
On the last 30 seconds of the game…
We were just trying to bunker down and see out the end of the game. The ball just happened to pop up and spin. We should have got it out a little further, but just a bad clearance spun off my head, fell right to their guy and quite a finish.
On how frustrating it was to play well for most of the game…
Yes, that’s kind of the most frustrating part. As a unit we played really well and definitely deserved a shutout. To give it up like that in the last literally dying seconds of the game is just tough.
On if the wind played a factor on the last play…
I think more than the wind, it kind of spun up in the air so it had a lot of spin on it. I just didn’t get under it on the right side and it kind of just spun off the side of my head. I tried just getting it up and out, got it a little bit up, but not in the right spot, and it happened to fall right where none of our guys were and right where he was and he hit a really good shot.
On if the altitude and length of the game affected his clearance at the end…
I think nine times out of ten I could probably make that clearance a little better. Today was the one day that it happened and it cost us. There’s no excuses in that, but it just sucks to lose like that.
On what Colorado had that LA had to pay attention to…
When the wind changed in their favor in the second half against us, we knew they were going to be able to dump some balls in our half, so we just had to absorb it a little more and try to get out on the break when we could. We had a couple of chances where we did that. Like I said, we defended really well and we definitely deserved a shutout. It’s just tough to go down like that.
On LA having to run against the wind in the second half…
Yes, it’s tough to play out here in the altitude. It’s not easy playing here if it’s the second week or if it’s the last week of the season. It’s tough, but we just have to deal with it, and I thought we did a pretty good job, and that’s the hard part.
