Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 6, PSA Elite 1
Wednesday, June 17 2015 – 7:30 p.m. PT
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – Fourth Round
StubHub Center – Carson, CA
LA GALAXY MANAGER BRUCE ARENA
On Robbie Keane:
“It was good to get him back on the field again and get some minutes in. We’re still moving him forward and trying to get him back into form. So tonight was a good exercise for him. I think people that score goals, or baskets, or whatever in any sport, you need to have confidence that you can do it. So anytime you have a positive performance in those areas, it’s helpful. So I think he’ll feel good about getting on the field next time, and be able to score goals. He needs to play, he only played 15 minutes with Ireland on Saturday I think, and he was gone for the week so he is a little behind. We just have to push the minutes on him. They weren’t hard minutes tonight, but they are still good minutes to push him forward.”
On Sebastian Lletget:
“Sebastian played well. He is coming along the last two-three weeks; he is getting fitter. We wanted to give him 90 minutes, we gave him 80 if I’m not mistaken. So we’re trying to move him forward quickly, and he has responded well. He is a good player, a good soccer player.”
On Raul Mendiola:
“Good to get him up with the first team, and see how he’s progressing. He is doing fine, still a little bit away from being up with the first team, but it was good to see him play with our group again.”
On PSA Elite:
“Kind of what I expected. An athletic group, some decent players there but to be honest with you, I haven’t followed them that closely. I know that they’re obviously college soccer players in this area. Number 2, the right back did a good job; he used to be in our academy, another sticker up top from Cal Riverside. Number 10 I thought looked good at times, but I really don’t know the team that well.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On getting minutes after time away:
“You can do all the planning you want, but the most important is playing games and getting match fitness. The more games I play, the fitter I get. I enjoy playing two or three games a week and I’ve been used to that all of my career, so I always feel better playing games.”
On scoring first goal in two months:
“As a striker, it’s always important to score goals. Ultimately, you’re judged on scoring no matter what people say. You can do what you want for the team with hard work, but people will look at goals and assists. And since I’ve been here I’ve done that and done it well. Unfortunately I’ve had a long injury and I’m not always used to not playing and when I’m injured it’s usually only a few weeks, but I was out for too long. It’s nice to be back and feeling good. I’m feeling a lot better after playing these 70 minutes and will hopefully continue to score more goals and play longer.”
On getting result to start the tournament and avoiding an upset:
“It doesn’t matter who you play. We’ve seen it before. [Upsets] happens in England all the time. It happens on a regular basis and it happened last year to us against Carolina. So you have to take these games seriously and the teams that don’t take these games seriously usually get beat. These players who come here [from PSA Elite] want to come and impress and they did very well the first half and got a goal. And they made it hard. But at the end of the day, we had a job to do and we had to do it to the best of our ability and do it in the right manner, treating the team with respect, whether it’s a semi-professional team or not.”
On his thoughts about PSA Elite:
“I thought they did well. They worked very hard for each other and certainly protected the back four very well… It was tough in the first half to get on the ball and make things happen because they were so compact. When you play one or two touches and play quickly, things start to open up… We did that very well and that’s recognizing it. That’s what good about playing these games with young players, is recognizing when things are happening and what you need to do.”
On his thoughts about Sebastian Lletget:
“He did very well. He scored a great header. He did very, very well. He needs to continue that form. He scored his first goal last week so we’ll be certainly looking for more from him going forward. Hopefully he can continue to do that.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER SEBASTIAN LLETGET
On tonight’s performance:
“I thought we did well tonight. I thought we got the job done. We knew we had to win this game. I know in recent years, we haven’t won the first round of this game so we just have to jump in.”
On playing up to with Keane:
“Our first start together, I thought we did well. He’s been in the game for so many years, and you can tell he is an intelligent player. It’s great to balance off on him, up top especially an attacking player, but I thought we did well together.”
On personal fitness:
“Every day is getting better. Hopefully I’m showing that, and I think the more and more I play, I think it’ll just come out more.”
On chemistry with Maganto:
“Big time, credit to all of the guys in the midfield. Especially [Raul] Mendiola, I thought he did well today. Especially coming in, he hasn’t trained with us as much as everybody else has so I thought he did well.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER IGNACIO MAGANTO
On the team's performance:
"We had possession and that's our style of play so we dominated the game and since the beginning they scored but we scored right away. I think we controlled the game well and we did our job."
On PSA Elite:
"I was there last year, so I know how they feel. They came out with everything and they came out hard. We knew we had to play our best because every team can surprise you."
On playing with confidence and how that's helping him adapt in MLS:
"I try to play my best every game and I try to show what I have to help the team as much as I can. Getting minutes gives me more confidence."
On Sebastian Lletget:
"He has been playing really good and he has been scoring. He is really helping the team."
On having chemistry with Lletget on the field:
"I think we are two players that like to play on the ground, play two touches so I think that we understand each other really well and we saw that today on the field."
On the result helping the team turn things around going into the second half of the season:
"It was an important game because we want to do a good job in the Open Cup so this game gives us confidence to keep going one more round and hopefully we go far."
