LA GALAXY HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On tonight’s result:
“We’re happy. I thought we did a good job. Obviously we were on our heels a little bit at certain times and they were sending in a lot of crosses, because their game is based on flick-ons and crosses, and things like that. But I thought we dealt with it well. I thought we had the best chance of the game, Ema [Boateng]’s chance, we could have walked out of here winners. But a tie is probably well deserved and we’re happy with that.”
On playing a young team and the team’s gameplan:
“Definitely. We came out and we played three in the back tonight because we felt we needed that extra defender in there and that extra ability to head the ball and deal with those things. For Tomas Hilliard-Arce, it was a great debut game for him. So when you look at our team and the age of our team, I think the oldest player on the field when we started was Servando Carrasco, and the rest of the team was pretty young. We’re a much more hardened team than we were last year. Last year we would have come in here and we wouldn’t have gotten a result. So we went for a win, we went for a game plan that we thought could give us a win, and we said that if we don’t get the win we’ll walk away with the tie.”
On if there was a sense that some players were playing for starting roles:
“Every time you play, you’re playing for your job. It’s a situation [where] obviously we hope to get some guys back next week, in terms of the injuries. We also get Zlatan in. Exactly when he’s coming, we’re not 100 percent sure and we’ve got to see where he’s at fitness-wise. But things are looking up for next week. Guys acquitted themselves very well today and said ‘hey, I’m ready if you need me’.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER SEBASTIAN LLETGET
On the team’s performance:
“I think the team did what we wanted to do. We wanted to come out with a point or more. It wasn’t pretty at times and we apologize to the fans for that, but we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do and a point away at this place…they have a good team and a good style, I give credit to the boys.”
On his first game as captain for the LA Galaxy:
“It was an honor, especially at a club of this stature. To lead this team in such a way was an honor and a great experience.”
On looking ahead to next week:
“A point away is great, so moving on to next week is a huge game. And we have a new face, so we’ll see how the new formation will play and see how everybody fits in there.”
On the team dealing with so many injuries heading into the match:
“I think we had to forget about that. We can use it as an excuse or we can deal with what’s in front of us. And I thought we did excellent with what we had.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER DAVID BINGHAM
On tonight’s result:
“It’s an important game for us, coming here on the road against a Western Conference opponent, we always want to come out with three points, but at the end of the day with our situation coming into the game, one point on the road is a good result for us.”
On the mindset of going for the win:
“At the end of the day, if you go in with that mindset [of going for a draw], you’re doomed. Your best case is a tie, and most likely, you come out with a loss. We showed our depth tonight. A lot of the guys that played tonight, played a lot last year. You saw the experience in some difficult moments for us. We came here with the intention to win. Obviously, that didn’t work out for us, but a tie on the road is a good thing.”
On the first-half save against Yordy Reyna:
“Obviously, he’s a great player. You don’t want to give him anything. And on the second touch, his head dropped so I tried to close as much ground as I could, and I was lucky enough to stay big and make the save.”
On the team effort:
“The most important thing is the work rate from everyone tonight. We weathered the storm well and we limited them to a few chances. On those chances, we were able to make saves together.”
On Tomas Hillard-Arce’s debut:
“I think he had a good debut. He’s a young kid and we don’t want to put too much pressure on him too soon, but he had a very good performance tonight and I’m sure he’s very excited for it, and we’re excited for him, and we look to build on it going forward as well.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER TOMAS HILLARD-ARCE
On his MLS debut:
“Personally, I realized I was going to be playing a new position, I haven't really played three at the back, but we were given an objective for the three centerbacks and wingbacks to not let any goals in and that’s what we did so I feel good about it. Being able to be versatile and play multiple positions is something I’d like to add to my game, so to come out, get a shutout, and get the job done, I feel really good right now.”
On his climb to the first team:
“I feel like there’s been a lot of ups and downs for me and trusting in myself and having confidence that I’m a good player to stand out at both levels. Trusting in God, trusting in my teammates, I think that helps a lot.”
On the adjustment from college:
“The biggest difference is everyone here is top quality, whereas in college you’ll find that you can out-muscle or out-skill players, but here everyone is top class in both physicality and skill. Just being able to work around the opponents’ strengths and finding a way of coming out with a result in tough places.”
On Kei Kamara:
“Man, that guy is a handful. I’d say their entire attack is super threatening but that’s exactly what I wanted, I want to play against the best players in the world, and he is certainly one of them.”
On the upcoming match versus LAFC:
“I feel like there is a lot of pressure on the game for both teams. Obviously, it’s the first one and so you have to go out there and set the tone, especially since it’s on our home turf. We are the team in LA and having a star like [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic coming in I think people will be extra focused on that game, so we are going to start preparing right now and hopefully come out with a good result.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC HEAD COACH CARL ROBINSON
On what he takes out of this match:
“A point. We weren’t good enough to break a team down that put seven, eight men behind the ball. It happens sometimes, the system that they played, [with] the players in certain positions. When we got our key chances, we didn’t take them. Unfortunately, when you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games.”
On if his team played well enough to win:
“I firmly believe we had enough chances, or enough ball in the final third. I don’t think our quality was nowhere near good enough. I think the wide players, we know they can be electric at times, I think they hit the first man too many times because they played three big centre backs. We weren’t getting across players, which you need to get across players to score. So we weren’t good enough in the final third. So you’ve just got to be very careful when you play a team that just sits in and tries to get you on the counter attack, which we do when we go away from home sometimes. The one chance they had, it could have bitten us on the bum. But it didn’t, thank god.”
On LA having more of the ball early on:
“They’re a good team. Don’t get fooled when they’re missing players. There’s so many games we’ve had this year, or since I’ve been here, where you’re missing a few players or you rotate. I know Sigi was missing a number of key players, but those players are fighting for jobs, they’re fighting for their careers. So they come in and they work harder. So I knew it would be a more difficult game, and I was proved right. They were putting their bodies on the line. They might not be as flashy, but they’ve got a really good squad. So as I said there, we’ll take the point, we weren’t beaten.”
On Kei Kamara returning from a one game injury absence:
“Kei will have wanted to score a goal, no doubt. I thought he did okay. He missed a chance in the last 10 minutes. But I think the team’s disappointed in there because it’s a home game, and we wanted to win a home game, and I think we probably did enough to win the home game, but we weren’t good enough. So you have to sometimes accept that, but there’s lots of positives there. The back four were really good. Stef [Marinovic] looked really solid, didn’t look in danger at all. So if you can’t score at one end, make sure you don’t concede.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC GOALKEEPER STEFAN MARINOVIC
On tonight’s result:
“It wasn’t too bad. I think it was a pretty fair result. We had a couple of good chances but we’re not going to get that many against a team sitting that deep. Unfortunately, we couldn’t convert.”
On playing in this type of match:
“Those are toughest type of games for a keeper, really the toughest. You’re doing nothing for 80 minutes, then all of a sudden, I had to do something. It was a one-v-one and all of a sudden, I have to get my angles right. Those are the toughest games for me to play in, for any keeper to play in.”
On playing without Kendall Waston:
“Kendall is Kendall. He’s the captain, seen as the heart of the defence. [Aaron] Maund and Jose [Aja] did a really a good job. I thought they dealt with the two strikers really well. They were always trying to get in behind, aside from that one-v-one that’s bound to happen in a 90-minute game, they did a really solid job.”
On whether the mindset changes when facing an undermanned opponent:
“I don’t think so at all. I think the boys didn’t take them lightly at all. You concentrate even more when you don’t play their star players. Those players on the field are hungry, they did a good defensive job today, unfortunately for us.”
On Jake Nerwinski’s performance:
“It just shows teams change over time, kudos to him. He played almost a full season last year. He’s done his job. I think everyone who doesn’t have as many caps as him did a really good job as well.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC MIDFIELDER EFRAIN JUAREZ
On tonight’s result:
“I felt that it was a very good performance by the team. It was a shame that we couldn’t score on our chances. Everyone was playing well, the atmosphere was great. I’m thankful for the supporters. They were great from the first minute to the end. I know they were missing a lot of players, but I’m still happy with our performance, just disappointed that we could not score.”
On not being able to convert:
“It’s part of football. We had great chances. We created, we just couldn’t get the final touch. The season is so long. Obviously, I wish we won, but we will take the point.”
On the team’s effort:
“Our team worked really hard tonight. We are disappointed for the final score, not for the performance. If you watch the game, you could see everyone had a chance to score, just couldn’t finish. We just need to keep moving forward.”
