CARY, N.C. – LA Galaxy assistant coach Curt Onalfo addressed the media following the LA Galaxy’s disappointing 2-0 defeat to the Carolina RailHawks on Wednesday night.
Onalfo’s comments are below…
(On his thoughts on losing to the RailHawks for a second straight year…)
ONALFO: “Last year’s loss has nothing to do with this year’s loss. I thought that in the first half, we dominated. I thought we had a lot of possession, we had the one great look at goal with Jose and I think that if we had the opportunity, we’d want to have it back because that’s a chance when you’re on the road and in a venue like that that you want to put away. We pretty good in the defensive and middle third with our passing, but we weren’t very sharp in front of goal with our final pass. I thought that we had the better part of the first half and the second half was kind of choppy. We give up a goal that probably shouldn’t have been a goal, but it was. For our young group of players, I don’t think that they reacted very well and credit to Carolina because they sensed that and stopped us then got a second goal. Then you’re playing catch up and you’re playing on the road, across the country and it’s humid, it’s hot and all of a sudden, it becomes pretty difficult. Credit to Carolina because they did a really good job of getting numbers behind the ball and making it difficult. We had more shots than they did, but not a whole lot on target to force their goalkeeper to make any big saves. The second half was disappointing.
(On LA’s recent road trip having an impact on the squad that came to Carolina..)
ONALFO: We’re the busiest team in MLS so we have to utilize our whole roster. We have reserves games where we have to utilize our roster and we have U.S. Open Cup games where in our organization that’s our time for our younger players to get minutes. And they’re valuable minutes. If you look at Carolina, as I said before the game, they’re a very good team. We scouted them extremely well and we know what their strengths are. They have a lot of experienced guys and they’re a darn good team so when you’re playing against a good team, those are valuable minutes for these players. I’m disappointed that we lost, but at the end of the day, my job is to move these guys forward so that they can step into the first team whenever possible and do a great job, and continue to evolve. From that stand point, we learned a valuable lesson today.”
(On whether a lack of sharpness hurt the Galaxy…)
ONALFO: “It’s always hard on the road, there’s no two ways about it. What you can attribute it to, could be a lack of games, it could be a lot of games or a lack of sharpness. At the end of the day, there are certain times that you have to concentrate more and you have to make a play, and we were just a little bit off.”
(On the compact Carolina defense…)
ONALFO: “Like I said going into this, they have a great coach. If you look at his track record, everywhere that he’s been, he’s done very well. His teams are extremely organized and they’re hard to break down as you could see tonight. They’re a good team…There’s a reason why they’re doing really well in their league and why they advanced tonight.”
(On any relief….)
ONALFO: “We would have played Chivas at home, so we wanted to advance. We’re disappointed. The draw is what it is and we have to deal with that. We try to deal with it the best that we possibly could. We have to look at ourselves and get better for next time.”
