ALLSTON, Mass. – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena addressed the media on Saturday during the club’s training session at Harvard University.
Arena’s comments are below…
(On the lineup…)
ARENA: “We’ll see tomorrow. We have a couple of guys that we have to check on tonight and make sure that they’re going to be ready to play. We’ll be ready to play, that’s all that I can tell you.”
(On the turf and the high temperatures forecasted for Sunday’s game…)
ARENA: “It is a factor. Again, it’s almost impossible to explain to this league that you can’t be playing afternoon games in the summer on turf. They don’t kind of understand it, but it’ll be an issue for both teams. In the month of June, in the north east, it starts getting hot and these surfaces make it more difficult. It’ll be a little bit of an issue in the game.”
(On the last week of Robbie Rogers hoopla…)
ARENA: “It’s business as usual…it’s business as usual. We’ve not any more attention or any less attention than we’re accustom to be honest. As I said, it’s business as usual.”
(On New England…)
ARENA: “Good team. They’ve obviously won their last couple of games. They’re a team that started off the season alright, but the last two games have put them in good position. They’re a team with a lot of confidence and we’re going to have to play well to get a win.”
(On what the youngsters gained in the U.S. Open Cup defeat…)
ARENA: “You gain something from every experience. It’s not something specific, but every game for young players, in particular, should be a learning experience. They may have learned that, that was a game where they were well positioned to go into the second half and get some kind of result and fell short. Hopefully, that’s an experience that they can build on in the future.”
(On where Rogers is in terms of fitness…)
ARENA: “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone ever knows the answers to those things. You just play and figure out where they should go. Every athlete is different. He’s generally a fit athlete so I would guess at his age that he should move along pretty quickly.”
(On what he wants from him in terms of sharpness…)
ARENA: “We’re just going to get him involved as much as we can and hopefully as we get into the month of July that he is more ready to play on a consistent basis.”
(On how Rogers width can help LA…)
ARENA: “Remains to be seen. There aren’t any answers to these questions. You have to go out and play and see how everything pieces itself together. Certainly to provide width on both sides of the field will help our team.”
(On Arena’s impression of Lee Nguyen…)
ARENA: “He’s a good player. He’s a good busy player and like any of those kind of players, the players in those areas have got do a good job around him. He moves all over the field, he’s not in one particular spot, but he’s a pretty good player.”
