LOS ANGELES— The Italian media held no punches for Juventus manager Antonio Conte following their 3-1 defeat to the LA Galaxy.
In fact the first question for the manager was a simple one? “Are you ashamed by the result tonight?”
To which Conte offered an expansive response in Italian.
“The performance was not good,” Conte said through a translator. “We need everybody to wake up. I put myself first on that list. If we think we don't need hard work and determination anymore, we're not going to get far. We have great players, we have a high-quality roster, but in these last two years we have always gone beyond our limits for the artwork and determination we've shown on the field. We need to return to that mentality.”
Juventus are now 0-2-0 during their tour of the U.S. and will be playing in the seventh place game against an undetermined opponent on Tuesday. As Conte looks to get his club ready for their Italian SuperCup match against Lazio on Aug. 18 and the start of the league a week later, he implored his squad to focus.
“I think it's reductive to say that this loss is caused by the fact that we're in preseason and it's just a friendly,” Conte said. “We're here in LA, it's a fancy place, we have parties. Everything is very fun. But everywhere you go to play, all over the world, if you don't show the determination on the pitch, you're going to have big problems and, as happened tonight, you're going to lose the game. That's the rule of soccer.”
