CARSON, Calif. –LA Galaxy assistant and reserve league head coach Curt Onalfo’s thoughts following the club’s 2-2 draw to the Colorado Rapids reserves.
Check it out below…
(On the result…)
ONALFO: “Feels like a loss, but we knew going into the game that we had a depleted team with a lot of young players on the field, having said that, we gave two goals away today. We had two good chances and conceded on a goal that was a gift to them and our response was excellent as we scored two goals. In the second half, they picked up the pressure. They’re a really good team, they have a high amount of experience on that team and it’s always a challenge. There was a 20 minute stretch where they had a majority of the game, but we weathered the storm and we all had to do was close out the last minute, but a poor clearance led to another gift for them. It was unfortunate that we didn’t walk away with three points, but we’re still positioned—depending on other results—to go into the last game with a chance to win the reserve league, which is part of it. There’s a lot of goals, you bring back players from injury and there was a lot of young players getting minutes and then saying all that, you want to instill a championship mentality. If we can battle through all those things and still position ourselves to win the league then it’s a positive. That’s our goal now as we approach the game against Chivas.”
(On the performance of Brian Perk…)
ONALFO: “He was excellent. He had an excellent presence in goal; there were no two ways about it. His presence in goal was very, very good. His kicking game was good, his organization was good. It was an all-around good performance. You can see that, it’s difficult when you have concussion issues, but he’s looked good in training and it was good for him to have a good performance.”
(On Chandler Hoffman’s performance…)
ONALFO: “He makes intelligent runs and he can finish. If you can talk to him, I think that he’d say that he’d like to have another one because he had a clear chance, but he’s done well.”
(On his thoughts on the young players…)
ONALFO: “I thought Mendiola was menacing for a good 60 minutes. He fatigued a little bit, but he impressed me. He made a lot of things happen and you can see his quality in the final third. Jaimeson came in and grew with each minute. I think Malcolm Jones did a solid job as well and Quezada also did well. Credit to the young guys in our academy to step up and do well in a professional game.”
(On Mendiola’s defense…)
ONALFO: “He’s turning into a complete player and it’s good to see.”
