SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena’s thoughts following LA’s 4-0 defeat to Isidro Metapán.
(On the loss…)
ARENA: “It was a poor performance on our part. A lot of our young players learned in a tough way tonight. They weren’t ready to play and too many didn’t respond well to the magnitude of the game. Unfortunately, we got beat pretty good. Our effort in the second half was a little bit better, but not a whole lot better.”
(On whether it was better to learn in these conditions rather than in more serious situation…)
ARENA: “Obviously, it makes for a great matchup next year with Tijuana. It’ll be a lot of fun. That’s a great match up for us. I’m excited for that, but I’m certainly disappointed in our performance tonight.”
(On the lesson that his team must learn from the result…)
ARENA: “These young players, [they need to learn] the mental preparation of stepping on the field and being ready to play. We opened the game with an opportunity from Jose Villarreal in the opening minute of the game and then concede the first goal, and then they put their heads down and got beat soundly. Mental preparation for a lot of the players was an important lesson tonight.”
(On the lack of offensive rhythm from LA…)
ARENA: “The field wasn’t easy, but having said that our opponents scored four goals and you can’t attribute that to the field. A bunch of players didn’t play well. We had a great chance to start the game and it could have made all the difference in the world. Having said that, we need to concede the fact that we were beaten for 90 minutes. This wasn’t a game that was close in the first half; we were getting beat to too many balls. But on the whole, I thought that Leonardo played very well for us, I was very encouraged by his play. I think that he was our best performer over the 90 minutes and Jose Villarreal did a decent job. Others didn’t play well.”
(On Nicolas Munoz’s success…)
ARENA: “The first goal, I can’t even explain what happened there. … in the second goal there was a mistake by Tommy [Meyer] and we were punished for that.”
(On facing Tijuana…)
ARENA: “It’s a great matchup. That’s exciting for our team next March. That’ll be great for our fans and the Tijuana fans.”
(On turning the page against Seattle…)
ARENA: “It’ll be a great game in Seattle. We’re hoping that our team will come out ready to play.”
