Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 2 – 2 Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Saturday, April 19, 2014
MLS Regular Season
BC Place – Vancouver, Canada
LA GALAXY
HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
Thoughts on the match:
“I’m disappointed. I would have liked to get three points today. We obviously didn’t do a good job protecting the lead.”
On Penedo and Leonardo colliding on the second goal:
“Just a mistake. You know a mistake in communication and we know on the surface you have to be smart. The ball is spinning and skipping, you’ve got to put the ball up the field and out of play.”
Did you get what you wanted from the midfield:
“For the most part our guys had a pretty good game.”
Impression of Vancouver:
“They have a good team. Early in the season nobody knows at this point.”
On not finishing chances:
“We had a chance from 2-1 to make it 3-1. Keane had a good chance. It could have made a difference. For the most part I can’t complain. We held on to the lead twice and conceded. We have to accept that responsibility.”
ROB FRIEND
Thoughts on the match:
“We had five minutes left to kill the game and we need to be a little bit smarter, so it’s a bit unfortunate.”
On not starting:
“Yeah. Bruce wants to start with a diamond and we’ve been playing well like that. The time that I get, I need to make the best with it. Personally I’m happy with that. Obviously a goal would be nice. The goals will come, I know they will. I think I’ve been a bit unfortunate not to get the goals. But all in all, 20 minutes, I can hold my head up today.”
On being from Vancouver and returning:
“Fantastic. I love this city. I had about 25 people, family and friends here, so I saw them all after the game and it’s fun to be back. I’ve enjoyed the 24 hours so far.”
ROBBIE KEANE
Moving on to the next match:
“You have to, simply. We didn’t lose the game, but we could have at the end. They had a chance, I know we had a chance as well. Overall, just disappointed there’s nothing else you can say. Just disappointed. You can’t go two goals up away from home and concede goals where you have to force goals. The fourth goal was very sloppy.”
On the second goal:
“We had the momentum for most of the game. We kept the ball. We kept it moving. We did well with our goals, but it feels like we have to score way more goals then everybody else. The first goals was a lack of concentration or no talking between Jaime and Leo. We have to do better. Second goal, four minutes to go. Great goal from the guy [Kekuta Manneh], you can’t take anything away.”
On his impression on the midfield with the new diamond formation:
“The way we passed it was fine, especially on a difficult pitch. We have to learn as a team. When people come in they have to be ready to come in and play. They have to be ready to play and stand the roles that they have.”
On playing the same teams early in the season:
“It doesn’t really matter. That’s the way it goes. We have a couple weeks break now, then we go over this. It feels like a loss to be honest with you.”
LANDON DONOVAN
Frustration to give up the lead twice and not win:
“At the end of the day we can’t be overly disappointed, but I guess because of the way the game went we should have won. I mean really every goal is preventable, but in particular, we felt that these two goals were preventable. It’s disappointing but we’re still relatively happy with the performance.”
Did it feel like a loss?
“Yes it does at the end when you’re winning 2-1 and you give up a goal, it’s frustrating. But I think when the dust clears and everything settles we’ll be okay with it, but we’ve got to get better. If we’re in this position again later in the year, which we will be, we have to make sure we learn from it.”
On Vancouver’s goals:
“Just concentrating more. I think both Leonardo and Jaime would tell you that they could have done better on that play and we should have been a little more focused. At the end, there were three or four guys who probably could have done a little bit more to prevent that from happening. At the end of the day we give Kekuta credit too. It was a good goal, but we feel we could prevent it. That’s how you learn.”
Impression of Vancouver:
“I think they are a very good team. I mean we haven’t seen a lot of other teams yet, but they certainly look like they’re going to be one of the better teams in the league this year. A number of good attacking players, a number of good leaders, and they look like a solid team. Carl’s done a great job with them and I think they’ll be around in the end.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
HEAD COACH CARL ROBINSON
Thoughts on the match:
“In the last two games we showed that we can compete with one of the top teams in Major League Soccer in LA, and a top manager in that. It was hard, hard work, we made it a hard work. I don’t think in the first half we had the belief that we could go toe-to-toe with them at home, in front of our fans, I think we were playing safe. Obviously then I made a tactical switch to try to inject a little bit of life with the kid coming on, Kekuta, who I toyed with the idea of playing with from the start.
“Maybe me, being a young head coach, I thought is it better to be in the game and then unleash the youngin. But I made the decision at halftime…I’ve just been talking to Andy in there. I took Andy off just because I was worried he would get sent off …and losing to Colorado at home when Laba got sent off, he was touching the dodgy border in relation to picking up his second yellow card, you know, I made the call early this time and replaced Andy with Johnny.”
On the guys believing that they can compete with the Galaxy. Is that a big hurdle?
“I think it is. I really do. I think if you look at any level of football in any country. LA Galaxy, I assume, have got the mantra of a Man United. When you go to Man United away from home you don’t expect to win. LA have managed to do that because they’ve been successful with Bruce, so we’ve got to build in relation to that, we’ve got to learn that we can be one of those times, and I think that over the last two weeks we’ve shown that we were able to do that with a young core group of players.
Do you think the injection of speed disrupted the Galaxy in the second half?
“I do, yes, I certainly do. And why wouldn’t it. You see the three speedy guys and, you know, how do you handle that? There will be games when we use it and there will be games when we don’t use it. I think today, especially after the first 45 minutes, we looked at that direction of the game to try and disrupt them, and I think it certainly did.”
Did you like how Beitashour got forward today and got crosses into the box?
“I did, yes. I thought he was excellent. I thought he’s been excellent in the last two games and from what I saw he got better and better. Obviously, he is getting better and better because the World Cup is coming up. He was excellent tonight, you know. Because we’re not a big team, we are a small team, it’s important we manage our crosses better. Obviously we haven’t got our Rob Friend that we can put our ball in the box to, but it’s important that when we cross the ball we can put it behind their back line. We got into some good positions today, but we didn’t actually capitalize with some of those crosses.”
On the second goal:
“When you put a 6-foot-4 guy on against you it’s hard. You’re never going win the first ball. Obviously Rob Friend won the first ball and I think Johnny got attracted to the flight of the ball, as did one or two other defenders, and if you don’t win the first ball, it’s important you win the second ball. Obviously he didn’t, you know, but they’re going to score goals for the reason that they’ve got Designated Players. They’re top players and obviously I’m sick of the sight of Robbie the last two weeks, I really am. But it’s more about the character my team showed today; a young group of players that not only got kicked in the backside once to go one down, but then got kicked in the backside twice to go 2-1 down, but still didn’t give up and that’s the mentality that that group is instilling in them there.”
Was it frustrating conceding the first goal?
“It was a nightmare. It was an absolute nightmare, you know, because I think they were trying to be set up to catch us on the break, and once or twice they did, but they didn’t actually have the final ball. So I think we got a little bit lazy and pushing out. When the ball got clear and we went back 10 to 15 yards we only maybe increased one or two yards. I haven’t seen it again, so I’ll look at it again, but it wasn’t a great goal to give away and once they get their noses in front, they’re a good team. They’re able to manage the game. So that’s when they managed the game when they were one nil up. Our boys were dead on their feet. Today when they’re 2-1 up, again they managed the game very well, but just a little bit of a moment of magic from the young’n actually got us back into it.”
DARREN MATTOCKS
Thoughts on the comeback:
“We showed guts. I think we’ve really got to give the team the credit. Determination and work ethic were really good by the team.”
Thoughts on his goal:
“It was good. It’s a combination of my speed, and my anticipation. As a striker you’ve got to anticipate for players to mess up, and they did that.”
On the sharp angle for his goal:
“I didn’t look at the goal to be honest and as a striker you’ve got to know where the goal is. It was a very tight angle to be honest. It reminds me of my rookie season back in Toronto, where I scored one similar, but this one was more difficult, and it was really great to see that go in.”
KENNY MILLER
Thoughts on the game, and resiliency of the club:
“I felt we weren’t quite at it in the first half. Obviously the boss made a couple of changes at halftime and that gave us a lot of forward thinking. We got back into the game, and deservedly so. And after that, I felt like we were pretty much in control of the game. There was a sucker punch at the end when they got that other goal. It was great to come back, and a fantastic finish by Kekuta.”
On the speed from the forwards:
“Well as I’ve said all along, we’ve got good players that if needed can come off the bench and make an impact. Obviously today you could see that, it gives us that threat going forward that makes defenders drop off and go deeper. And ultimately what led to Kekuta’s goal was there was a lot of pace involved in that, and finished off by a fantastic strike.”
On playing the Galaxy:
“They’re a good team, but we’re a good team as well. We have to show more, I think, on the ball than we did last week. We defended well, and besides the goal, we worked very very hard last weekend. I admit we need to be far better on the ball, and capitalize on our chances like we did today. We’re pretty happy, 1-nil down, and 2-1 down to come back and get that 2-2 we were really happy about that.”
KEKUTA MANNEH
On his goal and the strike:
“I’ve been doing it all week, and working on my shot. When Darren got the ball and drew the defenders in I made my run to the edge of the box, and he laid it off to me. The first thing that came to my mind was to just strike it on target and see what happens, so I think hard work pays off.”
On not getting the start this week after a good performance last week:
“Really it will come, obviously young players will be in and out of the starting eleven, so it wasn’t that frustrating. It’s okay, and you take it in a different way. It was a coach’s decision, but I’m pretty happy with coming off the bench and scoring that goal.”
On working with his shot:
“Just having it, and getting it out of your feet. I’ve just been working on it like all the other players. After the practice we get the goalkeepers and just work on it, and I think it’s paying off.”
