CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena addressed reporters after the Galaxy's 1-0 victory over Real Salt Lake.
Arena's quotes are below
(On playing yet another different lineup this game...)
ARENA: It’s been difficult. This has been a very difficult start of the season. The injuries, the schedule, the untimely suspensions with it as well, it’s been patchwork since game one. It hasn’t been easy. I give our guys a lot of credit.
(On Real Salt Lake’s performance...)
ARENA: They are a good team. Generally, teams that are down a goal and have some minutes to go in a game are going to get aggressive and put players in forward positions. They did a pretty good job. They put us under pressure at times; however, on the night they didn’t get that many great chances. I think [Joao] Plata had that one at the end and Omar [Gonzalez] made a terrific plan cutting off his cross. For the most part, we defended well. The chances we got, we were a little bit sloppy on. We might have snuck in another goal there, but we weren’t good in front of the goal. Gyasi’s [Zardes] header was pretty good. [Ignacio] Maganto could have done a little bit better with his chance. For the most part, it’s the kind of game that you have to hang on and win. The other two games in the league tonight were 1-0. Our league, right now, with teams so even and so much pressure on teams—games are looking a lot like the games tonight.
(On Ignacio Maganto’s performance...)
ARENA: He had a very good game I thought. The original plan was that he was going to come out at halftime, but I thought his first have he played very well. I decided to change it. We were going to play Robbie [Keane] at the start of the half regardless. He was going to come in. Our players knew that obviously someone was coming out at halftime. When we sized everything up, I think Jose [Villarreal] was the best choice because Maganto was playing very well. I wanted to keep him in.
(On Baggio Husidic playing left back...)
ARENA:He did a good job. He’s played two games in his life as a left back. He did a good job managing. He did a good job. We are just lacking players in the backline and there is nothing we can do about it. Baggio is such a smart player, such a good team player, that you can position him anywhere on the field and he’ll get the job done.
(On the team’s overall performance...)
ARENA: They are going to turn a little bit better as we get to the end of July and August. Once June comes around, we deal with all these national team call ups and that’s all a mess. It’s very awkward and difficult for us .We’ll lose some players on a date that’s not an international fixture date, and that will be difficult—the Vancouver game. Then we have to deal with the Gold Cup, World Cup qualifiers with a bunch of players and we have to decide where they are going and when. June’s going to be hectic and July’s not going to get any easier. It’s going to be difficult couple of months. When we get to August, we’ll finally have our team together, and then the Champions League comes in and all that. It’s going to be a pretty challenging year.
(On Robbie Keane...)
ARENA:It’s great to have him back. As you can see, he’s going to need some time. He’s worked really hard to get to this point. Now we just have to be a little bit patient and let him get his minutes in and let him get his touch back and his confidence. I would think in a matter of weeks Robbie’s going to be back in pretty good form.
(On Juninho’s penalty kick...)
ARENA:I think it was great. As long as he wanted that ball, I was OK. I just wanted to make sure he was good for that. The other option we had on PKs when Robbie Keane’s not in is Gyasi. But, Juninho grabbed the ball and he wanted it. I would have bet Nick was going to go to his right this time, and he went back to his left and that surprised me there. I think Juninho did well.
(On the Galaxy’s shutout...)
ARENA:It’s good. I think right now where we are at with the patchwork with the backline a little bit and the whole team to get a couple of shutouts against teams in our conference is important.
(On the Galaxy’s leadership...)
ARENA: Omar is beginning to understand his responsibility as a leader. He’s done a good job. Alan Gordon and Dan Gargan, in the absence of Robbie in the last few months, have been excellent leaders. AJ [DeLaGarza] has always been there in the group. [Jaime] Penedo has stepped up big time. I think Jaime’s last couple of months has been good. He’s done well. We’ve had a bunch of guys that have stepped up and dealt with all the issues we’ve had. It’s not easy every game playing with someone different. Our young guys, Maganto tonight, I think he did terrific job. Everyone did a good job. Jose’s coming back. We got Edson back on the field. We’ll get a couple of other players back on the game on Sunday and the following the week. Hopefully, we can hang in there and keep our head above water.
