LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 0, New York City FC 1
Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016
2016 MLS Regular Season
Yankee Stadium – Bronx, New York
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On how difficult it was to play on this field at Yankee Stadium:
“It’s difficult, but both teams are playing on it. Obviously both teams have a little bit of a problem with it, but it’s the same for both teams.”
On what went wrong for the Galaxy:
“Well, there wasn’t a whole lot of quality to our passing in the last third today. And then you look at the game, it was a tight game, we concede a goal early. In the first half, Nigel has an open goal that he misses. Second half, Robbie Keane has an open goal with his header. [He was] probably a little hesitant to head the ball coming off a concussion and fractured orbital bone, but those chances, they’re not going to come that often. They kept their players in pretty tight at the end of the game, and took out some players in the midfield and really clamped down. The couple of chances we get, we have to put one in the back of the net. That’s the name of the game. The conditions were tough for both teams, and that’s that.”
On what his experience was like being at Yankee Stadium as a Yankee fan:
“I didn’t invest a whole lot of time in the Yankees today to be honest with you. It was certainly a bit of an odd setting out there, but having said that I think given the circumstances and needing to play games, they do a remarkable job. It’s not easy, and they’re doing the best with what they have and I give them a lot of credit for that. I didn’t think of Mickey Mantle or Derek Jeter at all today. I was thinking about our team.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On the Galaxy’s team rhythm with narrow field:
“It was obviously a tough game. But it was different terms of how the field is – I think a few guys are all over the place in that respect. I still did enough to get maybe get a goal. I should have scored on that header. The ‘keeper looked like he was going to get a finger on it, but nevertheless it still should have been on target. We had a couple other chances but it was one those days and it wasn’t meant to be.”
On Villa’s early goal:
“Well my initial thought was it was offside, and I think that has been clarified… But he missed it, he made a mistake. What can you do?”
On Clement Diop’s first MLS start:
“He did very well. He was sharp off his line. He made it hard for them, he was very, very quick and aggressive. He did a good job.”
On one positive takeaway from the game:
“Nothing.”
NEW YORK CITY FC ASSISTANT COACH CHRISTIAN LATTANZIO
On whether this win against the Galaxy puts NYCFC in the conversation as a contender for the cup:
“I don’t think it’s one game that changed our vision, but it was a very important game. We have a great respect for the Galaxy from the players to the coach and all of the staff. For us, this is a very important win, a very important game. We believe in our work. We think we can play against anyone, like last time Patrick was really, really thorough in preparing the game with different scenarios that could have been, so yes, we are really, really happy with this win.”
On what the biggest difference in the team now versus earlier in the season when the team was struggling at home:
“It’s hard to put a finger on one thing, but I would say with a new coach it takes a little bit of time for the boys to understand and for us to get to know each other. We also thought that we were unlucky on separate occasions where we threw away points that we felt we deserved, but that can create psychologically a kind of uneasiness. We give credit to the boys that they stuck with our head coach and kept playing, and they are really getting what they deserve. They are playing with more confidence with each other and with our style of play, and so I think this is one of the main reasons, I believe.”
On whether with this win, the team is now thinking about the postseason:
“No, we think game by game. We have our objective, our target for the season, but we’re not thinking too much ahead of ourselves. We’ve got a very difficult game with Orlando. We’ve only gotten one points in two games against them at home, so we respect them. The boys deserve to enjoy today, but then from Monday, we start focusing on Orlando. We are still in the fight for the postseason. Our focus is on the next game, certainly not the postseason.”
NEW YORK CITY FC DEFENDER JASON HERNANDEZ
On gaining confidence from beating a talented team like the Galaxy:
“Galaxy is always a good measuring stick for teams around the league. They’re a strong organization and a strong team, so to get the full three points is good for us mentality wise to know that one of the strongest teams in the league we can go toe-to-toe with. At the same time, I think we need to understand that when we lose a match we’re as bad as everyone says and when we win a match we’re not the best team in the league. We’re somewhere in the middle, we’re working very hard and I think if we continue with that attitude we’ll continue to see some positive results.”
On NYCFC’s recent run of strong defensive performances:
“Any time you give some points back like that, it’s important that you learn from it, learn from your mistakes. I think a lot of performances this year, we’ve done a good job of reflecting and analyzing and trying to do our best to correct those mistakes the next game. Which is why, in a lot of instances, when we have a disappointing performance we come back with a pretty solid performance. I think today was another showing of that.”
On what has allowed New York City FC to improve defensively:
“Just paying attention to the details, doing our best to mark in the box and defending as a unit. When you think of defending you think of the back four and the goalie, but really when guys like David, and Tommy, and Frank and Andrea are working their socks off the rest of the day, you can see what we can do defensively. It was a great team effort and I’m glad we got the team sheet.”
On how the team feels about recent performances:
“Galaxy is a good team and you know they weren’t going to roll over. We knew they were going to come at us all the way until the final whistle. As far as our previous games, other than Columbus, we got a clean sheet against San Jose and we were maybe a minute away from a clean sheet against Colorado at home. So really overall our performances have been pretty good, other than Columbus, and two wins in our last two home games I think is really important.”
On the difficulty in facing a strong LA team:
“Today was a really difficult day for us, Galaxy have a lot of talented guys on attack, especially their wingers are very dynamic. We knew it was going to take a very serious effort tonight, tuned in for all 90 minutes from David to Josh, and I thought we put in a good performance tonight.”
NEW YORK CITY FC MIDFIELDER ANDONI IRAOLA
On the transition to play midfielder:
“Obviously I’m part of the buildup of the team when we have the ball. I like to defend the central backs on their defensive line when we don’t have the ball. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
On the improvement and depth of the team:
“I think we’ve been making some changes in the formation and the team is doing well. I think we have a good team and everyone who has come in, even the ones who played less, five or ten minutes, are very important.”
NEW YORK CITY FC MIDFIELDER JACK HARRISON
On the pace of play against the Galaxy:
“Just both of the teams were worked very hard to clear space for their players and we did exactly that today.”
On the team’s focus entering the end of the season…
“We definitely need to put more room just to come down to that spot in the playoffs. I think that’s our main goal right now, just to play well and do as well as we can.”
