LA Galaxy 2, Houston Dynamo 3
Saturday, May 5, 2018 – 5:30 p.m. PT
2018 MLS Regular Season
BBVA Compass Stadium – Houston, Texas
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On if the goals conceded had to do with anything unexpected:
“No, when you give up a goal at the beginning of each half on set pieces, had nothing to do with anything unexpected, it just had to do with the lack of concentration.”
On the Dynamo being more possessive on the ball than last years:
“I think [Tomás] Martínez makes them more of a possession-based team. I think he helps them, but they’re also now in the second year of their project and they’ve been reasonably healthy so [Mauro] Manotas, [Alberth] Elis and [Romell] Quioto have played a lot of games together and they’ve been able to put the same lineup out week to week.”
On tying the game and thinking they had the chance to win at that moment:
“We needed to get a point. It’s on us that we didn’t get a point; I mean, fair to Houston that they kept fighting and battling, but we can’t give up a goal there.”
On what he liked about his team when they fought back to equalize the game:
“We’ve shown the ability to fight back and that’s a good quality. We’ve got to continue to have that quality but our ability to hold out and protect the lead or protect a tight game has been very poor.”
On what it’s going to take his team to protect that lead:
“It’d be nice if we could play the same lineup two weeks in a row, which today we ended up starting the same lineup two weeks in a row, but it’d be nice if we had all our players healthy. It’s just a matter of just integrating everybody on to the same page. I thought at times we did alright but it’s just not enough.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER DAVID BINGHAM
On his thoughts about the outcome of the game:
“Frustrated. I think the last couple games we’re digging ourselves into the grave off the bat, and we can’t do that.”
On what his defense needs to do looking forward:
“You can’t just think about the defense, the whole group has got to be committed to defending, and the whole group has got to be committed to attack, and we have to do that from the start to the end.”
On what the three goals felt like:
“There are moments you can pick out that aren’t great, but you can do that for any team in the world, so the most important thing is that we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re giving up goals in the first five minutes of each half, and you can’t do that, and it’s not good enough right now.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIĆ
On how frustrating is to lose the game:
“It is very irritating because after five minutes we conceded already a goal like that and we are chasing goals, which is not normal. We cannot concede like that. It shouldn’t be normal. It’s not good; it is not good. We can either wake up or continue like this, but if we continue like this, we don’t want the same objective – we don’t want to win.”
On how can the LA Galaxy get back to controlling the game instead of reacting to the game:
“Either I wake up, and I take care of it, or we all wake up.”
On how this game affects the team’s confidence:
“When you win, you get confidence. When you lose, you get less confidence. We have to be strong in our head and move forward and forget about these games we are losing… We need to look forward, work hard and take it step by step, day by day.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH WILMER CABRERA
On his overall thoughts on the game:
“It’s good. It’s fun, and it’s a good reward for a group of men who fought a while today and they went with a good mentality on the field. The mentality was good against a team that is very talented. I think we were a little better, but we got punished again for one or two mistakes that we made. They have the quality to punish you, but we were resilient. We wanted to win. We had that mentality. Although we suffered a goal five minutes before the end, we went after them. We believed, and we had the chance to score the winning goal, and so it’s very rewarding for the city and for our fans, but especially in my case, I’m happy for my players because they deserve this win no matter what.”
On the LA Galaxy scoring their first goal on a counter-attack:
“This year we have been suffering these type of situations, and we are trying to get away from that. Last year it seemed like coming after halftime we always suffered lapses, mental lapses, and they were scoring on us after halftime here at home, but now it’s normally happening that we are winning and someone ties us. The last game that we played, in Minnesota, they beat us. Again, we do not give up. That’s the key. We are a team that we know that we are going to continue fighting for 90 minutes trying to play the game, but we are never going to give up. Today we were rewarded with that third goal and the three points.”
On if there was a certain tactical plan to defend LA Galaxy FW Zlatan Ibrahimović:
“No, to be honest with you. We needed to be us. We needed to be the Houston Dynamo, the way we are. We cannot change, because if we change, we are going to make mistakes. We are going to try to invent something that we don’t know and if we do that then we are going to look even worse. So, we are what we are. We are who we are and that way if we can win, we believe that we can win that way especially at home. It was good to receive that reward today.”
On how important today’s win was:
”It’s really important. It’s really important because we know the reasons why we were up and down during the beginning of the season. We know that. We know that preparing during the preseason and then suddenly having to stop and wait for two weeks and then to play again. It’s mental lapses, and it’s a change of plans that we weren’t expecting so now we have more games. The Minnesota game is a game that if we have to play again, we are going to play the same way because that’s the way we have to play, but sometimes playing well, you’re going to lose. Most of the time you’re going to be able to win and if we continue doing what we’ve been doing most of the time we’re going to win. That’s why we don’t change.”
On the development of MF Memo Rodriguez:
“Yes, Memo is a player who I’ve been able to share time for the past two years and a half with him. He came to RGV (FC) when I was the coach there. He was a little bit shy and kind of came in a situation where he wasn’t playing at the beginning. He was quiet, working hard. Whenever he stepped on the field, he was showing all of us that he had something special and he was making a difference on the field. He became the most important player throughout that season with us, and that’s why we brought him over here because he earned that by himself. Now, he played very well last year and this year he had some injuries that he has a setback and he’s just coming back little by little, getting better and better and when the opportunity opens, he’s ready. That’s the key. When the opportunity comes for any of the players they need to be ready to set up and to take it.”
On scoring another early goal:
“It’s just the desire to score. In Houston, we want to come and we want to score goals because that’s what our players what to do. They want to score because they’re built to do that and that’s why they are aggressive in that aspect. Every game when we check the statistics, most of the time we have more shots than the other team. Why? Because the players want to score, so we attack. We have that offensive mentality with our players, and we want them to do that, and sometimes it works, most of the time, but sometimes it doesn’t work.”
On how this win will transfer to their next match:
“I hope it’s going to give us a stronger mentality that yes, we are going through the right path. We’ve been changing. This Dynamo team doesn’t look like the same Houston Dynamo as last year. We played better. Today, we have more possession than LA Galaxy. If we went through last year, 90 percent of the games that we played, we didn’t have good possession because we were built to counterattack, but we’ve been involved. We’ve been improving. We’ve been changing the way we play, and that takes time, takes adjustments, takes different things to go through that path but we don’t want to change. We believe that if we take this spot, we’re going to be able to play better as a team and to look better as a team and at the end, hopefully, we can get better results. So, that’s the way we are working, and the players believe in this, and we believe in this. So, hopefully, we can continue this way.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO DEFENDER ALEJANDRO FUENMAYOR (TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH)
On scoring his first goal in MLS:
“Thank God I was able to score the goal in a victory that I wanted. This is my first win as a starter with the team. I am incredibly happy with how the goal happened, very happy.”
On how the goal happened:
“It was very weird. It was funny because I wasn’t sure if it was a goal or not so I wasn’t able to celebrate very well.”
On his performance against the LA Galaxy:
“Thank God the whole team had a great game, we got the win which was the most important thing. Yes, they have big players, of course, those players are huge, but thanks to God we covered well, and we were able to get the victory.”
On what he felt going one on one against FW Zlatan Ibrahimović:
“I was very happy to be able to play against him. I played in Venezuela, and I would play with his avatar on FIFA, so to find him in front of you was something beautiful and thanks to God this is things that soccer gives you.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD ALBERTH ELIS (TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH)
On the game:
“It’s motivating to win the way we did tonight. We know there is still room for improvement. We had a couple of individual errors that could have cost us the game. However, we were able to recover and now we have to continue improving.”
On the effect of individual coverage:
“It’s normal. Soccer is played strong, and I think it’s normal. The important part is that we got a victory and now to continue ahead.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO MIDFIELDER MEMO RODRIGUEZ
On his thoughts on the game:
“It feels amazing. It feels like my first goal but probably even better. The team fought to the end. We knew coming in that LA Galaxy was going to be an intense team. We matched that, and thankfully we got the three points.
On what it means to give a win to his hometown team:
“It’s amazing. My family and friends are here. Overall, the atmosphere was great. Hopefully, we bring that all season long.”
On what head coach Wilmer Cabrera told him as he came off of the bench:
“He said to come in and match the intensity. It’s hard to come off the bench in an intense match like that. However, you always have to be ready to come off the bench. Thankfully, I was ready when I was called on. He said go in be intense and help defend. We were tied at that point and didn’t want to concede a goal. We pushed to the end and got the goal at the end.”
