LA GALAXY HEAD COACH SIGI SCHMID
On the team’s form leading up to today:
“The last two weeks on the road, we should have come out with points in both games. We scored enough goals but we kept giving up goals. But even when we went down a man today we said ‘‘be patient, we’re going to bend a little bit, they’re going to have the ball but keep defending, deal with the crosses that they send into the box and then look for our goal.’’
On Zlatan’s red card:
“He got stepped on pretty good. I’m a little confused. Seems to me in the order of fouls, the stepping occurred first so I don’t know why it is not a penalty kick. And if they’re saying that the step was accidental then why did they give him a yellow card? So it makes no sense. If you give him a yellow card, it means he stepped on him on purpose. And if he stepped on him on purpose, then it has got to be a penalty kick and Zlatan gets a red card for his reaction to it. Any time you play a man down like that, everybody digs a little bit deeper. And we talked about this being an adverse situation and we want to define our character now.”
On ending the streak of losses:
“It is important because we felt we should have gotten a win last week. So we’ve got to start collecting points because we feel we’re a playoff team but points are the only thing that will show that.”
On the importance of an away win in Montreal:
“I’ve always had the philosophy that you don’t change your game a great deal whether you’re at home or away. We always step onto the field with the idea that we’re going to hold onto the ball, possess the ball, and we’re going to try and score our goals. But the base of our defense hasn’t been strong enough for us to do that. But we’ve got this one, we won Chicago on the road as well.”
On other players trying to get under Zlatan’s skin:
“A lot of times when you have big players in Europe or even South America, there’s a little more respect for the big players. And MLS is a little more ‘Okay, well I’m going to show you’ kind of attitude rather than a little of that respect. I don’t know exactly what happened out there so I can’t really say but certainly people are going to challenge him.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD OLA KAMARA
On the team’s approach after the red card:
“I think it was about getting to break at zero-zero and reorganize so the whole team can talk. And we did that.”
On whether they were playing for the draw or the win:
“We said we wanted a clean sheet and we said we were probably going to get one or two chances on set pieces. We were going for counterattacks and shutting them down and we were able to do that.”
On playing out wide and getting the winning goal:
“I love scoring. It’s the best feeling ever and even if I’m playing on the wing, I’m trying to get in striker positions all the time. When Zlatan got the red card, I played on top and I was able to get a match-winning goal. It was a great feeling for me. We really needed that win after four losses. We need that feeling, that momentum in the team and I think we got that now and maybe that gives us some confidence going into the next games. Even when Ibra is in the game, he attracts a lot of attention so I’m able to run more freely. That gives me something different and sometimes as a player you just have to take what you can get.”
MONTREAL IMPACT HEAD COACH RÉMI GARDE
On the overall performance:
“We were not sufficiently decisive offensively. I think all week, I had defensive problems to solve because I did not have the full squad to work with. On this game, we lacked offense. There were a lot of situations we should have exploited better. We were not sufficiently dangerous, not sufficiently aggressive to attack the crosses we had, notably. We paid for that in the last 45 minutes.”
On his team’s attacking problems:
“For sure, we lacked aggression in front of goal. To score goals, we need to want it more than the opposing defender. I think there are zones on the field, both penalty areas, where we are not aggressive enough, not mean enough. The opponent wants it more than us.”
On injuries in the squad:
“I think we pushed, but we were clumsy sometimes. We were not organized enough, we didn’t have enough desire of scoring a goal. I couldn’t really start Anthony Jackson-Hamel, he had a little problem this week. I had also Marco Donadel who was on the border. I couldn’t risk with him too much, because there were two or three players on the border and I didn’t want to be in trouble at the start.”
MONTREAL IMPACT GOALKEEPER EVAN BUSH
On the effect of the red card:
“In many ways, them going down to ten men didn’t really fit our strengths. We’re good when we can get in transition and attack teams that have two or three guys back as opposed to 10 guys back. Scoring goals by getting balls wide and wiping them in isn’t in our strengths. It’s frustrating. We put ourselves in a position to get counter-attacked and we’re up a man. That should never have happened.”
On the next steps for the team:
“The last thing we should do is look at the standings right now, because it looks like we have a mountain to climb, and that’s because we do. We have to look at individual games and take them one by one. We can’t worry about picking up 10 points at a time. We need to take it one or three points at a time. “
On seeing the score still at 0-0 in the second half:
“As the game went on and we didn’t get that goal right away, there was maybe a little bit of anxiety, stress, and fear that slowly crept into guys.”
MONTREAL IMPACT MIDFIELDER RAHEEM EDWARDS
On the team’s scoring chances:
“We created a lot of chances but ultimately, we weren’t able to put them in. It’s very important for them to finish those chances, and the game could’ve gone differently. It goes to show you how soccer is. You get so many opportunities and you don’t score, and they get one and they score. It’s unfortunate.”
On what went wrong in front of goal:
“I feel like there’s a bit of miscommunication but we’re also really unlucky. It’ll get going for us and when it does, we’ll be good. We just need it to come quick.”
On the Galaxy’s performance:
“Credit to the Galaxy, they defended well, considering they were a man down. We had our opportunities but it’s about us finishing them. The Galaxy made it very hard for us to finish our final action.”
MONTREAL IMPACT MIDFIELDER MICHAEL PETRASSO
On the second half:
“We were man up in the second, and even in the first half we looked more dominant. We had chances and they didn’t get that many. We didn’t capitalize on any of our chances which is disappointing. And the longer the game goes, they’re bound to get one or two chances, and they took theirs. That’s how they got the result.”
On the team morale:
“We’re down at the moment. Losing that many games is tough on the boys and their confidence. But we have a game next Saturday, and I think we just need one win, where we work and grind it out, to lift the spirits and put us on a run.”
