LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GUILLERMO BARROS SCHELOTTO
Thoughts on tonight’s loss:
“Imagine if we scored one more goal at some part of the game, it would change, of course, but I don’t want to talk about that. I want to say that I am very proud of the players we have, of this year, of this game. We are at a time now to organize better for next year, we are one year more experienced in the MLS… For me it was a wonderful year. I hope next year can be better.”
Overall thoughts on the end to their season:
“Maybe we need to think, we need to take the time and analyze, and then we need to improve because otherwise, even if we win you have to improve. Now we are at the time, we have to rest, and they’ll organize for next year. But, again, I am very proud of all they players because today, they play like I wanted, played offense, and tried to win, even on this field, which is very hard. The game was very even, if you check the stats, very even.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIĆ
On the game:
“When there’s a lot of goals, it’s always exciting and fun, but obviously for the teams that play, nobody wants to concede a lot of goals and today we conceded five goals. At the same time, we scored three goals, so I think the whole season has been like that. We score a couple of goals, but we concede much more than we are scoring. It’s not the way you win, it’s not the way you become champion.”
On how the team feels after the season-ending loss:
“I think we should be sad and disappointed. Sad because we are not through, disappointed because I think we made mistakes. We let them punish us in a way that we have to come back from that. It’s not easy to play that way.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER DANIEL STERES
Overall thoughts on the loss:
“They got the one that really mattered. It was tough that we kind of gave it to them, it was not a great game for us in the end. They’ve had a great season, they’ve played well, and they deserve it.”
Thoughts on the season:
“I think we’re striving for more so I don’t think anyone’s happy with how it ended. Sure we got to the playoffs, we do a little better than last year and the year before, I think we’re striving for more with this group and I think we all felt like we fell short.”
LAFC HEAD COACH BOB BRADLEY
On the importance of the win over LA Galaxy:
“Normally I come in and I love talking about our football, but to really become a good team to go with football, there’s got to be a mentality and there’s got to be something that when you’ve had games that get away from you, you take the lessons along the way. And then at some moment, against your biggest rival, when obviously everything’s at stake, to see those guys respond at 2-2, that was awesome. So that’s such as step for this group. How we let them back in it and this kind of stuff — I mean there’s things on a pure football level tonight: not a great start, couldn’t find a balance between when to step up — all these kinds of things. But from the standpoint of as you go through a season you continue to grow and mature and then putting it all on the line at that point in the game, I couldn’t be prouder.”
On how the win will impact the team moving into the next round of the MLS Playoffs:
“We take a lot of good things out of tonight: a proud feeling of how we keep moving ourselves along, and yet when you talk to everybody inside, they’re all focused already on the next game. You can tell that this was just an important win, but now we’ve got to move on. Seattle is a good team. In these playoffs games, in this format, they’re crazy. So, we have to move on quickly. We’ve done a good job of that this year. I think leadership in the team — yes, we always talk about Carlos [Vela], but guys like Steven Beitashour and Jordan Harvey, the group has continued to develop in all those ways.”
LAFC FORWARD CARLOS VELA
Thoughts about win:
“We have to win two more games. We have to prepare our team to be ready and be focused on our goal. That’s the way we are working. We are working on ourselves and that’s a way to be a good team. Nothing else matters.”
Feelings right after the final whistle:
“I want to win the MLS [Cup]. My mind was just thinking this was one step closer. All the work we put in, hard runs and performance of the team, it was a big moment. It was a big moment for us and we worked for that type of game. We want more and this team wants to win. The team wants to have the best season in history.”
How the team responded to the 2-2 score line:
“When you lose some result like that, it’s hard to accept or to recover from that, but we showed a lot of personality. We said we have to fight. It’s a game, but we have to show [something]… and I said, “look, we have to show, this is the moment.” We did really well, so I am [happier about] that than the win against the Galaxy because again, it’s just a game. In the playoffs, we have to beat every team. The response from the team was really nice and I am happy with that.”
LAFC FORWARD DIEGO ROSSI
First goal opportunities in multiple games:
“It’s always beautiful to score. It’s great help out the team in that way as forward. When the goals don’t come then you try helping out in other ways but when you do then you’re happy you help the team and winning is important.”
Winning the important game after all the previous ones versus Galaxy:
“We hadn’t found a way to win but this was a really decisive game. We played in an intelligent way and we were able to move forward. The team is really united. We looked at our rival and played our game. When you start to play the other team’s game then it gets difficult.”
