HOUSTON -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena addressed reporters after his club's 3-0 defeat to the Houston Dynamo.
Dealing with that heat and humidity, do you think that was the cause of the defeat…?
ARENA: The other team dealt with the same conditions.
Houston seemed to play a lot of high pressure on you guys and…
ARENA: Yeah and obviously they’re a little more adjusted to this environment than we are. When you’re on the road and you concede a goal in the first eight minutes you put yourself behind the eight ball and we certainly did that.
What was your impression of Dave Romney and Ari Lassiter?
ARENA: Romney did a good job. Lassiter, he’s a young kid but Romney, on the night could have been our best player.
How would you rate how Steven Gerrard did in this heat?
ARENA: Just okay. It’s not a good game to have to put him through. Obviously he’s trying to get himself fit and these conditions are very difficult for that. You could see he was fatigued at the end of both halves and maybe we could have utilized him in a reserve role as opposed to starting him tonight.
You took out Jamieson in the 45th minute. Was that just your decision…?
ARENA: It just looked like he struggled physically. He looked to be pretty tired and he had a difficult time out there the last 15 minutes of the first half.
Can you share your strategy going into the match?
ARENA: To win.
This is not the first time you’ve played a game in Houston, in the conditions--
ARENA: Right, well the strategy was not to give up a goal in the first eight minutes. That was the strategy.
When that doesn’t work, what adjustments do you make?
ARENA: Try to get a goal back. It’s not rocket science out there. Anyone else??
