CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena spoke to reporters following the Galaxy's 4-1 U.S. Open Cup fourth round victory over La Maquina FC.
Arena's quotes are below
On if LA Maquina FC gave LA Galaxy a good game:
ARENA:“They did. As I told our team at the end of the game, we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times in that first half for sure with that sending off, which was warranted I thought, and fouling up a play created their goal. We certainly didn’t make things easy for ourselves. We played, in regulation, 73 minutes with ten players and then add another 30 onto it. That’s not a smart way to play any game. We certainly had our chances to score more than one goal in 90 minutes, and you know, we sent it into extra-time. Clearly we were going to get a goal at some point to win this game, but we sure took our time.”
On what he liked about La Maquina FC:
ARENA: “They did a solid job. You could see a couple of those guys have had some experience. They had pretty good composure. I thought they, for the most part, did pretty good defending. They didn’t have much of the ball on the night. They made a couple of plays; the one defender in the first half saved the ball off the line. The goalkeeper made a few good saves; the defenders did a good job. They worked hard, give them credit. They were opportunistic. The two front runners pressured our backline as much as they could and that pressure certainly helped create the goal for them. So, you know, they did a pretty good job with all that stuff.”
On his perspective of Dave Romney’s goal scored off a free kick taken by Baggio Husidic:
ARENA:“I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea.”
On if he was pleasantly surprised by the goal:
ARENA: “Yes.”
On who he liked of the players that got minutes Tuesday night:
ARENA: “It was good for that whole group. I thought Jack McBean’s 60 minutes were excellent. In the first group, I think it was good for Leonardo to get that kind of game and Dave Romney who hasn’t played that much for us. And Jose Villarreal hung in there for 120 minutes which I thought was surprising. I thought Raul Mendiola had an excellent game for us tonight. He never stopped. And in a game like that to have that kind of energy out of a player for 120 minutes is pretty remarkable. I thought he did an outstanding job. And obviously, Sebastian Lletget coming in and getting a couple goals…I thought Baggio Husidic was excellent in playing his 55 minutes. So those guys all made a good contribution tonight and we beat ourselves up a little bit. But still, at the end of the day, to persevere like that and compete and win the game like that is good. So for the young players to learn as well as most of our first team players: when anyone plays the LA Galaxy, whether you’re a professional team or an amateur team, it’s your big game of the year and they’re ready to play. Our guys have got to be ready for that challenge each and every game.”
On what he’s supposed to tell Rafael Garcia after his tackle that earned him an early red card;
ARENA: “Well I don’t know what he was thinking, but that certainly merited a red card and sending off. I haven’t talked to him yet about it. He’s not a player like that. I think, obviously, like in all those types of challenges, it was poorly timed, but he left his feet. I just think it was certainly a play that if he had to do it all over again he’d be a little bit smarter. I don’t think he realized that that player was getting to the ball that quick. He just mistimed it and got the player pretty good. That’s a red card for sure.”
