LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 1, Sporting Kansas City 2
Saturday, June 24, 2017
2017 MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Los Angeles, California
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH CURT ONALFO
On the team being tired from playing midweek:
"I think it showed in the first half. We were kind of second to everything, we were just a little bit off. Having said that, the goals were soft. We gave up goals we can't give away to a top team in this league. You just can't give those types of goals to a team that doesn't concede a lot. We dug a really big hole for ourselves, but credit to the team for the second half. The effort, the tired legs, the quality amount of possession, the amount of chances we created, I thought we came very close."
On the team not being able to win at home:
"I made a statement in the Chicago game that at that point we became a team, but we happened to have five of how many games on the road at that point. So if we would have had those games at home, I think it is fair to say we probably would have had more wins at home but now every game is different. You guys can look at the stats, I mean obviously we have to win our games at home. That is an important part of this all, but it is also circumstances that go into each game and we were tired playing a team that didn't play on Wednesday, and then we gifted two easy goals and that was the difference."
On the first goal conceded:
“I don’t want to spend a ton of time talking publicly about that, that’s not how I am with my players. It was an error and I think it was obvious to everybody.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER ASHLEY COLE
On the first-half goal and what needs to be said to a young goalkeeper after that play:
“It happens. I’ve seen it happen to the best goalkeepers in the world. It’s a difficult position. Even as defenders, we make mistakes and you kind of get punished, and it’s even worse for a goalkeeper. Might as well keep your head up. He’s made some important saves for us this season and last season. It’s one of those things he knows he has to do better. All of us have to be better. We just have to carry on and look forward to the next game.”
On the first half performance, possible tired legs:
“Uh, not really. Of course we’ve played a lot of games this month, but I think was a little bit down to understanding the tactics and going out and putting the game plan to kind of fruition. I said it’s happened, it’s over. We have to look at the kind of second half we had. We kind of changed our mentality and went for it. I thought we made it very difficult for them in the second half. That first half was not us, it was not how we play, but Kansas City is a good team. We knew that, that’s why they’re at the top of the league. We just have to push on for the next game.”
On the team’s home struggles:
“It’s hard. I think in our away games we fought to the last minute, we’ve won games and drew games with a great mentality. It didn’t happen today. the home form is not great and we have to change that because we did well on the road, which I think was a problem in previous years. If we get our home form back to how it was, then hopefully we can look up now.”
On getting deep in attacking half of field:
“For me, I just like to take a gamble. I enjoy going forward. I think it’s a strength of my game. I haven’t done it too much, but when you have Alessandrini and Jose (Villarreal) giving balls, it’s easy for me to make those runs.”
Regarding more pressure at home:
“I don’t think so. We’re not getting it together like we are away. we don’t know why, but it’s something we have to look at in the video and change something. It’s not good, but we’ll change it up. I think it’s probably more of an understanding of the game. We set out our game plan with the tactics, and sometimes it probably gets lost in translation. This is a young team, and hopefully it will learn from it.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER DAVE ROMNEY
On the team’s second half performance:
“One positive to take out of the game: that’s kind of the only plus. We were a little unlucky with the goals, one of them an unlucky mistake and then the second one it kind of gets cleared out, the ball lands between three guys, one of us has to attack it … that’s just on us. He scores on an overhead bike. Still, too tentative in the first half. It could have been tired legs from Colorado, the travel, we don’t really have a lot of healthy bodies, that’s kind of been wearing down on guys. Especially with a team that’s going to keep the ball that much and just wear you down.
Regarding tactical questions:
“We weren’t really clear on what do on our right side, I guess. It was definitely a different game plan. They play a different style. What we saw is teams exposed them on counterattacks in previous games, so we kind of wanted to get them into bad spots, turn it over and go with our speed guys in Emanuel [Boateng], Romain [Alessandrini] and Gyasi [Zardes]. We got a couple of those, but we still let them play too easily.”
Regarding home woes:
“it’s really weird. In the past we would never lose at home and we couldn’t buy a win on the road, so everything gets kind of flip-flopped. I can’t really explain it and I just try to play the same way home and away. Some games just don’t bounce your way, I guess.”
On the possible penalty kick on Emmanuel Boateng:
“I don’t think I got a good look. I’m sure it was a penalty, though (laughs).”
On his goal:
“Two weeks ago Jose [Villarreal] kind of hit one off the crossbar. Something happened and there was a guy in front of me. After that I was like, ‘I’m going to stand in front of the goal in case anything happens.’ That was the right place at the right time.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER CLEMENT DIOP
On his performance:
“Right now I have performed well, I’m too inconsistent and I have to come back stronger to perform well because right now it’s unacceptable what I’m doing. So I don’t like it and I cant play that way for now”.
On the first goal conceded:
“My focus is not good and there is no else to blame”.
On how the ball got past him:
“We can debate about that but it was just a mistake that’s it”.
LA GALAXY DEFENDER JELLE VAN DAMME
On the start of the game:
“We had a plan, it didn’t work out that well in the first half. I think we were focused too much on the tactical plan than on playing soccer. And plus they’re a good team, they proved that last year the games we played over there are always difficult. It’s a good team, experienced team, they’ve been playing together for a long time. So I have to be honest, credit to them, especially in the first half, and then they scored two goals.”
On the goals:
“It’s funny because besides the goal I never had the feeling they were dangerous. First of all we know this guy had a good shot and has a good left foot so we should have stepped earlier. Second of all, the balls today, they make funny curves, so you misjudge it, it happens and everybody makes mistakes in life so that’s not the worst thing. And the second goal, communication I think, I had the ball out first and then we have like three or four guys think who should be stepping, and at the end nobody steps and the guy gets in-between.’
On trying to comeback from behind:
“And then it’s 2-0, you know it’s going to be hard, we tried, we pushed the second half, second half was way better because you have to get out and you have to get after them. I think in the second half we were thinking less and playing more so it’s a shame.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY HEAD COACH PETER VERMES
On the team’s road win:
“Well, look. It’s always good to get three points wherever you are. Home or away. I thought we’ve had a couple of games at home where we gave up a few points to where we should’ve gotten three, not one. Getting this game on the road makes up for a little bit of that. I thought we played very well in the game. I thought the fact that we scored early, they had a game-plan, they were sitting back and countering us, and the fact that we scored early, it made them rethink about what they wanted to do. We got the second one, and I knew at the second-half that they were going to come out and put everything on us, and they were going to step up high. It kind of changed for them, and I thought we handled it well, and at the end we were able to hang on and get the three.”
On the LA Galaxy’s strategy to defend instead of attack on a home game:
“It has happened to us now a couple of times. As of late, for some reason, teams are kind of sitting back on us. But I thought again, we were really prepared. For we thought that was going to happen. So, the good thing is, the guys were prepared and I thought they handled it well. They managed the game throughout. And then, knowing that the second half we were going to have to change, because now they were going to step up and really put a lot of numbers forward, again, I thought we managed that too well.”
On Ike Opara’s goal:
“Ike’s a really athletic guy. The fact that he was able to pull that off doesn’t surprise me, but it was a very heads up play, because there were a lot of things that he could have thought about. He didn’t know if the keeper was coming, or where he was, all those things. But, just a really heads up and athletic play by him.”
On Ike Opara’s possible injury from a hard tackle in the game:
“I just think we have him as a contusion, more of anything. I think he’s okay. I think he’ll be fine for Wednesday.”
On Benny Feilhaber’s injury:
“He definitely hurt his ankle. I don’t know to what extent. But I’m going to tell you it’s not good at the moment. It’s not like he’s going to be okay tomorrow. It was definitely a very dangerous tackle. I thought the game was a strong fought game, but I don’t think it was a dirty game. I think that tackle, though, was over the line. Just that one.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY MIDFIELDER GRAHAM ZUSI
On the team’s performance this season:
“The performances have been there multiple times on the road for us. It’s just matter of sticking some balls in the back of the net. We’ve created chances in past games, but we’ve just been off here and there. Tonight I think it was another pretty complete performance on the road. especially in the first half I thought we were very very good building out of the back, our movement on the was good as well. We stuck a couple in. second half obviously they needed to push the game and they did so and we did what we had to to get the result.
On his thoughts about LA Galaxy’s strategy to counterattack:
“They’ve been a team this year who’s been very good on the counter, they’ve got some really quick guys up top who can break out quick and they’ve got some guys who can really provide the final pass as well. So not completely surprised about how they came out, but I thought we handled it pretty well.”
On Ike Opara’s goal:
“To be honest I didn’t see it very well. I was about to yell at [Matt Besler] for not playing the simple ball to benny [Feilhaber] but it ended up being a very good ball and Ike [Opara] I guess had an overhead kick. I’ll have to see it again though.
On being first place in the MLS Western Conference
“It’s a good week for us. I think the results around the league were favorable to us as well, and like I said before, we rewarded ourselves with a win on the road tonight rather than playing really well and just getting a draw or losing. So, we’re in a good spot and we need to keep playing the way we are to stay on top.”
On working towards being a part of the U.S national team in the Gold Cup
“Of course. That’s always the plan.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY DEFENDER IKE OPARA
On his goal
“I guess at the moment, I’m only scoring good goals, or crazy goals. It was a decent ball from Bes (Matt Besler) to create some havoc, and I just wanted to time it. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get power from my head, so I just wanted to let it bounce at attempt and see what happens and obviously it went in.
On the difficulty of scoring his goal
“I guess that’s kind of what I’m known for. I’m pretty flexible and athletic. It’s not out of the norm for me. I’m able to do some weird things with my body, so I’ll take it.
On his feeling of scoring a bicycle kick
“I’m just more happy that we won. We have created chances on the road, we just haven’t scored any goals. I think today we were able to get two and we could’ve had a third, or maybe even a fourth. We had some good opportunities and so I’m glad we were able to kind of break the ice and get a couple.”
On the road win
“We just want to keep our heads down and keep working. It’s a long season and obviously we just started the second part of it. Or second half of it. And it’s a good start to it and we want to keep going and try to accumulate points and see if we can win something.
On where he ranks todays goal
“I don’t know. It’s up there, I’ll just say that. I don’t rank my goals. I guess I don’t score enough of them. I should be able to rank them. I don’t know . it was just fun. I mean I don’t know. I was just showing the guys how to do it on my team.
On his possible injury from a hard tackle in the game
“yeah, I thought it initially was, but it was just a Charlie horse right above it. So just a couple of days. All good.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY MIDFIELDER ROGER ESPINOZA
[Translated from Spanish]
Pensamientos sobre el partido:
“Fue un partido difícil, creo que teníamos años de no ganar [aquí]. Sabemos lo que significa esta cancha, este club. Y bueno creo que el primero tiempo nos favoreció más a nosotros. El segundo ellos jugaron un poco más, pero bien, pudimos quedar fuerte al final.”
Thoughts on the game:
“It was a hard-fought game, I think we hadn’t won here in years. We know what this field and club mean. I think we were better in the first half. They took possession of the second half and we were able to finish strong in the end.”
Sobre la química del equipo:
“Eso es bueno, se están dando las cosas bien. Hemos trabajado muchos años juntos. Se entiende uno en la cancha y eso es bueno. Ya nos conocemos muy bien, sabemos la identidad del equipo, el estilo que vamos a jugar y eso nos ha ayudado mucho a través de los años.”
On the team’s chemistry:
“It’s good, things have been working out for us. We’ve been together for a long time. We understand each other on the field and that’s good. We know each other very well, we know the team’s identity, the style of soccer we are going to play and that has helped us throughout the years.”
Sobre los objetivos del equipo esta temporada:
“Quedar campeones todos los años, son las expectativas de los dueños, del club, siempre quedar campeones.”
On the team’s objectives this season:
“We want to be champions, it’s the expectation from the owners, from the club, we want to be champions.”
