LA Galaxy 2, Philadelphia Union 0
Saturday, April 13, 2019 – 7:30 p.m. PT
2019 MLS Regular Season
Dignity Health Sports Park – Los Angeles, Calif.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GUILLERMO BARROS SCHELOTTO
On the team’s recent form:
“I think the whole team is getting better than before. Everyone is getting confident to play in their positions. We can see how the defense is getting better game by game. I am happy with that. I think the individual level is getting better to, like Rolf [Feltscher], [Daniel] Steres, Jorgen [Skjelvik]. I am very happy.”
On the teams second half performance:
“I don’t really like the second half for us. I think we finished the game the first half, where we played really good. We managed the ball, we managed the game; we had the possibility to score, but the second half I talked with the players. We need to keep going, keep managing the ball. I think the game was even, or maybe sometimes they played better than us. But, they never went very deep. But, I didn’t really like the second half.”
On Juninho’s role in the team:
“I put him on the field, because the last five minutes I wanted to take the ball, and save the ball; answering the last question about him. We couldn’t dominate the game in the second half, so I just wanted to save the ball, keep the ball, the minutes going, and finish the game. For the future I think he will get better. He’s fighting for the place, obviously, with Joe [Corona], Sebastian [Lletget], with Jonathan [Dos Santos ], because he can play in the middle. Even on the roster if he doesn’t play, he can pass experience. The advice to the young players; I think he can help us in whatever place he has to be. Like on the field, on the bench, outside the roster of 18 players, or wherever, I think he can help us.”
On Rolf Feltscher’s injury and Julian Araujo’s future with the team:
“I don’t really know what happened to Rolf [Feltscher]. He felt something in his muscle, and he came out. We have a lot of expectation about Julian [Araujo], because he’s young, he’s coming from academy. He’s the sub if Rolf [Feltscher] is not playing. I think he keeps doing the same thing as Rolf [Feltscher] that was the advice before he got on the field.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC
On tonight’s performance:
“I try to help the team in the best way and that is to score goals. First half, I had a couple of chances, no those were the only two chances I had. In the second, I don’t think we were close even to create a chance to score. So two different games, first half and second half.”
On differences in the second half:
“First half I think was amazing. We had rhythm. We were aggressive. We had possession. We were direct. Second half, we say it enough times we go out to kill, to score three or four and keep going. After two seconds, we almost conceded one goal. Either everybody was not on the same side, or we just relaxed and that cannot happen. When you go out and relax you get punished and when you get punished it’s difficult to come back because remember last year when it happened. We had to chase the goal all the time, so lucky we were two up this time. But, this cannot happen, we cannot relax like this. We have to keep going.”
On delay in taking the penalty:
“It takes too long. I said it last time I was here when I shot the two other penalties in the other game. It takes too long, but the only thing we can do, or who shoots the penalty is to act patient and be focused. I don’t think it effects the game, but it makes you wait. If I get a penalty, of course I will shoot it’s not like I will give it away. Yes, you wait. It’s part of the game now and I think the VAR is a good thing because if the referee makes a mistake, they can readjust it by the VAR. Last week, they stole a goal from me, which I think the referee can make a mistake. We are human beings, we make mistakes, but when you watch VAR, you cannot make a mistake. Then it makes no sense to have VAR and whoever sat in that box, I don’t know what he was doing. I don’t know if he was sleeping or he was enjoying my goal.”
On matching Josef Martinez’ performance last year:
“I’m not focusing on this player. For me, he’s him and I am myself. I come on the field to score. My job is to score. The best way to help the team is to score. I’m in front, I try to create chances for my teammates. When I get the chance I try to score. It has nothing to do with that player or what he did. I have more than 500 goals.”
On wanting a third goal:
“Of course, I was looking for it. When you want to send a message, you send a clear message and first half we send a message. I think Philadelphia, I don’t think they knew what to do or how to stop us because we were all over the place, pressing, winning balls, creating. Second half, I think we worried about what they should do. Two different halves. It’s not about that, me looking for a third. Of course, I look. I try to score as much as possible to help my team. And whoever scores the important thing is the intention and the mentality. What do you want? You have to go in and execute because we know from last year, winning two zero is not enough.
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER JUNINHO
On being back for LA Galaxy:
“It feels very good. I’ve been waiting for the moment since preseason. I’ve been through a tough situation with the knee, but I’m glad after all this time I’m back on the field to see all crowd, all the community, all of the fans. That was very special. I was about to, about the shot, but unfortunately it was not at this time. Thanks for the fans. They have something special between us. I think I have good memories of all of us. That’s why when they look out for me and they saw me running, I think for them that was a special moment too.”
On the emotion:
“It’s part of it. It was very emotional. Thanks to Guillermo for the opportunity just to be back on the pitch since preseason. I hope I can be on the pitch more often.”
On the team:
“Yeah, we have an excellent group of guys, group of players. We got a result, the only thing that really matters is the result. Guillermo and all of us, working hard every single day to get a result and here we are.”
On feeling home:
“Definitely. When I made the decision to come back here, definitely was to come back home. That’s what I say on Twitter, it’s what it really means to myself. I hope I can continue to contribute for the team.”
On being on the roster:
“I’ve been waiting for the moment. I’ve been training hard, four weeks, five weeks in a row. I’m glad Guillermo called me and I was able to help somehow. I hope I can continue that way. It was a good moment. It was the right time, I think I was prepared for that, physically and mentally. Hopefully I can get more minutes on the board.”
On his injury:
“It was the left one [knee]. That was in the past, it’s been bothering me for a while. It’s cartilage, players have this type of injury all the time. I hope I can be healthy and contribute to the team.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER JONATHAN DOS SANTOS
On his leadership and role working the team:
“I feel really good honestly, I feel good physically. The team is also helping out a lot, it’s not easy winning five games out of six. The team is demonstrating it even though today in the second half the team somewhat dropped off. Philadelphia Union was a man down, we needed to have more possession, be more aggressive and more determined. I’ll stay with the positives from today, the team in general is doing great, and I’m happy that the team is doing so well.”
On the second half:
“We knew we could score more goals with Philadelphia Union being a man down. With have to improve in the second half. When we are winning two to zero, the team has to keep being aggressive, work defensively and offensively. We have to work on that minor detail. I am very proud of the team. It’s not easy starting the season with a new coach, new teammates and after the past two seasons where Galaxy wasn’t in a place where we wanted. This is Galaxy, and we are demonstrating it now.”
On Marco Fabián:
“Yes, it’s a shame he got injured. I feel for him, I don’t know exactly what happened when he got injured. I think he might have twisted his ankle. We had some luck that he was subbed off injured, he’s a great player. If he played the entire game Philadelphia Union would have done more damage. We all know how much quality Marco [Fabián] has. I hope his injury isn’t severe and I hope he can recover quickly because it’s great to have him on the pitch.”
On the midfield:
“I’m very happy to share the midfield with great players like myself and Sebastian [Lletget]. I played with Sebastian [Lletget] in the midfield last season and with myself included it gives us an extra plus. It makes us more dynamic and makes the midfield have more quality. We also helped out defensively, running and recovering a lot. It’s a midfield we can enjoy and this year I can I am enjoying it a lot having my two teammates play in front of me, they help out in every way which allows me to play better and become a better player."
PHILADELPHIA UNION HEAD COACH JIM CURTIN
On tonight's game:
"Overall a disappointing night for us. Two good teams going at it and you had an unfortunate injury early to Marco Fabian who I had hopes for playing a big role in the game, lost him early. Credit to the Galaxy, they played at a tempo that was faster than we've seen this season, I think we'll learn from it. Obviously Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] in the box was a focus all week and he made us pay. Happy with the response in the second half but disappointing it took us till the penalty kick to really get ourselves playing a little bit in the first half and then I thought the second half was much better but still weren't clinical enough to get a goal to kind of get the game and get some momentum on our side."
On Marco Fabian's injury:
"On the play where the goalkeeper was out and he tried to shoot it looked like his plant foot kind of gave out on him and rolled a little bit. I don't think it is too significant, I am hoping it is not too significant but obviously you want all your big players in big games like this. He was devastated to miss out on this one. Hopefully it is a quick healing process but we'll get a test soon."
On if Marco Fabian's injury affected their game plan:
"Yes, it messed with it a lot because we had a unique formation out there that maybe the Galaxy wasn't anticipating with him playing the second striker underneath and he was kind of a key guy we wanted to put on the ball a lot on their left-hand side and have him drift over there. But again, credit to the Galaxy; they were sharp tonight. You look at their midfield three, I thought Jonathan dos Santos was their best player on the field tonight by a lot and it was an impressive performance from them, so I don't want to take anything away from them. Obviously in big games with two good teams early in the season you want the stars out there but unfortunately ours got injured."
PHILADELPHIA UNION MIDFIELDER HARIS MEDUNJANIN
On the match:
“It’s difficult to play with these kinds of calls, we already knew that every touch in the box it could be a penalty and I think it was two bad calls from the referee but what do you do. We need to pick our heads up and Montreal is coming, they are an East conference opponent and we need to win that game and we need to now focus on that game.”
On the second half response from Philadelphia:
“We just went to play 4-3-2-1 so we closed their back because we had problem in the first half with their backs because they were free a lot of the times, so they came through a lot from the sides, so we had difficulties with that. Once we changed, we controlled the game but if you don’t make your chances then you can’t win this game.”
On takeaways from this game ahead of the Montreal match:
“We just need to believe in ourselves. We need to believe that we are a good team and fight for each other. We need every player in the squad to make an effort for the team and hopefully we get the points next week.”
PHILADELPHIA UNION MIDFIELDER JAMIRO MONTEIRO
On team's second performance:
"In the first half, it is the moment that we need to press good on them because they have players that can play soccer and they can move the ball good so the first thing that the trainer said was that we need to press at the right moments but sometimes it was difficult in the first half, so we tried in the last 50 minutes and did it better with the right back and left back."
On the takeaways of this game:
"That we need to keep going and not give up in our game. This game is a motivation for next week so we need to keep moving on. We lost this game but there is another shot next week so we need to keep moving."
