Diego Fagundez records 150th MLS goal contribution in 400th career MLS Regular Season appearance in 1-1 draw against Houston Dynamo FC; LA Galaxy next travel to face Austin FC at Q2 Stadium on Saturday, April 19 at 10:30 a.m. PT
LOS ANGELES (Saturday, April 12, 2025) – Trailing 1-0 and playing down a man entering halftime, the LA Galaxy battled back to earn a 1-1 draw against Houston Dynamo FC before 23,685 fans at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday night.
Diego Fagundez's Historic Night
With his appearance in tonight's match, Diego Fagundez became the 15th player in MLS history to play in 400 MLS Regular Season games. Notably, Fagundez (30 years, 57 days) is the youngest player in league history to reach 400 MLS regular-season appearances, surpassing the previous record set by Darlington Nagbe (33 years, 331 days) last June. Additionally, Fagundez recorded his 150th career MLS Regular Season goal contribution (74 goals, 76 assists), becoming the 16th player in league history to accomplish that feat.
LA Galaxy Against Houston Dynamo FC
Saturday’s match marked the 44th all-time meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC, with LA leading the series 18-14-12. Against Houston, the Galaxy hold a 14-14-12 record in league play, a 1-0-0 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 3-0-0 record in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. In 19 regular season matches played at home against Houston, the Galaxy hold a 7-5-8 record.
Goal-Scoring Plays
HOU – Ezequil Ponce (Amine Bassi), 14th minute: Ezequil Ponce received the ball in the center of the penalty area and his first-time effort was fired past John McCarthy.
LA – Diego Fagundez, 57th minute: Diego Fagundez's direct free-kick attempt from over 27-yards away from goal was curled into the top right corner.
Postgame Notes
- Saturday’s match marked the 44th all-time meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo FC, with LA leading the series 18-14-12.
- Against Houston, the Galaxy hold a 14-14-12 record in league play, a 1-0-0 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 3-0-0 record in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.
- In 19 regular season matches played at home against Houston, the Galaxy hold a 7-5-8 record.
- Diego Fagundez became the 15th player in MLS history to play in 400 MLS Regular Season games with his appearance against Houston.
- Notably, Fagundez (30 years, 57 days) is the youngest player in league history to reach 400 MLS regular-season appearances, surpassing the previous record set by Darlington Nagbe (33 years, 331 days) last June.
- Additionally, Fagundez recorded his 150th career MLS Regular Season goal contribution (74 goals, 76 assists), becoming the 16th player in league history to accomplish that feat.
- Fagundez scored the first direct free kick goal for the Galaxy in league play since Douglas Costa last did so against Toronto FC on Aug. 31, 2022.
- Lucas Sanabria started and played 45 minutes in his first appearance for the Galaxy since injuring his collarbone against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on March 2.
- LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney appeared in his 399th match across all competitions combined as a player and head coach for the LA Galaxy in the match against Houston.
- The last time the Galaxy received a red card and earned a point was in the Galaxy's 4-3 win over the San Jose Earthquakes on April 21, 2024.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy travel to face Austin FC at Q2 Stadium on Saturday, April 19 (10:30 a.m. PT; MLS Season Pass, FOX).
2025 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (0-5-3; 2 pts) vs. Houston Dynamo FC (1-4-2; 5 pts)
Saturday, April 12, 2025 – Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 0 1 1
Houston Dynamo FC 1 0 1
Scoring Summary:
HOU: Ponce (Bassi), 14
LA: Fagundez, 57
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Garcés (caution), 20
LA: Cerrillo (caution), 25
LA: Zanka (ejection), 28
HOU: Dorsey (caution), 35
HOU: Escobar (caution), 85
Lineups:
LA: GK John McCarthy; D Miki Yamane, D Emiro Garcés, D Zanka, D John Nelson; M Edwin Cerrillo, M Lucas Sanabria (Isaiah Parente, 46), M Diego Fagundez (C) (Tucker Lepley, 83), F Joseph Paintsil, F Gabriel Pec, F Christian Ramirez (Julián Aude, 87)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Novak Mićović; D Harbor Miller, D Eriq Zavaleta, M Elijah Wynder, F Miguel Berry, F Matheus Nascimento
TOTAL SHOTS: 6 (Gabriel Pec, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Diego Fagundez, Christian Ramirez, 1); FOULS: 9 (Three players tied, 2); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 2
HOU: GK Blake Gillingham; D Franco Escobar, D Femi Awodesu, D Griffin Dorsey, D Erik Sviatchenko, M Artur (C), M Amine Bassi (Ibrahim Aliyu, 83), M Jack McGlynn, M Brooklyn Raines (Nicolas Lodeiro, 72), M Sebastian Kowalczyk, F Ezequiel Ponce
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Bond; D Daniel Steres, D Michael Halliday, D Diego Gonzalez, M Erik Duenas, F Gabe Segal
TOTAL SHOTS: 13 (Ezequiel Ponce, 6); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (Ezequiel Ponce, 2); FOULS: 21 (Artur, 5); OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 1
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referees: Chris Elliot, Jose Da Silva
Fourth Official: Ricardo Fierro
VAR: Daniel Radford
Weather: Clear, 61 degrees
Attendance: 23,685
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On the red card and responsive play: "I thought we started really poor. From the kickoff, probably for the next, five, ten minutes -- I just feel like we never settled into the game. The kickoff, the way we went into the kickoff and hit a straight ball just didn't make sense. Yeah, we've got to be cleaner and start games cleaner. I thought all of that, us not using the ball, with turning it over, not really settling in, we're hitting long balls and doing things that was making the game transitional. Opening it up, not really working together defensively to keep things where they were. And they came across us and they got a goal. I thought it started from a bit of an erratic start and things didn't settle in. From there to the rest of that half, I thought we did a good job of at least protecting ourselves and managing our way through the first half as we kind of settled in to being down a man. I thought the second half reaction was really good. [The guys] were connected, made it difficult for them to create too many chances on the attacking side. We protected ourselves. We were down. Because we're still trying to find ways that we can initiate enough pressure to get them into areas where we could try to recover balls that we could use in transition. And you know, we get a foul. Diego hits a great free kick. It's actually the first direct free kick that we've scored since I've been here, so good timing, I guess. But that's the first one. And then even after that, I thought we were able to break out after a couple occasions. Obviously, Joe [Paintsil] gets one across to Gabriel [Pec] where maybe we have a chance, and one Miki [Yamane] gets to the end line we don't quite get across. But we have some other promising moments. I'm proud of the guys -- this is the fourth game in two weeks with some heavy travel in between and a tough loss on Tuesday. And it started off in a way that didn't feel like it was shaping up for us, and the guys found a way to get a good solid, earned point, even though we came here for three today. It didn't play out the way we were expecting from the start, and they did a great job of pulling together and taking something out of this game.”
On if the team is frustrated with the season to-date: "Yeah, for sure. It has to get fixed. Some of it is it's tough to fix things going game-to-game because you're trying to solve some things inside the game. No excuses. Just we have to stop putting ourselves in holes, and then trying to figure our way out of holes. Yeah, there's no two ways about it. It's got to get cleaned up. It's got to get fixed. And hopefully as we get guys, tonight we try to give Lucas his first start and settle him into the team a little bit. He has not played many games, so he's still kind of finding his way and his footing inside of the group. I thought Isaiah came on and gave us a good second half performance, just showing us, again, systematically he understands some things even though we're down a man. So I think even though we're getting healthier, there are still guys that have not played a ton with us and that are still learning a little bit more about what we're trying to do. But, yeah, we've got to clean it up. Clean up putting ourselves in a hole and the not-so-good starts. Those are the biggest things. Because after that, I feel like we find ourselves back into the game and we look all right.”
On when the team goes a player down and the thought of bringing Eriq in as a center back: "There are a couple things that go there. One was -- I let it ride for a few minutes. Eriq is not in great physical condition right now. His back is a bit messed up. And so if we had to use him for a short period of time, I felt comfortable with it. If I had to use him for a long period of time, I wasn't super comfortable with it. The second part was, let it ride for a little bit just to see how it was going, and Eddie looked like he was comfortable. The second part to that: Eddie back there gave us a lot more capacity to stay and hold the ball. And part of that is because of Eddie's ability to dribble the ball, to move with the ball. It's harder to press a midfielder when he's booked in that position and he's very comfortable on the ball than sometimes center backs or other players back there. We felt like with Eddie back there, it gave us a chance to start more attacks to have a little bit more of the ball, and give us maybe a little bit of composure, even though we were down a man, not to say that Eriq couldn't. But Eriq is not going to move around the ball and carry into new spaces and win some time on the dribble that maybe we could use. So when I saw that he was pretty settled in on the defensive side, then I was going to play that one for a while because I thought it would help us to try to create some things and not just defending for longer stretches of time.”
On the team’s ability to read the game and fill gaps on the field: "We know where the positions are, and the question is: How are you going to fill them? With one less number, sometimes filling them is a little bit trickier. And so again, you're trying to do that while not exposing yourself, while also making sure that you have enough numbers to start an attack, but you're trying to get enough numbers into positions where you can finish some attacks but then not expose yourself in transition. So it became pretty fluid. I felt like with that group, and especially with Isaiah out there, I felt like everybody kind of understood some of the fluidity that needed to take place, even on the defensive side. If guys got pulled out, how would we fill back into some of the spaces to cover each other. I think the guys did a good job. They did a good job of dealing with stuff.”
On players recognizing situations to be at the right speed of play: “I think it's different for different guys, right. Some guys, they read things. They anticipate. They pick it up early, and they recognize what needs to be done and they deal with it. Some guys are a little slower. I think collectively, the group, we're trying to get everybody there. And then you have some guys, Joe did not go through a preseason it. Took him a few games but I think the last few games we see Joe at top speed again. Then you see guys coming into our team that have not been into our team, like a Lucas, who is still going to need time. That's why it's not smooth, you know. And when you put yourself down a man, it becomes even more tricky. And so that's a whole different -- a whole certain scenario. I do think with the way the group sort of -- with the group we brought in in the second half, there was some continuity within that group, and some recognition of things that needed to be recognized. And they dealt with 11 men and created the chances that got the goal and created a couple other chances and dealt with some stuff through the course of the game. We've got to do those types of things with 11 and make sure that we can get on top of the game and not do things that put us behind or put us underneath some things. But I do think -- look, my bet here is that as we get healthy and we get some time and a rhythm to train a little bit and get guys integrated back into the group and into the rhythm, and when you look down on the bench and we start to see guys who can come in to also impact the game and really help us, that we can certainly build our way out of this. We've got to also get some guys -- we've got four guys on the bench who can do a lot of things to help our group, too. We've got to continue to build our way back into this.”
On injuries: “The good things are Marco was in part of training the other day so hopefully we can build forward for that for next week. Mauricio should be ready for next week. He checked all the boxes coming into today, and just another week of full training will really help him because where he was. Maya is still probably a couple weeks or so away, but I think in general, we are starting see some light at the end of the tunnel, so long as we can keep the group that we have healthy.”
On what's going through his mind sub-wise when its 1-1 late in the game: “You're trying not to expose yourself and the effort to try to go get the second goal. In my opinion, when you have to come from behind and you're down a man, a point is a solid result, and also good for the locker room and good for the group. But what I saw in the group is they were eager to try to go win the game. And so I didn't want to take that away from them, but I also wanted to make sure that we were mindful of protecting ourselves.
I loved that the mentality was, let's go, we feel confident enough to try to win this thing, and guys were going for it. I was trying to support, and at the same time make sure we got out of here today with at least one. Because that's the -- you know, some of the reward for the work that was put in is at least you come away with something at the end of the day. So it was trying to find a balance inside of those things. The ten guys that were going in the second half, I thought had really good slowly of it. So I was not necessarily super eager to make substitutions, but I did feel like we were losing a little bit of gas, and in transitions and moments like that, that we had our legs to be able to deal with some of those situations.”
On Diego's impact right now, especially wearing the armband: "Diego, he's a player who understands how the pieces work, if that makes sense. Just tactically, he's aware. He understands everybody's role on the field. He understands the responsibilities of everybody. And he himself can step into different roles and pull off those things. When Diego is the out-and-out winger, I think if we don't bring numbers around him and support around him, Diego is not really at a point, I believe, in his career where he's beating guys one-on-one and he's running behind and he's that dynamic super player. But he is really cerebral and smart and can understand the game. So when he has Joe on the outside of him who provides him some running and some depth, and he's more inside, I feel like he links some of the pieces together for us that maybe we haven't had as much of at times. And again, his understanding of where -- what spaces need to be filled and who should be where and how things should work, both with and without the ball is very good, and it ties some pieces together for us, like I said. And being able to put him in different positions gives -- as a coach, you always want to have somebody who you feel like you can move around the field who is going to give you sort of that solid connector. And he'll communicate on the field. He'll move people around in different plays, things like that and he'll make good reads over the course of the game.
Again, you just have to appreciate that he's tactically super aware, and that helps everybody else. He does have that ability I think at this point to hit passes and to find guys and to play some of those balls that, more like an interior player or attacking midfielder, probably suits him more than being a winger in some aspects these days. Unless he has a fullback flying around him on the outside which we haven't done a ton of on our left side, it's a better role for him right now. And I think it's something that our team needs. But this is the first night that he's actually kind of had it all season where he's had a winger on the outside of him who has been able to give him some space creation and running.
The other thing with Diego is he's a captain. He's a guy would connects with everybody in the locker room. He is a guy that can go sit in that pocket and have a conversation with all the young guys. He can go here and speak with all the Spanish-speaking guys. He's just a great human being, and he has a way of, again, connecting people in the locker room and similar ways that he connects people on the field. He has a way of being able to say things that you might think are offensive that isn't offensive, right. They are direct, but they are like, wait, I think he just said something that I should take offense to, but you don't because the way Diego said it is so clever and wise and caring and the right way. I think those are good qualities of a leader, and so you know, for us right now, he's the captain, and he's stepping into that because he's that guy who can pull people together.”
On Gabriel Pec and if he’s getting the space he needs with Paintsil back: “I think it's a starting point. But when we go down a man, the opposition has the ability to put in numbers, at least an extra number, where he wants. I think it's coming. I think tonight at times he was able to be a little more direct in his play and face forward and run without the ball, run with the ball. So I think it's coming for him. I think the other things are with Diego now, or if Marco comes back, or different guys who can kind of play the role of play maker, he doesn't maybe internally feel like he needs to sometimes be the play maker because we need him to be the play finisher; and a guy who is working behind to get to the box and beat his man and not necessarily receiving the ball at his feet all the time, which is something he's been doing too much of. And part of that is because he's trying to help create plays. And instead we want him on the end of some of these plays because he's a producer of goals and a producer of assists and stuff. We talked to him this week about trying to be more on the move and more active running, moving without the ball and picking up the ball on the move, and a little less standing and waiting for the ball to come to his feet. I think those things will come together because I think some of the pieces that will open the spaces for him are starting to fall into place a little bit more.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER EDWIN CERRILLO On the game and the challenges he personally went through: “I think from the start it was a little chaotic. They came out pressing with a lot of energy. Through us with a couple balls in behind, and Zanka got left 1v1 and may or may not have had to make that challenge. But it is what it is and that's part of the game. As for me, I had to step up and be a center back today, a man down. It's just really what the game kind of needed and what Greg needed out of me. Yeah, just played my part.”
On if the team is frustrated by another bad break: “Yeah, I think a lot of people only see the end result and during the week, us as a team, we're fighting. We're competing with each other. We're trying to get out of this kind of slump that we're in, and you know, it's tough when another thing gets thrown at us. But the boys fought today, and even when we were tied and we were trying to push the game a man down, shows a lot from us and who we are and who we're trying to be. I think it's a good point to kind of build on.”
On if he’s played center back before: “No. But there's no one behind me, so I'm even more calm than I am in the middle.”
On if he thinks he could play center back regularly: "If I need to, yeah. It's sometimes too easy. So I don't like to play back there. I like to be in the midfield. It's just kind of where I want to play mostly but if I'm needed, I think I'll do my best to get the job done.”
On what he saw from Diego tonight: “Yeah, back to your point on the first half, like I said, the first 15, 20 minutes were pretty chaotic, and we couldn't really settle the game down. Just their numbers forward, and we didn't -- I think maybe didn't turn them enough in the first half to have them back off and give us a little bit more space. So that's, you know, point one. You know, the goal speaks for itself; that was just too easy. I mean, just be more physical, be more attentive, and you know, that goal is too easy and its not acceptable. In the second half, you know, they are up 1-0. Maybe they get a little bit comfortable and we have a free kick that Diego puts in at a perfect time. I think it his 400th game and 150th goal contribution. So hats off to him. And not just this game but games prior, especially me being more on that left side, he's a hard worker, and someone who is for the team, and yeah, maybe he doesn't go sprinting forward any more because of his age. And you can tell him that, too. But that's my boy. That's my boy. He works really hard. He's someone that respects me, and I respect him. So we can kind of hold each other accountable in that side of the field. He has a captain's armband, and he has a lot of experience and gets along well with pretty much everybody. So that translates on to the field as well.”
On message amongst the group going into the second half: “Just to respond. To respond, and we're going to get maybe half a chance or a chance, and we have to make the most of it. That's kind of been what the mentality has been in the previous games when we're going down, maybe way too early, or we shouldn't be going down first. But all we can do is respond, and show great mentality. That's what this team did today, and you know, hopefully we can build upon this, and have better results to come.”
On knowing he has to run a bit more being a player down: “I think everyone was up to the challenge of doing a little bit extra today, and we knew in the second half it was going to be a grind. The second Zanka went down, it was going to be a grind. Everybody had to step up, and me kind of filling in that center back position, my goal was just to keep it at one at most, and give my teammates a better -- the best chance to go out for the game and look to get a result. And that's what we did.”
On playing alongside Lucas Sanabria and Isaiah Parente: “I think it's good to have Lucas back. He went down pretty early in the season, and now we have other guys that are injured. But every time we can get someone back on the field, it's good to see, and he's a young kid with a lot of energy. And we need him. We need him this year. In the second half, I think the game is just a little bit different when we're down a man and Isaiah has to fill in a different role. No comment on their different characteristics. I think they are just two good players that fill in spots where we need them.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DIEGO FAGUNDEZ On what 400 appearances and scoring the goal means to him: "It's amazing, 400 games and still going strong. And then about the goal, I think it was finally the moment that I've been waiting for. We talked on [Corner of the Galaxy], so call me again; we'll be on the show again. Just the model worked that we've been putting in, myself, everybody, we deserved something like this. Of course, we get shot again in the foot and we go down. But the grind and the grit that everybody put in, the hard work, the amount of running we did, that's what kind of team we want to be. And it shows. Now we need to do that with 11 guys, not 10. And if we do that, we can be a really, really great team. Like I said, those mistakes have to stop, and after that -- I know we can get chances. Today we had a couple chances. To be honest I don't think they really broke us down too much, but at the same time we can't be going down again early."
On the mentality required to play down one man: "I don't know about mentally. But I think when you go down a man, the team really needs to step up and show what kind of characters you are. And I don't want to say the word, but you need to really, you know, have really guts in you and you-know-what. I think that's what we showed today. I think we wanted to win that and everybody saw that. There's not one player that said, ‘okay, you know what, we're down a man and we're down a goal. We can't do this.’ No, everybody turned around and we came in at halftime and we said, ‘We believe we can do this.’ All we needed was one chance and we were able to get that chance. After that, I think we wanted it more than they did. We were unlucky we did not get the second one. But this shows this team can do damage to other teams, and now we need to make sure we can do it with 11 guys and make sure that we do it when we're early and not behind."
On the opposing team’s success early in the match: "I think it's details. From the beginning, I think it's one thing that we need to correct, and I've been saying this now for the past two weeks: pay attention to detail. Because those are what's killing us. At the end of the day, it was too easy for him to get in the box and that needs to be said. We need to communicate with each other and whatever -- whoever is down there, just let them go down the line. Don't let them go right through the middle and get in the box. Once the player goes inside the box, it's hard to touch someone because they can call penalty or anything. We just need to be better, and I think the communication starts from the back all the way to the forward. And I think no matter how you say that to someone, they need to accept it and say, ‘All right, you know what, this is what kind of team we are.’ If I tell you, ‘Hey, defend better,’ you need to take that in mind and say, ‘Okay, I need to defend better because you guys are already doing that.’ So it's something that we just need to work harder and pay attention more to."
On his ability to seemingly go wherever the team needs him: “I was just trying to do my role. When we go down a man, everybody needs to run a little more. And then I was playing inside with Lucas. When you have a player like that that can work hard and goes into tackles and he's not afraid, and then you have an Edwin and Emiro behind you that can back you up, it helps. I'm not the best defender, and I've said that many times. But today, I tried to do everything I can. I wanted that win as much as everybody, and I was willing to do whatever it took. And that's why wherever the ball was, I was trying to hunt it down. And when I looked at the clock and it was the 80th minute, my legs were shot. I was dead but I knew I could give a little more, and I emptied the tank. And that's one thing I'm very proud of myself, no matter what I'm doing out there, I'm giving it my all, and until the last little bit of fuel that I had in my system.”
On Edwin playing center back tonight: “No, he is. Edwin shows what kind of player he is. He can fight. He can grind. He can defend. Today when he needed to step back on defense and be a center back, he did a good job. Him and Emiro, we were just talking; and he did a really good job, and that's all we can ask for. We know it was going to be a tough second half, but we made sure that the second half ended it 1-0, or we were going to tie it. There was no way they could score another one. When we came at halftime, everybody had their things to say. And we pushed each other. We encouraged each other that we can still comeback. And we huddled up, and even Marco came up to us and said, ‘Guys, we believe, we can do this.’ Like we just need to trust each other and give it our all. Go back to basic soccer. Don't make mistakes. Do the things that you need to do. And I think today showed, like, I think we were unlucky not to get our second and go up a goal and get three points. But we have to be proud of this group. Like I've been saying, we've been fighting and fighting and fighting and I know the results are not getting there, but at some point things are going to turn around and it's going to change. That's when everybody is going to be a lot happier.”
On how this result can push the team forward going into Austin next week: "At the end of the game, I said it. We need to play the way we did when we were down a man but with 11 guys. We're good enough to play against anybody. There's not one team, and I keep saying, there's not one team that has outplayed us. There's not. And I went back to every single game, and there's not one team. After they score, maybe we get out played but it's not until we make our own mistakes. But this team, we need to be better at not making mistakes and making sure that we finish our chances. We're getting clear chances, I think in the first half when Joseph goes one-on-one, I think he gets touched. I tried to complain to the ref and stuff, but things aren't going our way right now, let's be honest. But we just finish those. Finish those, and the game turns around. And now know we can push and the other team can push and the second and third can come after. When you're down a goal can down a man, it's hard to get that first one. But like I said, this team has been grinding. We've been fighting and there's not one player out there that you can say has not been giving your all. Because when you walk in there, everybody is mad. Everybody is frustrated. Everybody is empty on their fuel. And that's one thing that we need to be really proud of. Like I said, now it's time to really step up and encourage everyone to be better and be a good teammate and push each other.”
On vets from his early days in New England and some of the characteristics he learned from them: “We have one of them who works for the academy, Matt Reece, a guy who took me under his wing when I was 15, 16 years old, and until this day, he thinks he's better than me at soccer tennis. But he's not. But no, he's positive. The positive stuff that he always encouraged teams. I was on teams that we weren't winning we weren't doing well, but the way they brought it to the locker room, they played. They worked hard. That's what kind of player I wanted to be. I wanted to influence other players to be better. To push themselves. Shalrie Joseph, another one, my roommate at some point, and bad roommate, but he was someone that he comes on the field and he'd put in the shift. He put in the work. And he wanted better from everyone. If you had a bad touch in training, you would not hear the end of it. That's what kind of player he wanted. He wanted you to be the best player you could be. And when I started learning those things from people, that's what I wanted to bring to every team that I came to. I might not be the most talkative on the team, but I want the best from you. And if I have to grind out there, I want you to grind with me. If I have to run for you, I'll run for you, but the next play, run for me now. That's what kind of team -- that's the kind of team that we want to be. We want to be that if we make a mistake, there's going to be someone there to help you. At the end of the day, maybe last year we made more mistakes but we were able to score three or four goals. This year, we're making mistakes, but we're not scoring. We need to end those mistakes so that we can be in a game.”
On being a leading figure in this team and somebody that everybody on the team looks to: "It's an honor to wear the captain's armband. To be honest, did I expect it? No, of course not. But we can all be captains. It doesn't matter who is wearing the armband. We can all be leaders. And for me when I got it, I'm still the same person. I want you to be the best you can be. And maybe now I need to be a little bit more talkative in the locker room, and I try to be. But this is because I want to win. I don't want to lose. I don't want to be in this bad moments right now. I want it as much as you -- as everybody, the fans, the front office, the players, the coaches. We all want to win. That's the truth. If we didn't want to win, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't -- we wouldn't be doing this job. We're competitive in training. We're competitive. No one likes to lose. There's people yelling at our coaching because of the reffing, or we're yelling at players because they are not defending. And that's what makes us better. But now we need to bring that into the game. So at the end of the day, I'm just going to keep being me and keep doing what I've been doing. I said it on your podcast when we talked, there's people that are always going to find negative about us. But at the end of the day, what's important is that in this locker room we're united, we're together and if we're going through some bad moments, we're going together. If we're going through the good moments, we're together. There's not one person that is not doing their job. We are all trying to do our job. We are all trying to win. And that's what's important, and all I can ask for is everyone to keep grinding, keep pushing, at some point things are going to turn and we're going to be a lot happier.”
On the goal he scored tonight: “I remember Christian grabbed the ball and he got fouled, and it was a free kick and I was like, All right, this is my turn. Like, this is me. This is what I enjoy. I score goals against Houston quite a bit. Last time I scored against [Steve] Clark on a free kick. This is my chance. It's me and Pec standing on the ball and looking at the goal. And we always assess where the goalkeeper is standing, what's he going to do. Isaiah comes from behind me and Edwin comes from behind and he goes, Diego, bend it, bend it, just bend it. And that gave me more confidence, and I'm like, all right, I got this. When I hit that, once it left my foot, I knew it was in. It just felt too good to be true. But like I said, I've been working those forever. So for one to finally go in and get that weight off someone, like I said, people look at numbers. Finally that number is finally there and I can show. But that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that we need to start winning games, and this might be a good turnaround. Now we need to go to Austin, and you know how bad I want to beat them, of course. That's one thing I said to the locker room. Let's go positive. Let's play the way we did when we were down a man and do it with 11 guys, and just grind while we're out there because I know it going to be a tough game and things might not go our way, but we need to make sure that we stay together, we stay positive and we're scoring some goals.”
