POSTGAME QUOTES FROM THIRD ROUND U.S. OPEN CUP MATCH ON TUESDAY, JUNE 29
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce
Arena
His overall thoughts on the game and the team’s
performance:
“These games are never easy. The teams
from the lower division, in this case the USSF Pro Division 2, they came with a
great attitude and played hard and our guys responded back equally, if not
better. I am real pleased not only with the result but the attitude our team
takes in the way we approach all of these games because we have worked real hard
to rebuild this club and these games are important. If you want to win you don’t
take it lightly and every time we step on the field, we are not going to win
every game but we have to play to win. Tonight, we did that and I am real
pleased.”
On the team’s cohesion:
“I thought (the team) did a good job tonight. St Louis was hard to breakdown and at times
they had nine players behind the ball. They weren’t easy. We started creating
chances toward the end of the first half and certainly throughout the second
half.”
On
the team’s difficulties in the first half and if he thought the players had a
hard time handling St. Louis’ five-man midfield:
“No,
the eleven players wearing white were giving me problems. We just needed to play
a little bit better, pass better and be a little bit quicker. Certainly, it was
expected that (St.
Louis) would tire because you can not run faster then the
ball. We moved the ball a little bit better in the second half, a little bit
quicker then I think we would have had a better chance of breaking them down.”
On the
performance of Tristan Bowen:
“He has to learn to be
a real striker. You play high and wide at times, at times you have to be
punished a little bit and draw some fouls. He is learning and getting better,
the experience is good for him.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Chris
Klein
On Tonight’s Starting
Lineup:
“Clint, Eddie and Jovan, I think we’ve played
together at one time or another since we were 16 and 17 years old so we
definitely knew each other— but then you look at our back four and I don’t think
we had a guy that was over 22. Like I’ve said before, they have structured this
team so that we have 24 guys that can play. We have a lot of competition (for
places), so it’s good to have a lot of games, and we want to win everything
we’re in this year.”
On the play of AC St. Louis:
“A team like St.
Louis, you know, they did a good job. We knew they were
going to sit on it a little bit and they fought. These games are always
difficult.”
On what was said in the locker room at
halftime:
“Even though we had the ball a lot in the
first half, we didn’t create that many opportunities. We talked at halftime
about being patient and that the opportunities would come. The worse thing you
can do is start to press in these games and start to think that they’re a league
below and we should be killing them, because that’s never the case.”
LA
Galaxy Forward Tristan Bowen
On his assist on Chris Klein’s
goal:
“I think Birchy (Chris Birchall) played a good
ball up to the line. I took a touch and initially I was thinking of taking a
shot, but I just kind of just waited for support and saw Chris open so I gave it
to him. I thought he was going to play it back but he took a great shot. The
keep couldn’t do anything about it. It was a great goal.”
On Sunday’s game against
Seattle:
“We had to
get through this game first. It was tough, we had a quick turn around, but
Sunday we’re going to be ready to play and hopefully we’ll get three points.”
AC St.
Louis Head Coach Dale Schilly
On tonight’s
game:
“I thought that in the first half we played
pretty well. We knew obviously that we were going to be outmanned, that we would
have to defend for long periods of time and I thought we did alright. But there
is a difference between their fitness level and our fitness level and a few
other things that was difficult for us to keep our game plan in place for 90
minutes. It was difficult.”
On his team’s performance:
“I think the guys fought hard and they communicated well and they tried to
keep themselves organized which they did. We got out on the break a couple of
times and missed a couple of chances but I thought our guys did very well and I
am happy with them.”
AC St. Louis Midfielder Luke
Kreamalmeyer
On tonight’s game:
“I
thought we fought really hard. I thought we had a good first half but in the
end, the more quality ended up winning. “
On his team’s
performance:
“We had a good game plan. We knew that
they were a quality team and they we going to have a lot of possession and we
were just going to try and withstand that possession and create some chances on
the break. I thought we did that well for the first 60 or 70 minutes but they
put in a nice goal and after that we kind of fell apart.”
NOTES:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 5-1 all-time in the Third Round of the U.S. Open Cup. This was their first Third Round win since 2002. The club entered the Open Cup in the Fourth Round from 2003-2006.
- The Galaxy will face the winner of tomorrow night’s match between the Seattle Sounders FC and the Portland Timbers in the Fourth Round of the U.S. Open Cup on July 7. If Portland wins, the Galaxy will host the Timbers at The Home Depot Center. If Seattle wins, the Galaxy would travel to Seattle to take on the Sounders at Starfire Sports Complex.
- Chris Klein’s goal, a curling volley from outside the box that was just outside the reach of goalkeeper Alec Dufty, was his first with the club since May 2008.
- Juninho’s tally in the 80th minute was his first career goal with LA. The Brazilian midfielder, who came on for Tristan Bowen in the 73rd minute, was set up by Eddie Lewis to give the Galaxy a 2-0 lead.
- Bruce Arena made eight changes to the starting lineup used this past Saturday in a 0-0 draw in Toronto. Goalkeeper Josh Saunders and defenders Alex Cazumba, A.J. DeLaGarza, Bryan Jordan and Leonardo represented a new back line. Jovan Kirovski, Chris Klein, Eddie Lewis and Clint Mathis got the nod at midfield while Alan Gordon and Tristan Bowen started up top. Cazumba, Kirvoski and Bowen were holdovers from Saturday's lineup to this one.
- Eddie Lewis wore the captain’s armband for a second time this year, he also wore the armband on May 23 in the friendly against Boca Juniors.
- For the first time all season, defender Omar Gonzalez did not figure in the starting lineup or play in the game. The 2009 MLS Rookie of the Year was on the bench and available for selection but did not play.
- The Galaxy were without Mike Magee through injury while Dema Kovalenko was suspended. Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan were not available for selection either having just finished their participation in the 2010 FIFA World Cup with the U.S. National Team.
- Leonardo was making his first appearance in a Galaxy lineup since straining his right quad in training in mid-April. The Brazilian defender started and played the full 90 minutes. Prior to tonight, his last appearance in a Galaxy game had come on April 10 in Houston, when the Galaxy beat the Dynamo 2-0 to start the season with three consecutive wins.
- The attendance for today’s game was 2,179.
