Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 2, Portland Timbers FC 5
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015
MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, California
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the team's second half performance:
“Soundly beaten, if I could tell you exactly it wouldn’t have happened but let’s give Portland credit. They dominated us in the second half and deserved to win the game. If you look at individual battles, their eleven against our eleven; they just thoroughly dominated us in a physical nature I’d say. It wasn’t tactical, it wasn’t anything more than I thought their desire to win that game and fight and work was much greater than ours.”
On if this was a learning experience:
"Whatever. Learning experience. These are adults. They should learn this stuff by now."
On if he's angry about the loss:
"I'm very disappointed about the performance. Angry? I wouldn't say that. I'm certainly not shell-shocked either."
On Jose Villarreal:
“He did alright. He was solid and probably played about 15 minutes or so. Good to get him back out there. He certainly wasn’t the problem.”
On if the postgame meeting was more pointed than usual:
“A little bit more not a whole not more. Clearly, I gave them a couple of things to think about."
On corrections going forward:
“I think if our physical effort is like it was tonight, we wouldn’t win too many games. We were purely physically dominated in every position. We had some guys that looked very fatigued in the second half, which is troubling when you think about that team played on Wednesday, and we should have been a little bit fresher you’d think in the second half. We should have a little more energy, but we didn’t. I thought they just clearly dominated us.”
On why Gargan played over A.J.:
"A.J. has had a little bit of an injury. We're trying to rest him."
On if they'll rest starters in Guatemala:
"That will likely be the case."
On the Galaxy losing their chance to clinch second in the West and their motivations moving forward:
“We were aware of that. We play Sunday in Kansas City and try to win the game. We would try to win the game regardless. I don’t know all the scenarios and all of that, it is what it is, but we’ll go play.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On tonight’s match:
“Obviously disappointed, last home game of the season. There is not really much else to say, but to be honest with you we conceded the five goals as a group and we’re disappointed. There is nothing we can do about it now. Listen it’s at this stage of the season that we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Disappointed now as I said, but it’s important to move on swiftly as possible. Big game now next week on Sunday, I think if we dwell too much on this, of course the players will be disappointed now and the next day or so, but I think after that it is very, very, important that we move on quick.”
On finishing the season:
“It’s still in our hands, so we know what we have to do. We’re quite capable of going in there and getting three points; it’s not an easy place to go to. We certainly have to play; you don’t become a bad team overnight.
On playing in Kansas City:
“It’s going to be a tough game, but it’s in our hands. We still have a chance to go in there and get three points, and still claim that second spot. So the good thing about football is that there is always another game.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER STEVEN GERRARD
On what happened:
“I think for a 45-minute period, we weren’t good enough all over the pitch… Not good enough. We’ll have to look at ourselves this week and come up with the reasons why… It’s not good enough, especially at home in front of our supporters. We have to take responsibility for the poor second-half showing.”
On Portland winning the physical battles:
“[They won] all over the pitch. And that shouldn’t happen. They wanted it. I think it’s important we don’t be too hard on ourselves as we still have a huge game to play next week, but we have to take responsibility for that second half performance because it was nowhere near good enough.”
On if it was troubling given it coming at the end of the season:
“I don’t think so. I know these players well enough now to know that we’re capable of bouncing back. We’ll certainly analyze where we went wrong today. Defensively and all over the pitch, we were second best. Sometimes you’ve got to give the opposition credit. They were better all over the pitch.”
On what went wrong:
“How long do you got? We’ll go into more detail tomorrow. We’re an hour after the game now. There is two ways to go about this now: you either feel sorry for yourself and drag this into next week or you come in tomorrow, get yourself down, you look in the mirror this evening and you find out yourself individually and then collectively, we’ll find the answers and go again next week.”
On if this meant more to Portland:
“I think if you look at the showing, it certainly looked that way, but that can’t be the case. It doesn’t matter what’s at stake, if you’re playing in front of your supporters, it’s got to be better. We’ve got to be more physical, we’ve got to be tighter as a unit and defend better all over the pitch. It doesn’t matter what’s at stake, if you’re at home, the minimum that you can accept is that you defend well and work hard and that didn’t happen in the second half, so we were punished and punished severely. So all I can do is give Portland credit and promise our supporters that we’ll find the answers this week and we’ll be a lot better next weekend.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER OMAR GONZALEZ
On adjusting the backline moving forward:
“I think it’s a good wakeup call, when was the last time we got beat like that; especially in one half. The first half we were playing really well, we were looking good, were working hard, and then the second half is totally a different story and we just fell apart. The effort just wasn’t there, from top to bottom and we just got outworked.”
On thoughts moving forward:
“It’s not troubling, I think the way everyone feels right now is a good sign because everyone really cares. Everyone knows that tonight wasn’t good enough, everyone knows that it wasn’t good enough for the fans, wasn’t good enough for the club, and so we know that we have to wake up and come out better. We have one more game to get ready for the playoffs, and we have to get things right.”
On looking ahead to Kansas City:
“Just like Robbie Keane said, “The good thing about football is that there is always another game.”, and so it’s in our hands. We can go to Kansas City and play as hard as we can, fight with everything and get the result we need. So it’s in our hands and I know every guy in this locker room wants it. They want to win for the fans, they want to win for the club, and we’re going to get it done.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS HEAD COACH CALEB PORTER
On tonight's win:
“It's 3 points putting us on 50 points and it puts us in a great spot going into the last game to hopefully maybe get a home game depending on how things go, that's the position we wanted to be in. A lot of people doubted us, no one in that locker room ever doubted, they never doubted themselves, they never doubted each other and you saw that in the performance. Even down a goal playing the best team in the league I said it before the game I firmly believe that. We are down a goal and we are on the road against the best team in the league and for these guys to claw back in it and put up five goals and make a statement like that I think is massive.”
On the team's performance:
“The entire midfield three, those guys were outstanding. I thought we won the midfield. In the first half we played a little too direct and because of that I thought LA was able to get on the ball more than we wanted. We came into the game with a plan of keeping the ball and making them defend. A lot of teams come in and give LA so much respect that they are able to just come at them and we didn't want to do that. We wanted to threaten them and make them defend and wanted to create that three versus two in the center of the park and I thought [Diego] Valeri, [Darlington] Nagbe, [Diego] Chara were outstanding in there.”
On closing in on a playoff spot:
“We always believed we would be in the playoffs no doubt about it. We believed that we could win all three but the goal was seven points but now we have the chance to put up nine points in the last three games which depending on results we could have a seed, we could even have a bye. We can't get ahead of ourselves, we have to take care of business in this last game but this sure feels good. If I know my team and I know the way they feel and look right now we will take care of business next week but we will enjoy this right now.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS FORWARD FANENDO ADI
On tonight's game:
“I think it was a beautiful game, we enjoyed the game. In the first half we came out trying to play our game but they tried to disrupt us and they got a goal off a direct kick which we have to look into that as a team because those kinds of goals are very dangerous against a very good team and very good players. It was very clever movement from [Robbie] Keane to get the first goal. We stayed composed towards the end of the game we started getting our rhythm and of course we came back in the second half and we crushed them. It was a good showing from our side, we came back thinking we could get a goal and definitely got a second one. Once we got the first goal things opened up and it was now a 50/50 game and we were lucky enough to come out victorious and get a convincing win today.”
On closing in on a playoff spot:
“With this win it puts us in a very great place at the moment but we need to finish it up. The last game is very important the same as this game if not even more important because we need the points so we are going to approach it the same way as this game.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS FC MIDFIELDER DIEGO CHARA
[Translated from Spanish}
Thoughts on the game:
“I think it was a great game for us. I think we were effective with the opportunities on goal that we had.”
On fighting for a Playoff spot:
“It was important to get a good result. We were able to secure a win and three points and now we have to return home and look to secure a playoff spot.”
On expecting a win tonight:
“We expected to win. The score was the way it was simply because we were effective up top. We hoped to get the three points and thankfully we secured them.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS MIDFIELDER JORGE VILLAFAÑA
[Translated from Spanish]
On the team's performance:
“I think in the first half we had a few mistakes but in the second half we corrected them and we took advantage of the chances that we created and we are happy that we won the game and that it put us in a good place for a chance to earn a playoff spot.”
On defeating the Galaxy 5-2:
“It builds confidence because last time we came here we let in five goals and today we score five on them. Soccer lets you have second chances and we are happy to come out with the win.”
