Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 2, Portland Timbers 2
Friday, July 4, 2014
MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, Calif.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On Baggio Husidic’s substitution:
“I don’t think Baggio [Husidic] opened up the game but he was a fresh player and he did his job; helped create a couple chances for us there for sure… He did a good job.”
On the team giving up the lead:
“Hard game, I think we were sloppy throughout the game, the effort was not consistent over the 90 minutes, for us to have that kind of energy in the last 15 minutes to get an equalizer and not have that energy for the entire game is a little disappointing I think we lost our concentration a little bit, we did a real sloppy job in defending on a couple of crosses that cost us goals and to their credit they did a good job. I think the referee missed a few calls there; cards he didn’t do a good job in that regard, but maybe had no impact on the game; we were inconsistent tonight. However the effort to get a point out of the game was terrific, the team did a real good job there.”
On Landon Donovan not being awarded two penalty kicks:
“The second one I think is a red card because he’s going to goal and I don’t think the last defender matters, he’s denying a goal scoring opportunity. Plus he allowed that player to get away with not getting carded previous to that when he fouled someone from behind in the other half of the field and the referee let it go. The other one with Landon [Donovan] and [Danny] O'Rourke, I can’t see from my angle whether there’s contact or not so I don’t know…”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER LANDON DONOVAN
On the game being a missed opportunity:
“I thought it was a pretty good game, I thought they played well… we have to give them credit. We can certainly do a better job in concentration. I thought we were much better against San Jose last week in that way but at the end of the day, probably a fair result and still good in the end to come back in the last 15 minutes and get a goal when you need to.”
On the team being a work in progress:
“Well that’s the whole league, outside of Seattle at this point. I mean, everybody has good days and has bad days. It wasn’t our best day today but we’re winning after sixty somewhat minutes, we’re tied at the end with a chance to win so all in all it’s not the worst case but we certainly feel like this is a game we should have won.”
On the game’s pace:
“Situations always change games. You see it in the World Cup constantly with teams, any time goals get scored, they change games and so we obviously were under pressure then to get a goal. I think it’s easy to say ‘we should have played like that the whole game.’ In all fairness we could have competed better most of the game, and it was disappointing.”
On the game’s conditions:
“Not really, I think it was humid, but you know we ran a lot in the last 15 minutes so I think we weren’t completely sharp but we still played well enough and created enough chances to score goals. I think just our concentration let us down.”
On whether two penalty kicks should have been called in Galaxy’s favor:
“I might be a little biased, but I clearly think the first one I got in front of [Danny] O'Rourke and he hit my leg and I went down but that was one of those where I thought for sure it was going to be a penalty. At the end of the day, if the ref doesn’t see it then he doesn’t see it. The second one, it’s close and I don’t know if it’s in the box or out, I think it’s right on the line. I think the rule is denial of a goal scoring opportunity and I like my chances in that situation so you can understand why he wouldn’t give a red, but I thought on balance that it probably should have been a red card.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER MARCELO SARVAS
On his goal:
“It was a good shot, I had a good position. The first one hit the post, the second I had hoped to see the ball go in. I think we missed what we had last game, more players competing. They had too much time with the ball; everybody had too much time with the ball. We were out of position, late in place. So for moments you see the Galaxy that everyone expects, tight, pressing, biting. Then most of the time we were just jogging around, and we paid for that. It’s mentally; everyone has to be 100 percent in the game. Seven percent is not enough in games like that. It’s a good team; they play very good with the ball, and have good players, so it has to be 100 percent.”
On the game:
“I think it should be three. It was a beautiful day, good crowd, people came to us on the home field. It’s a game that you expect to win. We were down second half one zero. But in the end you have to be happy with the point that you get.”\
On whether Landon Donovan should have been awarded two penalty kick calls:
“It was outside the box I think. Everybody saw that, but of course it’s the game you have to press the referee, it is part of the game. But he did a good job, and I think it was a foul. I don’t know if he was the last man, in my position I couldn’t see. But if Landon [Donovan] didn’t get fouled, he had a good chance to score.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On the team’s comeback:
“Of course when you’re playing, that’s the last thing you want to do. It’s about showing character and coming back, and we certainly did that, we showed some character to come back to the game, and we could almost win it in the end.”
On penalty calls:
“Maybe the first one, the second one I’m not sure, I think it could have been just outside of the box, but I’m not 100% sure. He was straight on goal; the goalie is the last man. It’s opportunity to score a goal, so I think the letter of the law, it’s a red card.”
On draw:
“When you’re playing at home, you want to get three points but they’re a good team. But when you go up when we did, you would hope and expect that we win the game. That wasn’t the case.”
On pace of game:
“First ten minutes was a bit hectic, after that it kind of slowed down. The second half we started off better, and got the goal, which we probably deserved. Ten, fifteen minutes there was a lack of concentration, that’s the reason really why we ended up getting the draw. As players we certainly know that we have to be focused and concentrated for 90 minutes. It still wasn’t a great performance, but I think we did okay. But I still don’t think we’ve been far enough. Is that a work in progress? I’m not sure that is the great word for it, but we’re not doing as good as we would certainly like to. As long as you’re not losing games I think that’s important as well because losing can be a habit sometimes. As we’ve seen in recent years. We’ve got four points out of the last two games, but we certainly expected to get six.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER ROBBIE ROGERS:
On comeback:
“Yeah I thought Bruce [Arena] put it pretty well, and said we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position, I think there was that spell of 10-15 minutes where Portland kind of just got after us and finished those two chances, and I thought we dictated a lot of the game and for those brief moments I thought we weren’t as good as we should have been.”
On missed opportunity:
“Yeah, that’s soccer isn’t it huh? Yeah it’s soccer. I thought there were a few chances that were a little unlucky, didn’t finish, and then they did a lot of counter attack, they have a number of guys that are quick and get forward and I thought they did well, [Diego] Valeri, [Gastón] Fernandez in the middle, so credit to them.
On how comfortable he feels at left back:
“Yeah I feel comfortable, thought today could have been a little better at times but I felt pretty comfortable.”
On field and weather conditions:
“It was a little choppy, I don’t know why but I don’t think that disrupted the game too much.”
On game’s pace and rhythm:
“Yeah I don’t know; I don’t have an answer for that I’m not sure why it was that way, but it did feel that way. It felt like the team was not overly careful but it seemed like we were conservative at times to go forward.”
On his strike in the waning moments of the game:
“Yeah it was alright, [Donovan] Ricketts just got a little touch to it but I was trying to put it farther to his left.”
On him and Dan Gargan adding to the attack:
“I think the past two games we’ve done a good job at getting forward and adding to the attack, but I think we need to get a little better at it, and make better runs in the box, but defensively we’ve both been alright and I think the team feels pretty confident with us out there.”
On the team being a work in progress:
“It was those 10-15 minutes that got us that we kind of lost our concentration, I don’t know if you want to say poor clearances or tracking guys at the top of the box stuff like that, just staying focused in those key moments, and in soccer and any sport you have to focus for the whole game. I thought in San Jose on the road we did a great job of at times not making it pretty but that’s what you need to do on the road, and make things difficult, and at times today I thought we didn’t make it difficult enough for them.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS HEAD COACH CALEB PORTER
On tonight’s game:
“It was a good performance out of our guys over all. It was a great soccer game. You got two good teams. It was one of the biggest crowds they’ve had. They threw everything at us. They gave us their best punch and we didn’t back down we gave them a lot of punches too. I thought it was a great soccer game and overall you can look at giving up a late goal as a negative but we were down a goal as well. I think in the end no matter how you skin it I am happy with the performance and happy with the point.”
On Jorge Villafaña:
“I thought he was outstanding today. He defended well and had very little down his channel and going forward he was a part of both goals. I thought across the board I got good performances out of pretty much every guy on both sides of the ball. One of the things I told them is if we play like we played tonight over the course of the next 16 games we are going to be where we need to be there is no doubt about it.”
On the referee not calling the penalty:
“It wasn’t a penalty. I watched it on the board he [Landon Donovan] is out of the box. I actually though it was but then I watched the Jumbotron and he actually got him just outside. It was a good call, a fair call. We you have a good ref, as coaches we always complain about the refs us being guilty of that we don’t credit them enough. So I am going to credit the referee today because I thought he was outstanding the entire match. That is not an easy match to officiate. Every time we play the LA Galaxy it is an absolute battle. They are one of the best teams in the league. They had their big guns today. They came to play. They were up for it and I thought we matched them toe to toe. I thought it was a very even game and in the end it is probably a fair result. If we were a little bit higher in the table it would be a result we would be happy about. So I am not going to let where we are in the table taint the fact that it’s a good point against a very good team on the road with a big crowd. They gave us all they could handle and we gave them all they could handle. In the end it’s probably a fair result and a good soccer game and it’s great for the league.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS MIDFIELDER JORGE VILLAFAÑA
On his goal:
“It is nice to help the team score and I am really happy that I got to score here in LA. My family and friends are here so I am really happy. We are really happy that we got at least a result here. We wanted the three points but we didn’t get them but we are happy. We are going to try and work on what we need and try to build on this.”
On tonight’s result:
“We take it as a positive because it is a road game against a good team. We were down a goal and we came back from it. We tied the game. It shows that we can play against big clubs and wins. Unfortunately today we didn’t get the win but we were close.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS MIDFIELDER DIEGO VALERI
[Translated from Spanish]
On tonight’s game:
“I thought the game was weird. I thought they played well before they hit the post in the first half. We started to play better and created scoring opportunities. They got a goal in the second half. We started to play better. During the last minutes of the game they started to pressure us and they got the tie. This is a little bittersweet because we could have had three points but they are a good team and the good team is we get a point.”
On getting a point on the road:
“We are happy with the point but with the way the game played out we are a little sad because we thought we could have walked away with the three points. We did what was necessary to get them. We have an important week coming up we play Seattle [Sounders] for the US Open Cup and we play Seattle [Sounders] in regular season. We are going to go rest and think about those upcoming games.”
On his goal:
“I saw that [Fanendo] Adi was going to bring it down and I was already thinking of taking a hard strike at it. I was lucky that the ball headed towards the goal because sometimes those kicks go high but I wanted to hit it just right and was lucky that it went in.”
PORTLAND TIMBERS MIDFIELDER WILL JOHNSON
On the match:
“It’s a good performance by us; one point at the end of the day I think is probably a fair result. Obviously we’re disappointed that we didn’t close out the game. But the point keeps us in the race, and it doesn’t allow the Galaxy to get three points out of us so it’s more important on that front for me. We wanted to do in the second half what we did in the first half. We thought we kept a good shape, we attacked and we created chances. We limited them to just a couple of chances where they hit the post in the first half so coming out of half time we wanted to do the same thing. We knew they were going to push numbers and get a little more aggressive seeing how they’re home and had a big crowd and obviously they wanted to win the game. We knew that we were going to get chances on the counter, so we just wanted to be patient, keep a good shape, stay organized, work hard, make sure to limit their chances, and then when we got a chance we hit them on the break and we were fortunate to do that twice. But like I said, I think it’s probably a fair result.”
On Galaxy’s performance:
“I think they’re a good team, I think we match up well against them. We’re very focused with Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan. I think we do better against superstars in this league because we are always ultra-sharp and ultra-focused. I think we have problems, we let our guard down a little bit when we play teams with players of lesser quality than Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan. We know those are the two guys that are going to hurt us, and when we managed to look up and keep an eye on them at all times, we seem to get good results against this team; but it’s always a good battle.”
