Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 1, San Jose Earthquakes 1
Sunday, Sept. 14 – 12:00 p.m. PT
MLS Regular Season
Buck Shaw Stadium – Santa Clara, Calif.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the team’s defensive effort:
“I think we played well defensively. I don’t think they had too many offensive chances on the day. You can’t complain about how we defended, but it’s not good that we gave up a goal, given the fact that they weren’t very dangerous.”
On the missed penalty kick:
“It has cost us a good number of points. We have the two best penalty kick takers in the league, in theory. You have to make penalties, but we didn’t. It’s part of the game and that’s life.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER OMAR GONZALEZ
On his goal:
“We had several corners before the goal, and I was trying to make runs. On that one, the ball came to me and I just got up, put it into the ground and it was able to get a good bounce.”
On mindset moving forward:
“Let’s keep doing what we’re doing. It’s been a tough stretch since July 28. We’ve had a stretch of 11 games in a [short time] span. Now, we move to one game a week and we can put our bodies to rest.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER AJ DELAGARZA
On the game:
“It’s a game where you don’t want to look back on it and say we shot ourselves in the foot. We had plenty of opportunities in the first half to make it two or three to zero. We didn’t, and it cost us in the second half.”
On emotional time:
“I think when you step between the lines, you’re so focused on what’s going on in the game. I can’t say that I didn’t think about my son, but I don’t think it hampered me in any way.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH MARK WATSON
On the game:
“I think we’ll take something out of this game. When you consider the start we had, to get a point out of the game and have chances at the end to win – I think we’ll take something out of that. We had a very poor start and it’s very frustrating to have a game like this and have that type of start from your group. The attitude in the second half was great. The guys knew they had to do better; for themselves, for the team, for the fans who pay money to watch them play. I thought we had a good response, a lot better movement off the ball and Wondo scores another great goal to pull us even – at the end, we had chances to win.”
On Steven Lenhart’s passion:
“I think that’s Lenny’s best quality. We know what kind of player he is – he’s a big, hard-working guy. He works every second he’s on the field and tries to win every ball. I think that [attitude] is infectious at times and he gave us a spark in the second half.”
On the team’s character:
“The guys showed a lot of character to recover from the first 30 minutes. We were sloppy, we gave the ball away right after winning possession and that can really deflate a team. The team found the fortitude to get themselves back into the game and that’s a credit to them.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On MLS adjustment:
“It might sound like a broken record, but when we do the little things and connect passes, we’re a good team and can play with anyone. But, when we don’t do that – we don’t track back, win our 50-50 battles or connect passes – we can get ourselves in some serious trouble. [Today’s game] was the tale of two halves. It was good to get one [point], but we’re not in good enough shape to just get one point.”
On return of Steven Lenhart:
“I love having [Steven] Lenhart’s battle, his fight. He comes right in and doesn’t miss a beat. It’s good to have him back.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER JORDAN STEWART
On San Jose’s goal:
“The ball came to the edge of the box. I tried to shoot, in all honesty, and dragged it a bit. Wondo, the goalscorer he is, sniffed it out and put it in the net, but I’ll take the assist.”
On defensive effort:
“I think any game, especially this late in the season, we need to go out and do our best to win. Whether it’s against the Galaxy or whoever else, our main objective is to get three points. The first half wasn’t great, but the second was much better so hopefully we can take that into our next match.”
