Postgame Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 1, Houston Dynamo 1
Sunday, March 21, 2015 – 7:30 p.m. PT
MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, Calif.
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On tonight’s match:
“I didn’t like a whole lot on the night. We weren’t very good to be honest with you. We lost too many battles on the night; I think they played harder over 90 minutes than we did. I think that made a difference in the game. We had a chance to win possibly going away if we were a little sharper. We had a mental breakdown on a corner kick. Robbie Rogers loses his man, and it’s a goal. In a game like this where your opponent is sitting back and defending with numbers looking to get at you on the break, or perhaps on a restart, we’ve got to be better than that. To concede a goal shortly after we scored, that’s not good on our part. Just on the night, I don’t think we were sharp, and I give Houston credit. They played real hard.”
On Mika Vayrynen:
“Well tonight he had 20 minutes; it’s still not enough time. He is a good player, he gets the ball moving quickly, knows how to get his teammates involved in the game. For the most part, he was pretty solid.”
On Edson Buddle:
“It’s always hard bringing a player in; I believe he came in around the 85th minute. He battled in there. We didn’t get any service to him, but he’ll get more playing time as we move forward.”
On Leonardo:
“I think he had a solid night. I think [Giles] Barnes is a hard guy to play against, and he was matched up with him a lot during the night and for the most part, did well. He has had a good start to the season for us.”
On the midfield creating chances:
“I think they did okay. Obviously our passing on the night wasn’t good. I think it’s a tribute to all the lines. I think our back line didn’t pass the ball very well. I think that impacted the ability for the midfielders to have a better impact on the game.”
On Houston:
“They play well. It’s not surprising that that’s how they play coming on the road, trying to get a point and all of that. Give them credit, they did a good job. We’re still not sharp enough at this point, still not fit enough, no question about that. I think their goalkeeper did a good job, their backline was pretty solid, didn’t let anything get behind them. Overall, on the night I think they defended pretty well.”
On Jaime Penedo:
“He did a good job. He wasn’t tested a whole lot. I’d like to see his kicking game a little better, but he wasn’t called on to make a whole lot of saves tonight. It was a quite game in terms of shot blocking. I think he did fine.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE
On the start of the match:
“We started off great, but a little bit sloppy tonight is all. In terms of possession, we had good possession of the ball and then would just give it back to them. A draw is probably a fair result, even though they didn’t have any chances apart from the goal that they had.”
On his goal:
“They did a bounce that I like to get in between the lines, and I’ve had so much success over the years there so I just took the space and managed to keep going, keep going, kept dribbling off. I noticed that I beat the defender and I’m getting my shot so it was a good start. But we certainly didn’t capitalize.”
On the match:
“When we got the goal, we were good for about ten minutes then we stopped playing. We dropped off, and let them play. They got the goal, and then they got a grip on the game. They look fairly comfortable I would say. They probably looked like they were a little bit of a better team in the first half; and with possession at times. But at home, we should be certainly doing a lot better than that.”
On preventing losing grip on the game:
“If I knew that, we would have done it at halftime and we probably would have won the game. But listen, one of the worst things, we’re disappointed of course because when you’re the champions, when people come here have to understand as a team that people want to beat us all the time. And we have to accept that every week, that when people play against us, they want to beat the Galaxy. And the sooner we realize that, the better because we are not going to get any easier rides in any game today, the same; last Portland, the same. We’re the better team for the majority of the game, and they concede in the last minute. So people are going to make it hard for the Galaxy this year. So we need to make sure that we’re on top of the ball at all times, and make sure we’re not giving away any silly goals.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER OMAR GONZALEZ:
On tonight’s match:
“We started the game off pretty well, connecting passes. And then after we got the goal, they came back and scored on us on a good set piece. The guy I was marking, he is a big guy so it was a good match up. We’ve been working on a lot of set pieces, defending set pieces in particular. I feel like you work on it so much it’s in your head, and once again, you end up getting scored on again so I’m pretty sure we’ll be doing more set pieces this week. I’m pretty sure Bruce [Arena] will be in our ear a lot this week, so that’ll be a lot of fun. But you can’t take anything away from Houston, they worked really hard. Their front five [worked really hard] the entire game putting pressure on me and Leonardo and the entire backline. Once we managed to get past the front five, and find our midfielders, we could link a play to go wide, and Robbie in the middle. We had chances, we definitely had chances this game, but we just couldn’t put in the second. It was a tough match up. I feel like a lot of the games are going to be like that this year. Where teams come here, and just put in a lot of hard work. They want to be the champions, and we have to be prepared to meet that intensity and maybe hopefully overpower them with our own intensity. Hopefully we learn quickly, and tonight is all it takes and we’ll be ready. Where we won’t sit back after we get a goal, we got to keep on pushing; we got to be ready for anything. So we got to be a lot more physical in the run of play, a lot more physical on defensive set pieces.”
On looking to secure three points at home:
“You want to win every game. The last draw in Portland felt like a win, this draw felt like a loss. We want to win at home every chance we get, and when you don’t it’s very upsetting not only for the players, but for the fans. So the draw isn’t good enough. Next time we’re at home, we want to get three points no matter what. We need three points every single game. So we can’t keep dropping points, and I’m saying this now because it’s very important that we get these points now because in the end of the season it’s going to be very important.”
On Jaime Penedo:
“It’s a little bit different. It’s obviously different being a different person back there. I thought [Brian] Rowe had a couple good games, and then the coaches decided to go with Jaime [Penedo] tonight which is their decision. He didn’t really have to face a lot tonight, and the goal they did score, there wasn’t much he could do about it. Whoever is back there, whoever the coaches decide to put back there, it didn’t matter, we felt comfortable. They’re both very good goalkeepers, and it’s our job to protect them as much as possible and keep them out of the net.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER JUNINHO
On the team’s shape:
"We are looking forward to get in better shape, every single game we try to do our best. We have to take the time to be in good shape, we know that and we have to keep working. I’m sad about tonight but we have to keep working.”
On teams coming to StubHub Center looking for a win:
“You have to give credit to Houston, they came out here and did their job, pressing us the whole game. We couldn’t find a better way to get past their line and we’re very sad to lose two points tonight”.
On Mika Vayrynen:
“I tried to find him a little bit more. He just needs time to be in better shape and I hope he can have more opportunity in the next games.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH OWEN COYLE
On his thoughts of the game:
"We played well, we knew coming into the game, they were the champions, on their field, we knew it was going to be a tough game. We certainly had enough belief that we would come in and get a positive result. We came in with a game plan to execute and we gave up a soft goal in a couple minutes. It would have been easy for the boys to feel sorry for themselves, but we picked ourselves up and we were the team that took it to them. When it came to attack, we were quick, we looked decisive and for me it was an outstanding performance. The Galaxy going to have chances with [Robbie] Keane and [Gyasi] Zardes and on and on with good players. All in all I was delighted, obviously disappointed with the early goal but from that moment on I thought we were terrific and again we were blighted by injury in the game, seeing three players come off through injury, but the next boys stepped up to the pitch and gave us life, an outstanding performance and a very well hard earned point."
On the Dynamo's season so far:
"I inherited a team that missed the playoffs last year by a bit of a margin, and we brought one or two players in, Rodriguez was injured, and obviously within the game Ricardo Clark came off, Nathan Sturgis came off, DeMarcus Beasley came off as well and the other players stepped in so we know moving forward that we will have a good team. There won't be many teams that will come here and earn a point in the manner we did because there were times we actually could have won the game on the counter attack."
On his experience in MLS:
"I am loving every experience. I have been very fortunate in my career to go and play at some huge clubs, Manchester United, Chelsea, what have you, and obviously the LA Galaxy is one of the elite clubs in MLS, so to come here was a fabulous experience, we would have love to have won of course, because that is what we come to do, home or away we go to win games. Again though, I am loving the experience, there are a lot of good people involved in the league, the league is growing, it will become one of the major leagues in global soccer and I am delighted to be a part of it."
HOUSTON DYNAMO DEFENDER DAMARCUS BEASLEY
On his thoughts of the game:
"Yea it was a tough game, you have to give our guys credit, we came back and got a goal off a set piece. Coming here is not easy, we can be happy with a point, but we still need to play better, move the ball more and put teams on their heels a little bit more."
On the Dynamo's play:
"Yea it was good to get that goal. If you wait and wait and wait, it is going to be harder for us, maybe they get two, maybe they get three, so it was very important to get it going right after the Galaxy scored. We need better transition from defense to offense, I don't think we did it quick enough, they made some good plays. A lot of their plays are long balls, they played a lot of long balls on my side and didn't really do too much, they were somewhat predictable but they are the champions, they play good football, [Robbie] Keane and [Gyasi] Zardes do very well together. Keane had a couple shots, but other than that I thought our boys did very well."
On playing in MLS:
"The league is leaps and bounds from when I last played, almost 12 years ago. It is so great to see the fans here, and the stadiums, everything going on, even the training facilities, it is great to see. I am excited to see the growth of the league get bigger and bigger. The Galaxy has shown how it is supposed to be done, getting five championships so all credit to them, that is something clubs have to look up too."
HOUSTON DYNAMO GOALKEEPER TYLER DERIC
On his thoughts on the game:
"It is always nice to go on the road and get something out of the game, we always want three points, but to get one point is decent enough. I think the guys responded great after giving up that early goal, we really put our heads down and kept playing the rest of the game."
On dealing with injuries during the game:
"We know that Ricardo Clark wants to be out there, it is going to take a lot for him to get off the field, he was really hurting. And [DaMarcus] Beasley going out, we will see what the extent of that is, but I thought the guys who came into the game responded really well, they were training they were ready, which is good for us. As a group we defended extremely well, A.J. [Cochran] coming in did a great job, and David [Horst] was solid back there, a good performance by everybody."
On playing with DaMarcus Beasley:
"DaMarcus is a different class, there is a reason why he has been to four world cups and playing with him is an honor for me personally and he has a lot to teach you."
