Saturday, April 11, 2009

Locker Room Reaction

We'll have audio Monday, but for now, here is some of the postgame reaction from the Galaxy locker room to the 0-0 draw with Chivas USA.

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the game:
I think it was a fair result for both teams. There’s not much more to say than that. I think our team gave a good effort. They are getting better. New players contributed well tonight. I was pleased this week at training and tonight’s game. It’s encouraging.

On Donovan Ricketts’ contribution to the game:
Excellent. It’s the reason why we acquired him. He can be an outstanding goalkeeper in the league. Unfortunately he’s been sidelined with some injuries for the last six or seven weeks. But I think that when he gets into form he’s going to show that he’s a good addition to this team.

On all the cards given throughout the game:
They impacted the game. It was difficult for the players out there. Some bad tackles that went by; other plays that were called. It was a game that was difficult for the players to play. I think a lot of cards were merited. There was a play at the end of the first half that [Shavar] Thomas has a strangle hold on [Landon] Donovan. It would have been his second yellow card, and he was gone. It was too much of an act that I gave one to them, I’m going to give one to make it even. It was that become that right from the beginning. You knew it was going to happen. It was very obvious from the early part of the first half.

On Gregg Berhalter’s first MLS match:
I think he played well until right at the end. He got caught with square ball and [Alecko] Eskandarian was shrewd and picked him off. Again like the contribution we saw from Donovan Ricketts tonight, I think Gregg Berhalter contributed well to our team. It’s a real positive. The red card is not good, and we are going to miss him next week. It’s all part of it. It’s the first MLS games for Ricketts and Berhalter, and it’s good to get those games under your belt and move forward.

LA GALAXY DEFENDER GREGG BERHALTER
On the team’s performance:
If you take that one play away, I think it was a good performance by the team. We defended well. We had an opportunity to win the game. All in all, I think it was a decent performance. Obviously I’m disappointed with that one play, that one red card; it could have hurt the team. Luckily it didn’t .Next week, I’m not going to be playing and that’s disappointing as well.

LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER DONOVAN RICKETTS
On the difference between playing in England and MLS:
The English league plays more quick and never stops moving. This league is more technically and methodically. The build up is relatively slower than the English league, but not that much.

On Bruce Arena’s confidence in him:
Bruce put a lot of faith in me, so each game I try to repay him. That’s all I do. I just go and play from the heart.

LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On the game:
Games change. I thought our effort was really good tonight. I thought we played really well. We deserved everything we got, until our red card. That kind of changed the game. We still played well. But after you are down two men, you try to get out of there with a point. At that point, I was proud of what we did out there.

On Donovan Ricketts:
Yeah, he was great tonight. He didn’t have a ton to do, but two maybe one distance shots and a couple big saves he made really helped us. It’s too bad we couldn’t score on the other end.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ricketts played amazing and saved the game for them. Franklin I really think keeps getting worse. He is not a midfielder. The refing sucked and was not consistant. There should have been many called for fouls against Landon especially when he was put into a choke hold. Berhalter played good until the extremely stupid red card he got for obvious reasons. I didnt catch what the second yellow card on Alan Gordon was for. It seemed like the defense was going back to its old ways of screwing around passing the ball back and forth on the back line and not pushing forward especially when they claim they want to win and the score is 0-0. The coach needs to crack down on the stupid plays and get some discipline going on because I am sick of watching them do stupid fouls on purpose, they are grown men and know better. I also love how the announcer says that Landon continuously takes dives because you can clearly see that he doesnt if you watch the play he gets jacked up alot of the time. The team is sooooo frusterating me!!

Nicole said...

Ricketts saved us and got us a point.

Even though Berhalter made a mistake with the pass that Alecko picked off, I'm so glad he immediately pulled him down and took a red card. Without him doing that, we lose, more than likely, with Alecko going one v. one with the keeper. If only Sean Franklin would have done that last week, Conor Casey can't score the game winning goal. Smart veteran play by Gregg - after making a poor mistake that shouldn't have happened.

Anonymous said...

Gregg HAD to take the foul, otherwise its a 0-1 game, unfortunate situation but had to be done. Still dont know about Gordon's 2nd yellow, nor why the choke hold isnt a red. Giving out cards freely, but that wasn't called? Gonzilla had another impressive game......

Anonymous said...

I agree, Berhalter took one for the team. Ricketts was Fantastic!! Overall, for Chivas doing soo well in the start of the season I thoght Galaxy did a great job.. espcially in defensive mode w/ 9 men. I still believe.. Go! Galaxy!!

Johnny, Rio Rancho NM

Anonymous said...

hope buddle gets healthy soon we need that extra striker every time landon got the ball there was 3 guys on him , glad to see we have a keeper bout time great saves and the best part is were getting better every week good job guys

Anonymous said...

I agree Ricketts was on. Cournel Saunders is pretty much done... extra crispy. haaahaa 0-2-1 with 5 goals against.

It was a sigh of relief to have a sure thing back their.

Bruce might have figured out a line up.

They looked a lot better. I'd like to see more of Franklin on the right half position and have A.J. continue on the right...

Gonzales and Berhalter looked much better together.

Pete from Irvine

Anonymous said...

im impressed there are no bad thoughts on this post from fans! yay! well i know what happened with gordon right after his 1st yellow card the guy who was rolling on the floor when gordon got the 2nd one had an argument with him and gordon pretended to punch him and the guy went down rolling on the floor...i had a good seat so i saw what had happened it was an obvious cheat from the chivas and the sideline ref saw the whole thing but did not say anything...but what else is new from the refs on that side they never say or call anything

Anonymous said...

we should have had a goal gordon was not offsides on his goal refs mess up the game too much

Anonymous said...

Rickett was ON,hopefully he can stay healthy. The Back-Line is definetly starting to Jell,2 Shut-Outs the last 2 games is an improvement,might have 2 wins if we could just find the back of the net at least once in those games.
Its easy for everyone to blame the keeper or the back-line for the teams flaws,but lets get real,we couldn't hit the back of the net if we were hungry and a steak was hanging in the back of the net.
Donovan needs to hit the weightroom and bulkup a little,he dosen't even dive good like he's use to.

Anonymous said...

i thought tony coming off the bench was great he stepped up when we were down a man

Anonymous said...

get Klien and Gordon out of the line up and get me a decent midfielder then we talk.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the best thing is that we are improving each week. Thats all i can ask for from Bruce. I would rather our young prospects like Omar, Franklin, AJ develop and improve each week that scrap wins with older guys and make playoffs then loose. I am willing to give up this season so that we have great success next season. Just look at what Sigi did with the crew. 1st two seasons nothing then they finally jelled. Hopefully AEG believes in Bruce and i think in about 2 seasons we will back on top. Not saying we are not making playoffs this year, just saying MLS CUP in 2 years.