Locker Room Reactions

Here is what a number of players and coaches from both sides had to say following last night's 2-0 loss to the Crew.

LOS ANGELES HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
His overall thoughts on the match:
“The game had no rhythm; a lot of fouls were called, a lot of yellow cards. It was a sloppy game, but I think Columbus for 90 minutes was first to most of the plays all night. It was a scrappy game, and they basically won all of the match-ups all over the field. Give them credit, their effort was very good”

On his team’s effort:
“Even though the soccer wasn’t good, the competing and the mentality wasn’t what it needed to be either to position ourselves to win or get a point tonight. The goal we gave up in the 33rd minute was a big part of the game. We needed to be even at halftime to position ourselves to get a result.”

LOS ANGELES MIDFIELDER STEFANI MIGLIORANZI
On L.A.’s effort tonight:
“We fell short maybe in our effort a little bit today and you can’t do that against a team of the quality of the Crew. We expect effort in every game; sometimes the game doesn’t go your way or the ball isn’t bouncing the way you want it or you’re just a second too late into plays and we certainly played like that for long periods and like I said before, you can’t have that against a team the quality of the Crew.”

LOS ANGELES MIDFIELDER/FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On L.A.’s play tonight:
“We just had too many guys that couldn’t make simple plays, simple passes, simple traps, just simple soccer plays that we didn’t pull off tonight and that’s a bad combo.”

His overall thoughts on the match:
“I give them credit. They played hard and they played pretty well, but that’s a team we should beat and we know that and that’s frustrating.”

On L.A.’s lack of rhythm:
“There was no rhythm at all, all night. We had a bunch of fouls called against us that stopped the rhythm, we never had a chance to get going and we certainly didn’t play well enough to create a rhythm so it was a bad combo all around.”

LOS ANGELES FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
His overall thoughts on the match:
“We expected a tough match; it’s not easy to win here. We wanted a better result, but unfortunately the ball didn’t bounce our way and as a team we could have played a lot better. I think the Crew did a good job of taking advantage of being at home and playing hard for 90 minutes.”

COLUMBUS HEAD COACH ROBERT WARZYCHA
His overall thoughts on the match:
“To be honest with you, I enjoyed the game; that was pretty good. I think that was one of the best performances this year by us, playing against a team that has played well, has a lot of former international players and a good coach. It’s not easy, so I think we performed very well. We were very good on both sides of the ball.”

On his team’s ability to close out the game:
“Today, I think the performance - especially at the end of the game - showed that the guys have some more trust between them and there was a lot of composure and they found out that possessing the ball is the best way to kill the game.”

On his team’s depth:
“We don’t have a reserve team; we have 23 players right now that can step up anytime on the field and win any game… everybody here on this club is contributing. We have a very deep squad, I can go with any player and as long as we are playing as a team, we can be very successful.”

COLUMBUS MIDFIELDER BRIAN CARROLL
His overall thoughts on the match:
“We’ll take it. I don’t care if it’s ugly, if it’s pretty, if it’s a normal game for us; if we win I’m happy. We strung some passes together towards the end of the game, kept good possession at that part of the match and just kept control of the game all the way through. For me, that was a step in the right direction for us.”

On the overall play of the team:
“Guys stepped up, we used a number of different players tonight and they all gave their good effort and did what they needed to do to for the team to win, and I thought we played pretty solid tonight. It was a good team effort and we came away with a win tonight and we’re happy.”

COLUMBUS DEFENDER ERIC BRUNNER
On the Crew’s mindset coming into the match:
“They’re [Los Angeles] a really good team, they’ve had some great results this year and only lost a handful of games this season and we knew they were going to come in tough. We just wanted to outwork them and just let the ball do the work on a fast pitch.”

COLUMBUS MIDFIELDER EDDIE GAVEN
On the Crew’s roster depth:
“I think it shows that we have a very deep team. I think every guy can come on the field and do their job and help this team win, so hopefully that’s going to help us as we keep on going through the season.”

On his game-winning goal:
“He [Emmanuel Ekpo] played a great ball and I just kind of jumped up, got my head on it and tried to play it to the back post and luckily it hit off the post and went in.”