Players and Coaches React to win over Toronto

It was a much happier locker room this weekend compared to seven days ago. Here is what a number of the key names and faces had to say. Be sure to read the postgame recap here as well.

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the result:
We beat a good team tonight. It was a great response from last week’s fiasco. The effort by our guys, the concentration, the defending—was excellent. We created some opportunities as well in this game. This was one of those games that for 90 minutes we looked like a team as opposed to last week where there were very few minutes the entire match that we looked like a team. The response from other players from last week was fabulous. We had a number of excellent performances tonight. Certainly, the return of some of our players into our first eleven was great, notably Edson Buddle and Sean Franklin. I was surprised Sean was able to go 90 minutes. Chris Birchall played well. Beckham and Donovan were fabulous. It was a good effort. A really hard earned victory. As I said, Toronto is a good team. It’s certainly going to be a battle all the way to the end to make the playoffs.

On David Beckham’s performance:
David’s a real good player. There is no question about it. He’s a person with a lot of pride, along with that outstanding ability that he has. He did everything he could tonight to lead this team. I thought his performance was absolutely outstanding. You talk about a player that technically is quick, mentally is quick. He was fabulous tonight. He had a number of attacking opportunities, and he did the defending he needed to do. And the way he got out on the break in the second half was remarkable. David gave 100 percent tonight. No question about it, an excellent performance.

On Sean Franklin’s return:
I hoped to get 45 to 60 minutes out of him. But oddly enough, I think that Sean probably learned a lot from observing the last couple of months, from watching games. He played a very intelligent game tonight. I would have thought some of the runs he made going forward in the first half that his minutes were certainly going to be limited in the second half. I checked with him during halftime and he said he was fine. Sean worked his tail off these past four months. He got himself into the physical condition. Tonight, he was remarkable. He looked like a lot more mature player than I saw last year, and again, I think he is the kind of kid that he observed and learned something over the past four months, and it was evident tonight that he is going to be a player that is going to help us.

LA GALAXY DEFENDER OMAR GONZALEZ
On the win:
I think for the whole year we haven’t been good at home. But for this game, we just wanted to make sure that we started off strong because we haven’t done that, and we wanted to get the first goal, and not fall behind. And, I think we accomplished all of that today.

On rebounding from last week’s result:
Teams make mistakes, but the whole thing this week was basically ‘don’t let Dallas beat you twice’. We were just focused on defensively doing the right things, that’s what we did. This game wasn’t about sending any messages or anything, it was just about us getting things right again.

On the play of David Beckham:
David did awesome today. He put a lot of effort today defensively and offensively, he helped us with his goal and to set up Edson [Buddle]’s goal. It was just great stuff from him tonight.

LA GALAXY DEFENDER SEAN FRANKLIN
On returning to the field:
I felt good; I was excited to be back out there. I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect or how I’d like it, but I’m okay with my performance, I’m tired, but like I said, it’s nice to get back out there in the field again.
On playing the full 90 minutes:
We talked earlier about how many minutes I could give, and I said that I would good for a half or hopefully 60 minutes. Coach just said to let him know if I need to come off or if I was good I would stay in. I’m surprised I was able to go the full 90. I’m sure tomorrow that I’ll be dead tired.

On responding to last week’s result:
It is a great response. We talked about how we needed these three points, we couldn’t afford losing this game at home, so we went out, play hard and got a shutout. It’s a great rebound game from the 6-3 defeat.

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER STEFANI MIGLIORANZI
On rebounding from the loss to FC Dallas:
“I think last week’s loss was a great wake up call. We had been in a great run before that, maybe were a little complacent, even though we prepared as well as we had during the rest of season, like I said before, it was very uncharacteristic. We were all disappointed, but it showed us we needed to work still.”

LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER DONOVAN RICKETTS
On the game:
Last week was just a minor set back. We didn’t think it about because you don’t get games like that every week. Tonight, we came in and played the way we know we can and got the three points.

On the clean sheet:
It always important, clean sheet or not—you always want to win and get the three points. That helps.

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM
On tonight’s result:
It was a big night tonight, especially after last weekend. Tonight was a performance of the team. We worked hard all week, and the atmosphere was weird going into the game, I must admit. The players were quiet. We didn’t feel that comfortable at the start of the game. Once we got on the pitch, once we started playing, once we started passing the ball around, we calmed down. Tonight was an important performance.

On his performance:
Some games happen like this. Some times you have no shots in a game or no free kicks and sometimes you have 20 free kicks and shots. Tonight I had a few. I hit the post. I should have three goals tonight, to be honest. I’ve never scored a hat trick. If I was going to—tonight was the night. You know what—it was about the team’s performance tonight.

On Buddle and Franklin returning to the starting lineup:
It’s great to see Eddie (Buddle) back, Sean Franklin back. They are two talented players. Sean’s been out for a while. And for him to play 90 minutes, it was exceptional. Eddie is a player that puts himself in great areas to score goals. He’s strong, passionate; he’s a very good player.

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER CHRIS BIRCHALL
On his first start at The Home Depot Center:
It was just nice to get to be involved and to get my first start at home. Bruce was trying to tighten up the midfield from last week where we conceded too many goals, and we were stretched in midfield. He gave me a specific role, which I felt I did quite well tonight, and we got a great result which we needed.

On playing with David Beckham:
I think with me playing it gives David the license to go forward and not really so determined to get back. It gives him license to take a bit of a risk because he knows he’s got me filling in behind.

LA GALAXY FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
On his goal:
It was more of a team goal. It felt good. We pressured Toronto. David did a good job of hustling and laying it back, and I just opened myself up to give Landon some space, and when he got it he passed it to me, and I put into the back of the net.

On missing some chances:
You have to have short memory, especially as a striker. There are some chances I wish I had done better with, but the way we were playing keeping it in their half we created a lot of opportunities.

On his first start since coming back from injury:
I’ve been here before with injuries, and come back and earned my position. You just have to stay positive.

On scoring against Toronto FC:
I always like scoring against my former team. It feels extra special when you do that. It’s nothing personally against those guys. And, next week we are going to play another one of my former teams.

LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On the game:
It was about responding. If we want to be a good team it’s not acceptable to have weeks like last week, but if they happen, they happen, and you have to respond and do well. We did a good job of that tonight.

On David Beckham’s performance:
We needed a lot of guys to step up and be leaders tonight after last weekend. He was at the forefront of tonight; he was excellent all night.

On the team’s performance:
We have a lot of talented players on our team. And if you can get those parts right—hustle plays, working hard, concentrating and helping other guys, those plays—we are going to be a very good team. That was a combination of all that and it was nice to get rewarded for it.

On Edson Buddle’s return:
Edson’s a big help to us. With what he does away from the goal in holding the ball and being a handful, but when he’s in front of the goal he has the knack to find the back of the net. A lot of people will say that it was relatively easy, his goal tonight, but to take it well, take it first time to put it in the right spot. It’s a lot easier said than done, and he did well with it.

TORONTO FC HEAD COACH CHRIS CUMMINS
On the team’s performance:
I thought we had a go. I don’t think we lost the game on a lack of effort. I don’t think we penetrated enough, to be honest to you. Giving the early goal away obviously hurt us, and then to be fair to LA, they dropped off and were hard to break down. We had a lot of possession. We lacked a lot of quality, if you like, penetration when we got in the final third. We had a good go after half time. There was about ten, fifteen minutes that I thought we really took the game to them. We hit the bar, and maybe if that goes in, it’s a different game.

On Julian de Guzman:
Julian’s a good player. He lasted the 90 minutes, and you can see he is going to be an asset to the league. He’s going to be an asset to the club, and he’s definitely going to be an asset to the league. I thought he was excellent tonight. I thought he went and got the ball. He showed that quality that he’s got. He joined in when he had to. He receives it when he’s under pressure. I think he is going to be a fantastic signing for the club and the league.

TORONTO FC MIDFIELDER SAM CRONIN
On result:
We had a good amount of possession, but we never really penetrated or made anything dangerous. We just kept it in front of them, and we didn’t do a good job to break them down.

TORONTO FC MIDFIELDER CHAD BARRETT
On the team’s performance:
It’s to be expected. It was pretty much the same as the Chivas result here, so at least we had a chance on goal this time. We had most of the possession, but they scored the early goal and decided to sit back. We got past them a couple of times, but we couldn’t capitalize. They put a little dagger in the 85th minute and that was it.