Players React to Scoreless Draw

We spoke to both coaches and a number of players from both sides to see what they had to say about today's game.

Here is what they had to say…

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA

On the game …
“Houston is a real difficult team to play when they’re at home, obviously, with the small field and the physicality. Their quality on set pieces is good. It was a battle for 90 minutes. I like the mentality of our group and the concentration they showed for 90 minutes.”

On the atmosphere …
“I think that game was good practice for the players. I think on the road, we’re going to see that kind of atmosphere and that kind of intensity in the game.”

LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER DONOVAN RICKETTS

On the game …
“This is the same kind of atmosphere you get in the playoffs. Playing on the road, I think we did enough to get the point.”

On their road mentality …
“When you play on the road, you have to play different then when you play at home. At home, you should be aggressive and defensively, that can be a problem for me.”

LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN

On the game …
“I thought it was an exciting good game. I think we expected a physical game. There were good chances both ways, and in the end I think it was a fair result.”

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM

On playing in Houston for the first time …
“It was a great turnout, suitable for the stadium, and obviously this is the first time I’ve played here. You could feel it was a great atmosphere, a friendly, fun atmosphere; an atmosphere of people that are proud about their team. It’s a nice atmosphere to play in.”

About the red card to Brian Ching …
“It had nothing to do with me. He pushed someone in the face. He wasn’t really pushed in the face, but you can’t really do that in the game. But it’s really nothing to do with me because I wasn’t the one pushed in the face.”

On the game …
“Both teams wanted to win the game. Both teams had good chances but just couldn’t put it away. Both teams kept on pressing to the end. There were two good teams with talented players, but they just couldn’t get a goal.”

HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR

On the game …
“I thought we played OK. You’re never going to have a full 90-minute game where everything goes your way. They had some opportunities, they defended well. The two center defenders for them - I think there were a lot of missed fouls, but they are very physical.”

On Bruce Arena not starting Landon Donovan …
“I take it as a sign he is trying to rest Landon. He has put in a lot of minutes and a lot of travel, and maybe he felt he needed a rest and would be a better option coming in off the bench. I’d rather have Landon on the field for 35 minutes than for 90.”

On the result …
“You always want to get three points every time you step on the field, but I thought Ricketts had some great saves off of Landín and Holden as well. Both teams didn’t give up a lot. There were some chances there, but they were spread out. Of course we wanted to give the fans a treat and win.”

HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD BRIAN CHING

On the red card …
“I ended up touching the guy in the face, and the ref saw it and gave me a yellow card. The linesman and fourth official wanted to get more involved, so they came over and told the ref to give me a red. It was a stupid play on my part, but I think it was an intense game and the ref dealt with it fine. I think everyone was fine with the yellow card, but then the red came. It was a stupid play on my part. Back-to-back red cards doesn’t look good. I let my teammates down, but better for it to happen now than in the playoffs. I definitely learned my lesson two weeks in a row.”

On the game …
“It was intense. I think both teams treated it like a playoff game. We played really well in the first half. In the second half, they did a good job of coming in and breaking it up. Overall all it was a tough intense match, we played well, and we just didn’t capitalize.”

HOUSTON DYNAMO MIDFIELDER BRAD DAVIS

On the game …
“It was a tough game. I thought we were all over them in the first half. I think we started to get away from it and play a little too direct in the second half. The guys battled, and we were lucky that their chances didn’t bounce their way. There were some iffy offsides calls there in the first half. It’s tough to have those things in such a tight game and having things like that disrupt it.”

On the Dynamo’s rash of red cards …
“We’ve been hurting ourselves. Almost everybody in here at some point has received a red card. The game against Chivas, we need Ching, but now we don’t have him. We just need to calm down a little bit and keep our heads in the game. I know we all want to stick up for each other, but we need to know that that stuff is going to hurt us.”