More Reaction to 3-1 Win Over the Union

Major League Soccer – May 1, 2010
LA Galaxy 3, Philadelphia Union 1

LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On tonight’s match:
“It was a good win. The guys came out and played very well in the first half. I think, also, at times in the second half. We could have finished off a few more plays. Overall, I’m very satisfied.”

On what the team can improve on:
“There is a lot to work on. Every part of our games needs to get better. We’re a better team tonight than the final score, 3-1. There’s plenty to work on. Our passing can be better; our concentration can be better; our finishing can be better.”

On Edson Buddle’s performance:
“He’s played well. I think that maybe even his best play tonight was his assist. Fabulous ball he laid across and A.J. [DeLaGarza] did a hell of a job getting into that position, and finishing off the play.”

On Buddle’s goals:
“Who would expect anyone to have nine goals in six games? We know he’s very capable player. He can certainly score goals. The combination of him and Landon has been excellent. Landon had another very big game tonight. Our team’s playing well, and putting Edson in position to score some goals. His finishing has been outstanding.”

On the upcoming road games:
“The point is that we do have two tough games on the road, and we have to recover properly from this game. Get everything sorted out the right way and have the right kind of understanding on how we need to approach the first game in Colorado. And, try and go there and get a result. It’s never easy, but that’s the challenge that’s ahead of us. After the Colorado game, we’ll deal with Seattle. It’s not going to be easy. We know that. We’ve prepared ourselves for this. We’ll see how the team prepares for this challenge.”

LA Galaxy forward Landon Donovan
On the early goal:
“Great start for us, great goal. It was a good play by Mikey [Stepehens] in the midfield to get it to Edson and Edson played a great ball. A.J. took a chance and got rewarded for it. It was a great start for us.”

On the team’s confidence going into next week’s two-game road trip:
“We were disappointed with last week in Kansas City and we wanted to atone for that and we were playing a team that we should beat, at home, so that in upon itself made it an important game to win. And then when you look at the week coming up, it’s a difficult week with Colorado and Seattle both on the road, so it’s going to be tough.”

On the play of Edson Buddle:
“His confidence is high. Balls are seeming to find him in the right spots and then when they are finding him, he is doing the right think with it. When those three things combine – and you’re talented – you’re going to end up scoring a lot of goals.”

LA Galaxy forward Edson Buddle
On setting up A.J. DeLaGarza for the first goal:
“Mike [Stephens] played a good ball and I actually wanted to take a touch to goal and it kind of got away from me and that gave me some more time to get away from my defender and I was able to look up and saw A.J. in front of his man so I put it across the front of the goal and he found the back of the net.”

On the factors that have led to his strong start:
“I think that the goals are coming from the weight of the passes. The weight of the pass gives me more time and the quality of the team we have makes things a lot easier.”

On his continued goal-scoring exploits:
“It’s a good feeling and it never gets old so I’m going to enjoy every part of it. I’ve never started this way and it’s a new experience. But I love new experiences.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Michael Stephens
On the first two assists of his career:
“Any time you get an assist or a goal you are helping out the team so obviously that’s a good thing and tonight I was able to get myself into better positions and was able to play the ball forward more and they turned into goals.

On the team’s defensive shape helping to start the attack:
“It helped a lot. Our objective was to make it tight in the middle and I was able to do that and as a result, I found myself in good positions when the ball turned over and I was able to look forward to find guys running through.”

LA Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza
On his goal:
“I saw that the back side was open so I just tried to get in behind the defender and Edson played in a good ball and I just wanted to finish it off.”

On scoring on his former college teammate Chris Seitz:
“I told him that I was saving one for him jokingly, but it was pretty crazy that it happened.”

On becoming the first Galaxy player besides Edson Buddle to score a goal this season:
“Edson’s been doing so great I kind of feel bad for breaking his record. He could have had nine in a row but this is good.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Clint Mathis
On making his 2010 debut:
“I felt good. It’s been a long time coming. As I’m older it takes a little longer to recover, my knees aren’t in the best of shape, but my knee felt really good out there, it feels pretty much back to normal it’s just about getting fitter now to where I can hopefully play 90 minutes.”


Philadelphia Union Head Coach Peter Nowak
On Edson Buddle:
It’s very good. It’s a very good sign. Edson is still a very dangerous guy up top. Even when he’s playing by himself, he’s still able to find the space and find the right moments to engage and find the spots to score the goals. It’s a positive sign. I think he’s a good example for all these players who have been around the league—year-by-year they try more. He looks like he’s very hungry for the goals. It’s a good sign even for our youngsters to see how he works.

On the team’s performance so far this season:
Of course, we didn’t expect to be able to start with five wins. Of course, we believed that the way we will compete and play on the field would bring the results. We knew it was going to take time, and more experience. It’s going to take time to get the players familiar with each other. After our win in the second game, I think we forgot we were an expansion team. And sometimes we got punished by ourselves. That comes with the games; that comes with the minutes; that comes with the experience. The locker is still positive. These guys want to compete. They should that in the second half, even against a team that is very good. They still competed; they never slowed down and scored a goal. It’s a good sign for the future.

On the young players:
We bring a lot of energy today. Jack [McInerney] is pretty young. He just needs minutes. These guys need experience. These guys need the minutes. We are fortunate to give them the minutes, and give them the time and experience to look inside out for what it’s going to take to compete in this league, and be very good in this league. Jack showed us in the preseason that he can score from different positions. He’s very unpredictable as a striker and he has a nose for the goals, and knows how to finish them. It’s going to take time. Him and the other young guys—they are on the right path right now. I’m going to give them the minutes. I’m going to give them the experience, even if we are going to go through the pains. This is the future of our franchise, our club. That’s where we want to be.

Philadelphia Union Forward Alejandro Moreno
Difference in second half
“Second-half we worked hard for each other, stayed organized, and got a goal back. We showed some of the things that we can do well. We’d like to play with eleven men on the filed and not give up early goals.”

Affect of Miglioranzi red card
“It’s not ideal but we’ve done it before and we seem to pick up the tempo of our game with ten men and seem to work for each other quite well, and we’ve done that so far this year, but ideally we’d like to keep eleven men on the field and like I said, not give up early goals because that puts us behind the eight ball and makes it very difficult for us to come back.”

Philadelphia Union Forward Jack McInerney
On first career goal
“I think [Omar] Gonzalez gave the ball away and Fred stole it. We had a two on one and Fred dribbled it past… I don’t know who it was, but he created some space for me and played it through. I had a first touch and slid it past [Donovan] Ricketts.”

Overall thoughts on game
“Of course we have to be disappointed with the result. We were unlucky with the goal in the first minute of the game… it really just shot us down, but we got to keep our heads up and keep playing.”