Locker Room Reaction to 2-2 Draw with San Jose

LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On the team’s performance:
“It was a poor start to the game. For whatever reason, we came out and were sloppy for the first couple of minutes. We positioned ourselves to chase the game. I tell you – I thought we played extremely well tonight. We created chances. In the second half, we were absolutely dominating. We created some chances; hit the post a couple of times. I’m told that one that went off the post was a handball coming down. It happens. I don’t like coming away with just a point at home, but given the circumstances and how we had to scrap to get that point at home—I can’t complain. We certainly punished ourselves at times, but on the whole we were good and incredibly dominating in the second half. I hope it’s a lesson to our guys. We were sloppy at the start of the game and it almost cost us more than a couple of points tonight. I’m obviously satisfied getting an equalizer at the end of the game and I’m more than satisfied with the way we attacked tonight and created chances. I’m disappointed the way we came out and started the game and certainly not pleased to give up a goal on the corner kick. Overall, there was an awful lot of good things out there and a couple issues we have to sort out. We have 40 points at this point of the season; it’s not the worst thing.”

On Leonardo:
“Leonardo was excellent tonight. What more can I say? Gregg [Berhalter’s] been really good. Leonardo has a great game today. He was really good. Perhaps, Gregg not being available to start attributed to the sloppy organization of our backline at the start of the game. Leonardo was excellent today.”

On getting players back from injury:
“We have a lot of games ahead of us. There is no other way to get some guys minutes. Kovalenko hasn’t played in a long time. We have no other way to move him a long, to get him ready to play and contribute. Leonardo is an excellent defender. We need to put him in there. There are going to be situations in the next couple of months where we will need to rotate our centerbacks, our holding midfielders and we have to play these players. There is no other way to get them into position and we move forward to help our team. You can’t have a situation where six weeks down the road we have a suspension, an injury and we are expecting those guys to step on the field and not miss a beat. They have to play. It kills me to have to take Gregg out because he’s been excellent, but he understands the situation. It’s something we are trying to do as we move our team forward.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan
On the result:
“It’s a game that we should have won. We were the better team, we created a lot more chances. Getting scored on early was difficult to come back from, but we did a good job and you had to think if anyone was going to win it had to be us. Our resiliency was good, it was a good test for us, something we haven’t dealt with a lot this year, going behind a goal and then a goal again, so all in all it’s still okay and we can’t really be mad because we played well and just had a few mistakes.”

On the team’s attacking play:
“We had 22 shots, 15 shots in the second half, 10 corner kicks, we hot the post – I think we created a lot good chances and on another night we would have won.”

On the team’s mindset trailing by a goal late on:
“We had a lot of pressure on them, we kept going and at that point you keep hitting balls in front of the goal and you try to make a play. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but tonight it did happen. Tristan did a good job of hitting a shot/cross hard at the goal, Edson did a good job to follow and I was in the right place. When you put yourself in the right position, good things happen.”

LA Galaxy forward Edson Buddle
On his 12th goal of the season:
“It went it. It was a tough ball. It skipped and was bouncing. It went past Alan [Gordon] and a defender. I had to have a quick reaction and get it on target. I was lucky to get a foot on to it.”

On being behind a goal:
“We found ourselves behind early and showed some character coming back. We didn’t want to be down a goal at home, but we definitely wanted to play out the game. We had to create some positives out of it.”

LA Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez
On LA’s second goal:
“I think that we started playing well, just passing the ball and opening them up. We did a lot to come back and then we dug ourselves again. Late in the game, we had reserves come in and they did great. We opened them up and started getting crosses in, and got our second goal.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Dema Kovalenko
On returning to the lineup:
“I’m not where I want to be. I know my game and how I play, I don’t have the bite that I usually have but you know what, it feels great just to be with the team again. Sometimes you feel a little bit not part of it when you’re not playing and it had been difficult so I’m glad to get in and get 60 minutes.”

On the team’s depth:
“We said before the season, no matter who we play, we want to win. So (Bruce) is going to put the best 11 on the field and whoever he picks will be ready. (Bruce) has been here. We don’t 11 guys, we have 24 on the roster and today guys stepped in and did a good job. It’s not easy for him to only dress 18, there are guys that are disappointed but that’s the coaching staff’s job and they have to pick the best guys to give us a chance to win.”

San Jose Earthquakes Head Coach Frank Yallop
On tonight’s game:
“I thought we defended great in the box to be honest. We didn’t give them any looks. I think that a lot of the time if you try to break out too quickly against a team like LA they will punish you with gaps so we made sure we were compact and got our head or foot to everything. If you look at the chances that they had it wasn’t the glaring chances they missed. I thought us on the break, we could have broke a little better we could have scored another one. They had a lot of pressure, a lot of balls went into the box and eventually it kind of cracked.”

On the team’s performance:
“The team is getting a little settled we’ve got good results. So what we are trying to do is now we are compact and strong as a unit and now we are trying to add to that and be a good football team. I have loosened my reigns a little bit on the team and let them express themselves a little more and I think it has worked. I wanted to make sure this season that we are difficult to beat and we have proved that and I think now we have only lost four games out of fifteen and that is a good record in this league. It is not easy to win games or as easy to lose but what is good is that now we are starting to express ourselves a bit more and we have some good players. I thought Bobby Convey was outstanding tonight, I thought Cornell Glen was dangerous all evening, I thought the two center backs were brave and strong it was a good performance by us.”

San Jose Earthquakes Midfielder Bobby Convey
On tonight’s game:
“Any points help us on the road. It is disappointing to lose in the last 30-40 seconds after putting in so much work, but unfortunately it did happen and a point against LA away is still good. Obviously everyone is disappointed. We played pretty well and obviously we scored on our chances.”

On his goal:
“It was an open goal, it was early on. Cornell [Glen] hit it towards the back post the goalie misplayed it and it is always good to score two minutes into a game especially away. It gives everyone confidence and it gives a team energy and I thought that it really set a good tone for the rest of the game for us.”

On the draw:
“I think their record is a bit unrealistic because they played three more games than we have and I don’t think they are as good as everyone thinks they are. They had a good run and they have good players but I felt we lost the game they didn’t win it. We lost the points because I thought we played well on the road it was a good game it was god for us it is really disappointing to tie at the end but it was a good point against LA on the road.”

On the team’s performance:
“It is not a matter of winning or losing it is a matter of playing and I thought we stayed with them toe to toe and at times we had the ball more often and played well. It is not necessarily Western Conference and Eastern Conference. This shows that we can play against any team and show we should into any game thinking we are going to win.”

San Jose Goalkeeper Jon Busch
On tonight’s game:
“I thought it was a good game. I thought it was two good teams going toe to toe. It was entertaining both ways obviously we got off to a very good start played some good soccer there we chances both ways they are a good team but not a team that we are scared of. I thought we played very well and are unfortunate not to get out of here with three points we did what we need to do to come into their place and almost take out three points.”

On the team’s performance:
“We got our two goals. I am disappointed in myself obviously the guys worked hard to get me two goals and I thought on the second one the ball ate me up a little bit and all I could do is keep it out but I couldn’t get up to get on the rebound and I am disappointed in myself in that. But other than that I think the guys played great. Like I said we had three points for the taking but we will take one knowing that we could have gotten out of here with three.”

San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Brandon McDonald
On his goal:
“It feels good not necessarily scoring against my old team but to put us up in the lead and give us a position to win the game and take home the three points.”

On his role in the team:
“There are a lot of characters on our team. My position and my role on this team is to be someone to help defensively and [Sam] Cronin is probably the guy in the front in the midfield that helps out more attacking. My role is to sit there and help us secure our backline and come away with victories.”

On scoring against his former team:
“You want to come back and prove a point. It feels good expressing yourself in front of the fans that supported you while you were here and come away proving what you are able to do.”