Locker Room Reaction to Champions League Defeat to Puerto Rico

LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On the team’s performance:
“We got beat soundly tonight. There is no question about it. There are no excuses. I thought for the night our effort was good, our execution was not. A couple of things: I think our experience players didn’t have a good night for us tonight. Secondly, our finishing was poor and theirs was superb. That is the right way to describe their finishing. Their goalkeeping was excellent. Ours wasn’t…ours was not good enough. We didn’t get a save out of Josh [Saunders]. Their effect was outstanding. Ours was good, but those couple of areas where they were a little bit better, a little bit more fortunate. Give them credit—their execution was excellent and ours was poor. We had some chances to put the ball in the back of the net, and listen, even at 2-0, 3-0, we could have made it 3-1, 3-2, make it more interesting challenge for next Wednesday. We didn’t get it done.”

On Josh Saunders performance:
“I think Josh Saunders hasn’t had a goal scored against him this year. Josh is a good goalkeeper and he is certainly capable of playing in this game tonight. We didn’t lose this game tonight because of Josh Saunders. There were a lot of reasons why we lost this game. It was more a bit over our head than Josh Saunders.”

On the team’s schedule:
“This has nothing to do with the schedule. I mean, Puerto Rico had to do a little bit of traveling. This has nothing to do with our schedule. If we for a second use that as an excuse, we are absolutely insane. Maybe rip the coach here. As much as our performance and some players didn’t execute absolutely, but when you get a result like that, I don’t think the coach did a good job tonight, either.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan
On the result:
“Embarrassment isn't a word that would like to use. I'm just disappointed. I think we were incredibly naive about things when we went a goal down. Clearly, our defending was not good. We have to have to be a lot better in front of goals. There were two or three shots we should have scored.”

On the team's performance:
“Our team knows that how it has been all year. Guys should know that if they don't play well, we aren't going to play. I think we learned about our team tonight and we need to get a lot better.”

On needing to score against Puerto Rico next week:
“I can see it two ways. One, it's incredibly difficult to go anywhere and score two goals. The flip side of that is we are able to score four goals. We are going to go for it and see what happens.”

LA Galaxy forward Edson Buddle
On the team's performance:
“I think at home it is embarrassing. I think you have to give credit to Puerto Rico. It does happen. The game has a way of checking you sometimes. It puts this in perspective. We just have a bigger challenge a head of us to do the same thing. Let’s hope to do the same thing they do to us in their place.”

LA Galaxy midfielder Michael Stephens
On tonight’s game:
“They made big saves and they kept getting shots and hitting really good shots from the outside. You got to give some credit to them obviously it wasn’t a great performance by us.”

On Puerto Rico’s performance:
“I think after a while it was a pretty even game. I think a couple of things fell their way which helped them and gave them a little momentum and being on the road they got a couple of breaks and built on it. Overall I don’t think our effort was terrible. I think that we didn’t have a great game at finishing as well we gave up a few soft goals.”

On the Galaxy’s defense:
“I think defensively we have to get back to not giving up goals. I think we were lose all over the field and all the goals show that. I think that we need to regroup and get back to what got us here.”

LA Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza
On the result:
“We just got out played. They are a good team, they are good all around the field. Their goalkeeper played tremendous tonight and that is what saved them. They had two deep goals which were pretty good shots on their part. We just got beat today.”

On the second leg of the series:
“It is not over yet. We still have a game. We still have to go to Puerto Rico which is not easy to play there but we are going to be hungry. We are thinking about Chicago first and then we are going to have to take care of business in Puerto Rico.”

LA Galaxy defender Gregg Berhalter
On tonight’s game:
“It was one of those games. It was a bizarre and we give a lot of credit to them but we also have to look at ourselves and say that it clearly wasn’t good enough. It was one of those games were you keep knocking your head against the wall waiting to get a break and waiting to get a break and them we give up goals and they score some good goals and it was just a nightmare. It was one of those games which you can’t explain. But that is how soccer goes.”

On the team’s recent form:
“I think we have gotten a bit complacent but it was a crazy game. I think we came out with a focus. I think we came out trying to move the ball quickly, trying to get a breakthrough that just didn’t come. We give up that goal, again on a set piece, which has been our nemesis recently, so I think it could be used as a wake up call.”

Puerto Rico Islanders Head Coach Colin Clarke
On the result:
“I was pretty surprised. We knew coming in here that it was going to be a tough night for us. Delighted. We deserved it. Our boys worked very hard and took our chances.”

On the team’s performance:
“First thing we knew was that we would need a little bit of luck. They are a really good team. We knew we would have to take our chances. And honestly, they have some really, really good players that we had to try and contain. We managed to do that. We worked very, very hard. We also knew that when we got the ball, we had to keep it and pass it and frustrate them. I think we did a great job of that tonight…playing, passing, moving. We took our chances.”

On Bill Gaudette’s performance:
“Bill played really well. We knew he was going to be busy. He came up with the saves. He’s done that for us for the last few years in this competition. He’s someone who has been in MLS and maybe he feels that he should still be there and has something to prove. He’s a very good keeper. I’d like to think with expansion coming up there’s a chance that Bill will step up and get somewhere in MLS next year if that’s what he’s looking for. And performance like this won’t hurt him.”

Puerto Rico Islanders Forward Nicolas Addlery
On playing against MLS team:
“It is always going to be a team effort. Playing against the Galaxy is a wonderful experience. Getting past them and winning is more important than anything personal for me.”

On playing against the Galaxy:
“We basically we just stuck to the game play. We worked hard. We stuck together as a team and took our chances. I don’t think we were ever in charge of the game, but throughout the game we kept our composure, kept playing and doing the things we needed to do. We tried to contain them, and of course they have great players. We just stuck to our game plan.”