Postgame Reaction to 2-0 Win Over St. Louis

After the game, LAGalaxy.com interviewed midfielder Chris Klein about his goal and the Galaxy's 2-0 win over AC St. Louis in the Third Round of tonight's U.S. Open Cup match.

We also caught up with a few players and coaches from both sides to see what they had to say after the game...

LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
His overall thoughts on the game and the team’s performance:
“These games are never easy. The teams from the lower division, in this case the USSF Pro Division 2, they came with a great attitude and played hard and our guys responded back equally, if not better. I am real pleased not only with the result but the attitude our team takes in the way we approach all of these games because we have worked real hard to rebuild this club and these games are important. If you want to win you don’t take it lightly and every time we step on the field, we are not going to win every game but we have to play to win. Tonight, we did that and I am real pleased.”

On the team’s cohesion:
“I thought (the team) did a good job tonight. St Louis was hard to breakdown and at times they had nine players behind the ball. They weren’t easy. We started creating chances toward the end of the first half and certainly throughout the second half.”

On the team’s difficulties in the first half and if he thought the players had a hard time handling St. Louis’ five-man midfield:
“No, the eleven players wearing white were giving me problems. We just needed to play a little bit better, pass better and be a little bit quicker. Certainly, it was expected that (St. Louis) would tire because you can not run faster then the ball. We moved the ball a little bit better in the second half, a little bit quicker then I think we would have had a better chance of breaking them down.”

On the performance of Tristan Bowen:
“He has to learn to be a real striker. You play high and wide at times, at times you have to be punished a little bit and draw some fouls. He is learning and getting better, the experience is good for him.”

LA Galaxy Midfielder Chris Klein
On Tonight’s Starting Lineup:
“Clint, Eddie and Jovan, I think we’ve played together at one time or another since we were 16 and 17 years old so we definitely knew each other— but then you look at our back four and I don’t think we had a guy that was over 22. Like I’ve said before, they have structured this team so that we have 24 guys that can play. We have a lot of competition (for places), so it’s good to have a lot of games, and we want to win everything we’re in this year.”

On the play of AC St. Louis:
“A team like St. Louis, you know, they did a good job. We knew they were going to sit on it a little bit and they fought. These games are always difficult.”

On what was said in the locker room at halftime:
“Even though we had the ball a lot in the first half, we didn’t create that many opportunities. We talked at halftime about being patient and that the opportunities would come. The worse thing you can do is start to press in these games and start to think that they’re a league below and we should be killing them, because that’s never the case.”

LA Galaxy Forward Tristan Bowen
On his assist on Chris Klein’s goal:
“I think Birchy (Chris Birchall) played a good ball up to the line. I took a touch and initially I was thinking of taking a shot, but I just kind of just waited for support and saw Chris open so I gave it to him. I thought he was going to play it back but he took a great shot. The keep couldn’t do anything about it. It was a great goal.”

On Sunday’s game against Seattle:
“We had to get through this game first. It was tough, we had a quick turn around, but Sunday we’re going to be ready to play and hopefully we’ll get three points.”

AC St. Louis Head Coach Dale Schilly
On tonight’s game:
“I thought that in the first half we played pretty well. We knew obviously that we were going to be outmanned, that we would have to defend for long periods of time and I thought we did alright. But there is a difference between their fitness level and our fitness level and a few other things that was difficult for us to keep our game plan in place for 90 minutes. It was difficult.”

On his team’s performance:
“I think the guys fought hard and they communicated well and they tried to keep themselves organized which they did. We got out on the break a couple of times and missed a couple of chances but I thought our guys did very well and I am happy with them.”

AC St. Louis Midfielder Luke Kreamalmeyer
On tonight’s game:
“I thought we fought really hard. I thought we had a good first half but in the end, the more quality ended up winning. “

On his team’s performance:
“We had a good game plan. We knew that they were a quality team and they we going to have a lot of possession and we were just going to try and withstand that possession and create some chances on the break. I thought we did that well for the first 60 or 70 minutes but they put in a nice goal and after that we kind of fell apart.”