Houston 3, LA Galaxy 0
Q. Wanted your overall thoughts on the game. And especially how that second half sort of started for you, you finally got all 3D ps on the field at the same time and then you got a red card in there that really sort of changed things?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I have essentially two statements because I said a lot to the group coming into this. And they heard it, and it was a good discussion.
The second part is to our fans who show up and fight for us every single game, they won't see that again that. Was unacceptable and it was disrespectful I think to our brand and to who we want to be, and it won't happen again.
Yeah, we just -- too many plays inside of the game that we were loose on. We were -- yeah, it doesn't even matter really to talk about tactics or anything. There was too many gaps inside of the competitive side of it for me through the course of the game. There was some emotion involved when the penalty gets called and then it gets overturned again. That was an emotional blow for this group that's had three penalties that could have gone their way previously, and this is the fourth game where you think you've got something and you don't get something and that's an emotional punch in the gut but you've got to bounce back from it and we have to fight through it.
Today our emotions got the best of us, and that can't happen. We have to get out there and fight every minute, that's what we do when we play for this club and for our fans who fight for us, we fight for them, and that's the way it's supposed to be.
So that won't happen again. The rest of it, for me, we can talk about it but we've got to close that up for now.
Q. What does it say to you that you have two veteran players, Costa and Martin, who basically self-inflicted red cards in this game and won't be available for your next game against a rival:
It's unacceptable. They know it's unacceptable. They apologized to the group. They know it's unacceptable. It can't happen. These guys are veterans in our team and they are supposed to be leaders in our team and they need to set examples and they need to, again, control their emotions and we need them available always. And yeah, they understand that and it's not acceptable.
Q. With some limited success against Seattle in the 3-5-2, was there a thought of starting this game in a 3-5-2 against Houston or is that something on the road that you have to maybe take in consideration:
Yeah, it's certainly something for us to consider, and there are reasons for that that are both tactical and also personnel that are in there for us to consider it. My concern in not starting, again, a little bit is us just being clear on the defending side of things when teams adjust in games. We haven't spent much time inside a 352 and you're on the road and having adapt a little bit inside of games we haven't had enough experience to date in my opinion to be somewhat versatile inside of it. Last week we used it when we could be aggressive. We were down two goals, it's tough to do that from the opening whistle, and you saw a little bit in the second half, we were overaggressive at times even inside of it and things start to open up when they put guys in the right spots, and we don't adapt well inside it and quickly enough, and so that was my reason. Didn't feel like we were quite ready for something like that just yet.
Q. Wanted to get your thoughts on Javier in his first minutes of the game, did you like what you saw with him:
Well, look, by the time he got in, a lot of what he was doing was just getting match fitness and would you telling in some work, getting touches on the ball and integrating in the group because I think we were down a man quickly if not the moment he came in. Pretty quickly, we were there. Then the game gets a little bit more difficult.
Look, we had a couple moments but -- a couple moments but there wasn't enough inside of that for me to have an impression of the two of them together. I thought there was disconnect between the group and Preston at sometimes and there were just some moments that -- not the day for me to give an assessment ton that, that's for sure.
Q. We saw at the end of the game, the emotions getting the better of Costa there, have you had a talk with him about what went on:
I had a collective talk with the group and individual discussions will follow. But right now, everybody is regrouping a little bit and like I said, it was a great locker room discussion that stays in the locker room and I expect a response.
Q. Do you have positives to take out of the game and is there anything that you liked, and do you have an injury status on Sega and Chase:
I mean, the takeaways and things that I like are when we are -- when we are disciplined, when we are in the spots that we want to be, and -- and not roaming around into other spots and creating sort of these rotations that we don't want, then I think we're very good.
When we are disciplined and we get the right people in the right spots to make a difference in the game, I thought we had those few moments inside of that where it really shows up and it's crystal clear.
But there's too many moments where there's a lack of discipline or impatience, and again, we start moving into other people's spaces, which then gets other people moving out of spaces and then we end up disorganizing ourselves, which then we lose the ball and then the counterattack is on and that was happening a fair amount during the first half, which again, just the energy spent in recovery is too high when things like that happen, and it becomes -- it becomes problematic both physically and also emotionally because you get -- it's unnecessary.
So you know, discipline inside of our structure is important. Discipline inside of the game, which we saw with two red cards is important, so those things need to -- will; they don't need to, they will, they will change, and guys are very clear of that. We haven't been doing that the last couple games and today we got back into what I saw earlier in the season which is, again, like an impatience to want to get on the ball to try to impact the game at the wrong moments, and then we are not where we should be when we should be there and that leaves gaps inside of our game.
Q. And do you have a status update on Sega and Chase:
Chase, he's progressing. He trained last week. And Sega has -- he has a bit of, I don't know exactly what you call it, but in kind of the groin, pubalgia region, he's getting some fatigue inside of there and he has progressed towards the tail end of the week, so he'll hopefully rejoin inside of training this week and be able to sustain. He's been able to go through a path to a quarter to three quarters of training sessions without having sort of those symptoms.
But I feel like hopefully he's moving in the right direction. We'll integrate him this week and see exactly if he can get through all those things.
The other is, you didn't ask injury-wise but Julian Aude joined the team here in Houston, so he'll be -- he'll start his training with the group as soon as we get back.
Q. There are two questions. The first one is, how to motivate the players to getting the first win, and how soon will Costa be ready to be a starter:
Well, it won't be next game for Douglas, so he'll have two weeks, at least to continue to get his fitness up and then we'll see where he's at.
Yeah, part of this is also being able to trust the player from the start of the game to the end of the game, and you know, he needs to show that maturity within our group as well. Today wasn't his best moment for that.
I apologize, I didn't quite understand the first question, I think it was about getting the first win?
Q. How to motivate the players to get a first win after the start to the season:
Yeah, I think the motivation is there. We have to come out and it's on the training field. We have to work harder on the training field and we have to compete better on the training field and we have to prepare ourselves better during the course of the week so that we close the gaps that are appearing off and on inside of these games. And then we've got to step out and execute.
And yeah, there's no other shortcuts to getting results in this league. You don't get to show up on Saturday and say you're a talented team and win games in MLS. Every game is hard. Every game is a challenge. That's what I told these guys. That's the beauty of this league, while there might be other things they are not used to, some guys are coming in new from the league, there are other things that make this league special and that is the fact that you have to show up and perform and play at your level every single week, or else you lose.
And if you make silly decisions over the course of a game and you leave the group vulnerable or yourself vulnerable, then you lose. And we have to close those gaps. Again, the message is loud and clear, and it was a great discussion, and it starts on every day that we are on the training field, it has to just be better now. Yeah, there's no -- their motivation is everybody is here to win, you know. Everybody is here at the LA Galaxy to win, and so these guys are all competitors.
So the motivation is there. There's some frustration for sure inside some of the calls that we get and don't get and there's some frustration inside of balls that we lose or chances that we miss inside of that. But again, the way that you get out that is you work, you work out of it and you compete out of it, and that's what you can do every single week. No matter how things inks are going, you can do that every single week.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports