FC Dallas 4, LA Galaxy 1
Q. Raheem, congratulations on the goal, I'm sure it's bittersweet in everything that happened but Greg was emotional whenever he came in here and said this is one of the toughest seasons he's ever endured. How do you see it from your perspective?
RAHEEM EDWARDS: Yeah, pretty much the same. A lot went into this season. A lot of stuff happened, played injuries, starters injured, protests, a lot of stuff, protests. Nevertheless, disappointing season. Can't happen again. This is the Galaxy, period.
Q. You guys have missed the playoffs two out of the last three years. I talked to Greg that nine teams make the playoffs. Feels like a gigantic miss whenever you're not in the playoffs.
Yeah, they opened up two more spots. Used to be seven, now it's nine. Abysmal year. End of story.
Q. Obviously this year, a lot of injuries but specifically for your leaders, Javier, Martin, Gastón, was it hard in the locker room at times to find a voice?
Yeah and no. I think there's a lot of personality in our locker room where guys could take, you know, the role or the ship in terms of leadership. But those are guys nonetheless big misses in the locker room and on the field, too, as well. Yeah, as I said before it was tough but not too much.
Q. For you certainly, I think every player has had their ups and downs this year. For you, what's something mentally that you've been able to grow on as the season's progressed?
I don't quite understand that question. I just, in terms of my season, I think it was up and down. Good and bad. A little bit bad. But yeah, to be honest. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and say it's not good enough, period. I was not good enough. The back line wasn't good enough. The team wasn't good enough. End of story. I can't -- I don't look for excuses. I like myself in the mirror and blame myself more than I blame anyone else.
So yeah, just to get better for next year because it's not acceptable at all.
Q. You look back to the the season with the protests and distractions, does that bother you guys more than it let on?
Yeah, it did. It definitely did. It affected some guys in the locker room. Obviously the coaching staff and the higher-ups, too. Obviously it takes a little off of us and whatnot.
But yeah, it did distract us a little bit. But nonetheless, it shouldn't really equate to, you know, having a season like we had, you know. Because it's not the protests. It's the guys on the field that are playing whether there's ten fans here or a thousand fans here. We need to do our job and quite frankly we did not do our job, at all, this season.
Q. How did Leagues Cup impact this season? I'm thinking more in terms of the season that you played, how much difference did it make this season? How much more difficult did it make this year?
Well, depends. Depends. For us, it was pretty fortunate enough to have two home games and not having to travel anywhere.
But those games could be good or it could be bad. It could be reps for guys that don't usually play much. But I think if I can recall, my memory would be we played a really strong team in both games.
Yeah, it's a lot. It's extra games obviously, which, you know, some guys don't like it, some people don't like it. But yeah, I don't really know how the Leagues Cup affected anything to be fair.
Q. Because you had to play so many games early in the season, where in the past you played once a week.
True.
Q. Did that affect.
Yeah, you're right actually. A lot of compactness. A lot of like playing and which guys that are from this league are not really used to. But this is what -- the way soccer is trending now. It's going to be more and more games. Have to be on top of it. That's it.
Q. What exactly is that?
That's the Laureus Player of the Year. These guys, they basically said that all my hard work that I do, and I always acknowledge them after the game; so I want to give a shout-out to Laureus. It's a little token obviously, but nonetheless I don't like, I'm not trying to s*** on them or anything. I really don't care. I'm just really pissed off. It has to be better next year. That's it. Thank you, guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports