LA Galaxy 2, Nashville 2
Q. Just wanted to talk about just this game, it seems like you guys maybe would be frustrated by not winning, maybe excited that you didn't lose, and maybe happy with the draw. Is that fair?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, in some ways, yes. I think it's fair to hit each of those emotions. Again, I felt like the first half, this is the first time we played against the back five over the course of this preseason in-season and the first half I felt us trying to work through how to penetrate and create chances was a little murky.
Having said that, we get a penalty, another missed penalty or saved penalty, which is maybe points that have added up now twice. And then I felt like, again, we get to half time at zeros, and then we concede one pretty early obviously in the second half.
Joseph makes an incredible effort to work back to win the ball initially and maybe fatigue brain a little bit, he cuts to the inside and tries to eliminate the player on the dribble. They haven't seen it back yet to see if it's soft or not but nevertheless, we put ourselves in the situation and now we're chasing it a little bit.
Tried to stick with our shape for a little bit longer because I felt like we were starting to grow into some of the opportunities, and then we concede off of a non-clearance that we kind of chest down for them and they finished another, what I'll call it a mistake.
After that, we made some adjustments into something that I felt really helped us inside of playing against the back five with -- that is, three strong center backs and deep. We put a second guy up in there, and I felt like we started to create and penetrate and create better actions to get better looks at goal
But we had some looks. Joseph hits one off the post. We have obviously two goals. Dejan has a pretty good look there at the end. Some moments start to shape up a little bit. But frustrated because I feet like again, the goals we gave up were a little bit unnecessary. We were working through how to penetrate and really create chances. We missed the another penalty, frustrating.
But I appreciate and I was really pleased with just the fight back being 2-0 on the road in Nashville, and to keep -- keep pushing and create opportunities and getting one back and getting the second back is just a great mentality for the group.
I think there was opportunity for us to, you know, to take three today if we execute and we defend properly, if we execute over the day, there's something more for us I think on the occasion. But good mentality to fight back.
Q. Does it keep the momentum going for you guys? Was it important to not lose this game?
Yeah, I think it's always important. Again, it's early in the season and we really haven't had to grind back if a game yet. So this was the first one where this particular group was faced with an uphill challenge and managed to execute and get themselves back in it.
So yeah, I think all of these experiences early in the season are important to keep momentum but also to build character and to build some things inside of a little bit of a new group, not completely new, and then like I said, we learned a little bit from the experience playing against a different set up where a team had kind of five in the back and we had to figure out how to break that down. So we also learned from a tactical perspective a little bit over course of this game, as well. All things we can use as we continue to build forward.
Q. Dejan Joveljic with three goals in three games to start the season. I guess in general and this game as well, what have you seen from him so far, and do you think that there's still a potential for him to take even another step? We saw another chance with the penalty kick today.
Definitely. I definitely think there's more steps for this in Dejan. He's gotten himself into some good spots to finish the goals that he's finished. The guys have found him in really good spots. But I still think there's a couple occasions where he isn't quite prepared when other opportunities are showing up. His feet are not sorted or just being a little bit sharper in those moments to finish. He had a pretty good luck from -- on his left foot, you know, in the second half as well, than maybe as he keeps getting better and keeps improving or keeps working that maybe that becomes a better chance than it ended up being. Just some other moments, too, that again, just in some of his length of play and things that he can keep growing. He's a young player.
But it's good when you are a striker and you're scoring every game. Obviously he left a penalty on the table which is going to be frustrating for him and everyone else.
But there's still more room for him to keep growing and keep improving and keep scoring goals. And so there's no question that that needs to happen and will happen and for him.
Q. I wanted to ask you, too, what you thought of Justin Paintsil's game today, definitely a lot different than the last match, just your thoughts on that?
It was tough, especially in the first half for Joseph, right. They played in a back five, and the left wingback really didn't leave him too much. So it was really hard to get things going off the right side. The space to run behind wasn't as clear because of the back five, and because that left wing back was kind of staying with him and closing that off.
So it was hard for him to get touches and get impact until we then switched the rotation and we then brought him inside a little bit more, add another forward and then brought somebody around the outside of him and then I felt like he was really starting to find many good spots that it was hard for them to organize the marking of him.
Again, things that we are learning are him and with the group as we keep facing different ways to defend us and different opportunities to create solutions.
But then once I think he found that spot, I thought as a collective group and him, started to get a lot more dangerous. It was in that inside position that he hurled that one off the post, and then he had a couple run-outs, and then he was arriving and slipping some balls. I felt like that opened him up a lot more when we were able to soften up the marking of him, if you will.
Q. You talked about the mental, and I asked you about that in the last presser, bounce-back ability. So important in football. Maybe teams past had a bit more apathy, some of your squads. Seems like this team has the belief that they are never out of the game, even though it's just such an early start of the season. Is that something that you're seeing as well, that belief in the players?
Yeah, I think this group is a resilient bunch. They come and they work hard every day, and I think as we've -- we haven't thrown a lot of different things at them. But today I threw kind of a different shape and pushed a second forward, which we haven't really done in preseason. Brought somebody in. They quickly adapted inside of that shape and I also thought made use of it pretty well.
So I think just the resiliency. They continued to compete. I think the group feels like with the guys that are out there they can create opportunities and they can create chances. It's just I feel like I needed to help them a little bit to get the right guys in in the right spaces to create some problems for the other team defensively just in terms of how they were going to organize the defending of us.
Once we did that, I think it unlocked us a little bit and we got dangerous. But the mentality was great. Yeah, I think this group feels like they have special qualities and I feel like they can do special things, and so there's no reason why, you know, they shut it down because they are, you know, they are young and hungry and they are going for it, and they have veteran guys in the back that have been great at dealing with stuff and show their experience in dealing with plays.
I think it's great. Again, it's early in the season. So we utilize this opportunity to take some lessons on it but maybe grow on the mentality side to do something a little different coming from behind today.
Q. You don't want missed penalties becoming a habit. Are you thinking you'll stick with Dejan or something that you'll look at and reassess again?
You know, it's interesting, because we -- over the last couple weeks, we've been having guys take penalties and guys are taking five a week and Dejan has been five for five each of the weeks and other guys have been five or five in penalties over the course of the week. Maybe it's next man up, we'll see. But I think when guys get up there, they just need to be clear.
The issue that Dejan ran into, and I see it a little bit in training, is if you go down the middle you have to put it a little higher, and if you're going to smash it, you've got to go high because the goalkeeper needs a little bit of time to get out of the way if he's going to be diving somewhere. And he hit it hard, but kind of kept it at that foot level. Otherwise I think it would have been a decent penalty.
Yeah, we need to make those. Those are opportunities to take goals as they did, and we need to finish those off. So we are going to find somebody or somebody needs to step up and be the guy who can at least hit 90 percent, maybe not 100 percent but we've got to get most of them. We are at zero percent right now. That's not good.
Q. We've seen Marco Delgado be a really important piece for this team so far. Every week, he's stepping up with good performances. We see him in the back line and midfield and even in the wing on occasion. Can you talk to him about the importance of what he brings to the team?
Yeah, obviously I've been with Marc for a long time. So when I make tactical adjustments, Marc has seen all of them, so he's very comfortable. Early in the game we started with him a little bit higher, and as he's been doing in the last several games, playing a little higher in the gap on that right side and working with Joseph and creating some opportunities on that.
But as we switched our shape, I dropped him down into more of a second pivot to be able to cover Mickey because I wanted Mickey to get a little higher so I could bring Joseph inside, and so Marc quickly shifts into the next responsibility.
For me, he's the great balancer on our team because he just does whatever we need to do, and he recognizes in the run of play that there needs to be a certain player in a certain spot, and he'll go fill that spot, even if for that moment. That's not necessarily his job; he will do it because he knows the team needs it done during that period
I always say this about Marc: The speed at which he transitions from attacking to defending and defending to attacking is second to one. He never reacts any other way than just to get back to work and try to deal with situations. So when you're chasing leads and games get a little bit opened up, you like to put him in positions where he can react in transition and try to recover balls or help you to keep games in the attacking half of the field, things like that.
So again, we utilize him in different ways but he always pretty seamlessly falls into whatever the role and the task is and he gets it done. So I think he's been off to a great start this season. He's gotten a couple of assists and today he just did a lot of work on both sides of the ball for the team.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports