LA Galaxy 1, Seattle 0
Q. First of all, your thoughts on the defensive effort tonight, what did you like out of the group compared to, I guess, last week?
GREG VANNEY: I thought the group was resilient. I mean, we had an easy field to play on, at least for us, anyway. And when we attacked, we attacked fast, and again, we get a little bit separated from front to back, which meant the guys that were underneath the ball or behind the ball had some work to do. I think we dealt with 25, or something, crosses that guys had to clear out and in the grand scheme of all that, not many of them turned into something dangerous.
We won the initial ball on a lot of them. I think the one that was scariest for me was the Morris one at the end. The rest I think we handled quite well. Just the resiliency of the group.
Again, they dealt with some awkward, I think, number situations coming at them a few times, and they did a good job of just kind of pulling together and dealing with stuff whether it was crosses or things coming at us. Just a resilient effort, and one we needed today because it wasn't, for us, for a number of reasons, it wasn't the easiest day to possess and keep the ball. We were a little bit in a rush when we got our chances to two forward and yeah, the guys behind it just had to stay strong.
Q. Can you talk about the difference between last year and this year? You had the Supporter's boycott and all that other stuff, but the atmosphere around the team, it just feels like totally different, more confidence, no doubt. Can you talk about that from your perspective and why that might be?
I think it's a good group. It's an energetic group. They like each other. They work together. They spend time together. They enjoy playing together. I think they look at each other's qualities and see how fit and work, and they are enjoying that.
You know, getting results early helps, always. Not having stuff going on around the outside that's stressful for everybody also helps and, when the guys come out and they train, they train. They enjoy it. They get after it. When they play, they look like they enjoy playing together.
Again, when results com and good things come. I feel like the energy around the club in the off-season with the addition of the guys we got and the injection of some pace and some individual quality brings some excitement. Like every time we touch the ball, something can happen with the guys that are out there. So I think that keeps even the fans engaged, because at some point, any possession could turn into a breakout, a run or something that can be interesting.
I think all these things kind of fit together into a group that's feeling really confident. And you know, even today at times we suffered a little bit defensively just to get things done, but they were willing to do it, protecting a lead. Getting out in front in games is important. That wasn't something that we did a lot last year, either, but getting out on the front end and protecting a lead but also going for the second one. So just a lot of things. I just think a lot of positive energy is inside the building, around the club. This group is an energetic group that's exciting, and so that's also helping the situation.
Q. A couple of little pieces of business and then I've got a real question for you. First, Cáceras, do we have a feel for what we're looking at there? Looked like they were looking at his knee.
I don't know exactly. I don't think it was knee. I think it was more a muscular precaution type of thing, but I don't know exactly. I'll find out as I go check in. But I think he was starting to tighten up precaution I hope. We'll see.
Q. Joveljic is a groin injury?
Yeah.
Q. He was able to come and play obviously. Where is he in the grand scheme, and also as part of that, just what you saw from Berry?
Yeah, I think first, with Dejan, it was towards the^ end of the game-ish, right around when he scored. I think he just felt something growing issue. Soon after that, he checked in with them on the field. He checked in with me. He asked for the sub. So we took him off in the last game.
This week, he didn't really train until yesterday he trained a little bit. Early in the season, I know he was going for a record potentially but he's too important to risk him for the long haul. So again he got through training yesterday so we felt like he was comfortable for a short run or a short stint but we didn't want him out there for the long haul. And so that was his run for today.
I think he'll progress and he'll be fine. It was a minor issue but again, precaution at this point in the season is important.
Miguel always puts in a shift. He works and works and works, and he's powerful. He's a powerful runner. He had a couple chances here and there in the game. As we keep building with him, I'd like him to get a little more efficient at times with where he's putting in the work and when, and continuing to just grow and get used to the group and team and stuff like that. He's a handful and he'll run hard which makes gives a challenge for center backs, and gives you more size to compete when he comes in. I really like him towards the end of games. I feel like he's a big handful when he comes on towards the end of the game. So today was a chance for him to start and so he what he could bring to the equation. But I like him. I like him complementary to Dejan at times, and we have seen them together and they combined for a goal, if you recall, in Nashville. I like his work rate and we'll just keep building off that.
Q. Can you maybe going into more detail on the way that the field affected you guys, because I think it did favor them, and a lot of it I think has to do with your speed and the inability for the footing and the running, and the way that the field is slowing down the ball.
Yeah, I think -- I don't know if it favored hem or favored us because they managed to put some passes together and be a little bit more controlled with some of their possessions than we were. I felt like we were, again, we have a lot of pace at the top and when we break out and get into these spaces where we can look forward, we are super eager to take off and get going forward. I thought in the second half, we had a couple where we pulled back and we played in their half for a little bit.
But I felt like it was, for sure at times, just the uncertainty of whether you hit a pass and it's going to stop. And taking risks sometimes playing between the lines, I felt like guys were a little hesitant sometimes to slip balls into the pivots and play off that because you don't want to lose something in between your lines. We talked about trying to build our attacks more on the outside and less through the middle because of the uncertainty. When we went back to John, we took very little risk. With John, everything was launched up the field which we kicked half of them out of bounds, and a lot of them we didn't win. So they came right back at us.
So I think it probably as much affected us sort of just mentally. Plus when you're protecting a lead, then maybe you don't want to take quite as much risk as if you're down a goal, you're maybe willing to go ahead and push the ball through and see if you can do some things.
Yeah, I just feel like we didn't -- over the long stretch of the game we didn't settle into any sort of possession play too much. There's a couple times we got out and pulled it back, like I said, but it wasn't something that was consistent. And I thought we were really, to be fair, I thought we were quite poor in the building out of our half of the field over the course of the day which seemed like, again, minimal risk, and a fear to sometimes play the pass you have to play to get out of some of those situations.
Q. Can you talk a little about Pec getting the goal but also just his first 90-minute performance for you guys and how he was able to have one of the better games on the field today?
Yeah, I thought he was excellent. Especially on a field like this, and some of the times where you just you need a guy to be able to carry forward, protect the ball, spin out of something, his ability to hold people off and/or -- Nou is not an easy defender to play against and he was able to push him into the space a few times, win some territory, beat him a couple times but also just to be strong enough to hold and spin out and get us some territory, like I said. I thought he was really good. Obviously he got the goal in the first half. So I thought the performance was really good.
Where I think we all just collectively need to continue to improve is we need to reorganize and get into better defensive spots and work together on the defensive side. I feel like we are a little -- still a little bit, some of us are resting when others are working, and we need to all work together a little bit more, a little more collectively. I'm saying that with Gabriel just because he's a little bit newer to the group, and I think in the past, he's been used to really just kind of defending fullbacks but weak side defending and that's for everybody. I think that's something.
But I thought his effort was fantastic, and he covers a lot of ground over the course of games. We've seen it now in his data in the last couple games that his capacity to run high speeds for a lot of yards and to do the work is exceptional. But we saw some of his talent today that we haven't seen as much of in the other games that we saw tonight which was special. I can't wait till all of them get on a good field and get clicking together, and to see what all the possibilities are with this group.
Q. The team is unbeaten right now. Played a couple of teams that you guys traditionally have trouble with, in SKC and Seattle and now another tough game next week with LAFC and El Tráfico. Does that take on more significance or is it just another match in the calendar at the moment?
I think it's another El Tráfico, I think which is everybody looks forward to. They are highly competitive, highly emotional games. They are always difficult, and trying to find your balance between managing the things that they are able to do along with trying to do the things that we're capable of doing. There's always an interesting challenge as we go there.
For us now that we are up there I guess on top of the table or somewhere up there, okay, that sounds good -- I thought so. I thought I saw a picture.
We want to stay there. That's the challenge. We want to stay unbeaten. We want to stay on the top. We are going and playing our rivals, and like I said, highly emotional contest, and we look forward to it.
These challenges that have been presented to us at the beginning -- when I looked at our schedule to be honest with you at the start of the season, I thought, this is going to be a really difficult start to the season. Because a number of these games are on the road against really good opponents that are hard to beat that we don't have particularly great record against, and the guys have managed each of these in our own way. We've managed each of these to get something out of them, which has been special. This next week is going to be no different from that way and it's going to be a huge challenge, but the resiliency of the group and the quality of the group makes me excited to go in there and see what we can do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports