LA Galaxy 4, San Jose 3
Q. We can start with, where are your emotions after a game you looked comfortably ahead, and then it turned into a scramble there for the last 25 minutes or so?
GREG VANNEY: I'm glad we got out with three points in the end. I mean, yeah, it was a crazy one. Again, each time we got up by three goals and you think, okay, we are going to look this thing down, we gave the goal back within a couple minutes. And then you know, of course they are not going to go away.
So then we are in a -- then we are in a battle, and yeah, we had -- gave up goals and another set piece, but it's a deflection that finds their head that finds back of the net that makes it 3-1
It's a game, as I said to the guys, we have to be able to lock that game down to shut it down and it needs to be done and that means we need to be more mature in some of our decisions throughout the course of the game. Make sure that we are good and solid in our possessions, and that we stay connected as a group and we are not racing ahead of ourselves and getting separated.
I felt like we maybe sense there had was six goals or seven goals or eight goals, and then we lose track of just trying to, again, manage the game in an intelligent way and the goals will show up. I felt like we got in front of our skis a little bit on some of that.
This league has a way sometimes of reminding you that no lead is a safe lead if you don't do all the little things right. And we then sub on, get a red card and penalty, and now next thing you know, you're in a one-goal game. And you're trying to see it out, making subs, don't have cover at your center back position anymore. Right back, you bring on a guy that was sick yesterday and that I didn't even know if we had 30 minutes in.
We just got quickly into an awkward, a weird position for us that we just had to see it out. So in the end, I'm happy and pleased with the work that the guys did, especially when they shut it down at the end. The guys that came on did a really good job of with nine or with ten seeing the rest of the game out
But it's a game that I would like us to be more mature in how we shut that game.
Q. What did you like about the first 30, you went up 3-0 what did you like in that stretch, and also maybe the first 15 of the second half there?
Yeah, I thought at times when we were at good spots and the ball was moving and we were able to break their lines or catch them kind of gambling a little bit to close off the gaps, I think we made them pay on some of those occasions. It was nice for us to score on a set piece.
But yeah, I thought, again, I thought we had pretty good control of the game through a good stretch of that, and that's the way we need to see out the rest of the game and not let it get there. But there are some good moments. They were organized and really working hard, and they were really releasing their fullbacks hard to our outside players; and when we were able to recognize that and get the ball moving quickly enough and get behind these guys, that's when I think we found some interesting attacks that were coming out of it.
Yeah, and I thought defensively, when we were connected, I thought we were better. When we're separated, we're just having to retreat again and deal with things deep. And so I think we've got to, again, continue to not get so pulled by the goals sometimes and make sure that we keep ourselves together so that the game doesn't get open. Especially when we are up two, three goals, the game doesn't need to be open at that point.
Q. When you say "sick," are we talking about Cuevas?
A. Well, Mickey has a bone bruise that got irritated this week. So he was out.
Yesterday in the morning, he was kind of ruled out and then come to find out, Mauricio called the doc in the wee hours of the morning and he wasn't able to come in and was told not to come in. So he was sick. So he didn't even train yesterday.
In the scramble, we used Eddie in a number of positions, and today he was right back and I thought he would help us in possession moments. And he's got enough athleticism, enough experience, to try to manage the side. So I thought he did fine and did a nice job just helping us under the circumstances.
And then Martín started to feel it. I don't know exactly what "it" is. I don't think it was an injury, but he was definitely feeling like he was getting to an uncomfortable position. So at three we think, okay, we are going to try to get him off and help manage him because he's in one of those positions, and then the game becomes -- then our center back, Eriq, who gets puts on and gets red carded, and then it becomes interesting.
Yeah, always keeps you on your toes.
Q. Had you put any thought to -- Martinez played as an outside back, was there any thought of that?
Well, I mean, there's two parts to that. One is Eriq is just coming off on concussion protocol. So he's only trained a bit this week. I didn't necessarily think he was ready for the long haul.
Yeah, to me, that would -- I don't think at this point in Martín's career he's quite -- he wants to be defending outside in the wide channels, and so using Eddie's youth and athleticism. He was a wide player growing up, and don't let him fool you. He was a winger growing up and then he was moved into the defensive midfield position. I feel like I thought he managed it pretty well through most of the game.
And then I think as he started to get tired, or we started to get separated, the decisions at outside back start to become very different. And that's when experience really helps when you your team is a little separated and you're isolated and you have got to make some decisions. That's when I think a little bit of his lack of maybe fullback experience came out
But I thought he did -- I thought he did the best job he could do which is enough for us tonight.
Q. Seemed like he was a little bit of a stay-at-home right back.
Yeah, we definitely were holding him. We weren't trying to get him too involved in the attack. It was to help in transition and to help us set up attacks. Yeah, wasn't trying to get him up and down the sideline or anything like that. We were trying to keep it as simple as possible.
Q. At 3-0, do you get the sense at all that the team took their foot off the gas or they kind of got a little complacent being up 3-0?
Yeah, I mean, we gave up the goal pretty fast but what I would say is -- this is what I say at halftime is, I think we feel like there's goals in the game for everybody. And then we just start racing out trying to go score goals instead of still sticking to being sort of diligent about keeping possession, moving our team forward, not rushing to finish attacks, keeping our organization behind attacks to prevent transitions, being a little more methodical.
Up three, we don't necessarily need to rush, but I felt like there was a sense, oh, we can break this, we can score and there's two or three goals for each of us in this thing. That's where then I feel like we start to get really pulled toward the goal on this side, and we are not as fast to close up on this side. And then most attacks don't finish in goals; they finish in turnovers. And now what's happening in between those lines is nothing. So now they play out of it, and now we are backing and we are retreating going into defending, and that becomes an end-to-end game, which is anybody's game. Even if you're up 3-0, it could be anybody's game
But it also becomes a really expensive game physically. It's just taxing, and then when you get tired, you can make mistakes. So that, to me, is what I feel like we -- we felt a little bit like, oh, man, we can go get more and more and more. And in the end, you get separated as a group, and it becomes a much more difficult game than maybe it could.
And they weren't going away. To their credit, they never once took a step back. They just kept coming, and for us I think giving a goal back pretty quickly after going three helped them to say, hey, there still might be something there. You go 3-0 up and you keep it for 10, 15, 20 minutes, then I think maybe -- maybe you start to see a little chink in the armor. But it wasn't -- they never showed it. They kept coming.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports