LA Galaxy Media Conference

Greg Vanney

Press Conference

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Los Angeles, California, USA


Charlotte 0, LA Galaxy 0

GREG VANNEY: Our possession play was pretty solid. We were able to move the ball around. We were able to get to two-thirds maybe of the field to good spots.

Sometimes when we got into the final action, I feel like we rushed crosses or rushed moments that weren't really great and we didn't really give ourselves a chance to get numbers in the box on some of those and we just like -- those attacks just kind of died. And then I thought, you know, in the grand scheme of things, we also had the chance to win the game.

Gabe has an incredible chance there at the end but I think he's got to finish and he would probably tell you the same thing. Maya has a header; the defender does a good job to get a good piece of him -- that he's trying to get a piece of. There were not a ton of really great clean chances, but we were in good spots but to be fair we were also kind of with our possession forcing them into a lower block and they were -- they had numbers in their half of the field, and it became an exercise of breaking down what was a pretty tight group.

I thought we didn't concede many moments where we were in turnovers in these huge transitions. Having said that, I feel like it's too easy to get into our half of the field and we are dealing with things around the top our box and that's when we are getting really compact and managing stuff.

I feel like we've got to do a little bit more in the transition phases to really reconnect and take away the verticality of the game so that the opposition doesn't so quickly and sometimes easily get to our half of the field. Some of that, again, is how we finish the attacks and some of is just our reactions and ability to reconnect a little bit faster.

Again, by and large, third game this week and two on the road all the way across the Eastern Conference. I give the guys a lot of credit. I thought we controlled a lot of the match, even though we were doing things defensively a little lower, I thought we were in control of things. It's a good point.

Q. The third game, end of a road trip, how do you think you managed the road trip and how did the team handle traveling all those miles? And if you can give us an update on Paintsil.

I thought we managed the road trip pretty well. Again, I think midweek, first half, we looked a little sluggish and didn't look so good in parts there. I felt like we just were a little bit behind the pace of things. They had the weekend off and we got to the weekend with having played -- or got to midweek having played on the weekend, I felt like we were a little bit behind the pace. Having said that we came out in the second half and got the lead. Obviously wish we would have closed that one out and dealt with the situation because then we would have snagged three points. Nevertheless we got back to this game which is again a lot of time in hotels and laying around and trying to keep guys busy.

It's easy to sometimes on these trips just feel like really lazy and lethargic and I thought the guys came out with good energy. I thought we found nice solutions. Everyone who was called upon stepped up and did what they were asked to do, and I thought we managed things pretty well.

The two things, we let two points at home, which is where we have to be getting our results and I would have loved us to close out -- really I'd love us to close out Minnesota because there was not a ton of time on the clock and I wish we would have shut that one down. Some points to go, but we also played with eight or nine games on the road so far and like five at home; it's not the easiest to catch momentum when you are playing on the road so much.

Now we turn around and have four or five at home or something like that coming up. This is a big phase for us to really build some momentum in all ways being in front of our fans and being at home for this next stretch. Obviously we've got to go on the road once more but hopefully build on the momentum and get some points.

Q. And Paintsil?

Joe, slight hamstring strain. It's not horrible. So obviously be a few weeks is where we are at right now. We'll see. Going to see how quickly he responds to certain things but we'll see where he's at. It's not big but it's significant, you know. It's tough on Joe because coming off the season he's had, he's already played 44, 45 games in this season from starting in August with his club to where he is now which is the end of the European season, unfortunately in that last kind of game, he took something.

But we were trying to get him to June to give him rest and know that it's going to start accumulating so now he takes forced rest and it won't hurt him. He needs a break, anyway, to recharge as we go into the middle third and final third of season.

Q. Wanted to ask what you thought of Gabriel Pec today. How do you think he did tonight with those opportunities?

I thought he got a lot of the ball and I thought he was in the best position to make a difference tonight in terms of opportunities, in terms of space to run. Their left back was really narrow and they gave Gabriel a real opportunity to dive in behind him and tried to create some problems, whether that's to finish or whether that was to get to crossing positions.

So I thought the opportunities were there for him to make a difference.

I'd still like to see him run without the ball a little more to really build speed and angle his runs in towards the goal because I think he'll have more opportunities on goal, especially on a night like tonight. And then he had one that came across the field that was really set up for him and I know he's going to tell you he should finish that and he should.

But certainly I felt that he had the position on the night to really make a difference. Just, again, based on where the space was and where the opportunities existed but unfortunately he wasn't able to make that final sort of difference but I thought it what's pretty solid performance but I think we'll both say, he and I, that he could have made the difference in the game and we could have gone home with the three points.

Q. Novak Micovic with his first start of the season. What went into that, and what did you think of his start today?

It was preplanned, road trip, third game in the week, Eastern Conference. But courtesy of the MLS, we don't have the Open Cup this season to be able to get both of our keepers games.

So we have to kind of manufacture some experience because the kid's got a lot of talent, and we've got to bring him along and he's got to play in order to do some of that.

So we look in the schedule. This was a clear one and an easy one to get him the opportunity. I thought minus the concentration brain fart there at the end when he went to control the ball, it rolled under his foot. I thought he had a very solid game.

I thought his choices, they didn't have to deal with a ton of super high press but I thought the choices in his build were very good. His distribution choices I thought were smart and good. And he made the saves that he needed to make and there wasn't a ton of big crazy saves that he had to make but I thought he managed the box and managed all his situations well. I thought it was a very solid night tore him and he deserved the start. Happy for him.

Q. From a tempo and control perspective, it seemed like you had total discipline across all units today. You didn't win but from a cohesiveness point of view, I felt like it was one of your best displays of the season. Would you agree with that?

I would. I think from a control standpoint, I would say yes, I agree with it. I felt like our positional awareness was really good. Even though guys were doing a little bit of place changing and there was some rotations happening, I felt like we were in good spots.

I thought our general, like, discipline in terms of our choices and being solid in possession, even though spaces were a little bit tight when we forced them into a lower block, I thought we were pretty responsible with the ball for the night which really limited their chances of breaking out and trying to counter against us with the size and speed they had. We really minimized those.

But I thought just the collective awareness and positioning was really good and that meant that there were solutions all over the field for us in the possession phase. Now the next key is just transitioning out of possession to create the attack to get the guys to where they need to be in the final action, and that was maybe a little bit that wasn't quite as sharp through the whole night but it was -- but again, we had a couple chances maybe there to win the game.

But again, I agree with you. The one thing we worked on or we just talked about at halftime was getting Mickey to come inside and narrow up his position a little bit more after we built the initial part of the attack, just getting him really inside so that when we needed to counter press, we closed up the field a little bit more and he made the adjustment and I thought we were more stable in that way as well.

Yeah, I agree with the observation.

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144281-1-1003 2024-05-19 02:05:00 GMT

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