LA Galaxy 2, Minnesota United 1
Q. Hey, Greg. A night that pretty much had everything but after they scored their goal to tie it, how do you see the group sort of responding there and ending up with the winning goal there?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought we found a little more energy again. You know, it's just, we made a couple of subs, Maudi, trying to get him over on that right side, Gabe pinched in a little more, get Maudi sprinting up the line. Mickey had done a lot of it during the game. I thought just getting Maudi on could give us, again, some more energy and sprinting up the side, trying to get some numbers back boo the attack, things like that. It was -- I just think we just found a little more energy, maybe sprinted a little bit more ahead of the ball. Our challenge on the night was, again, there was a lot of space in the middle of the mid field, especially in transition moments and when we lost balls, we were conceding some territory and ground. That became a little bit of a challenge for us. We had chances and we had moments that looked like we were going to put the game away. We let them slide, which always on these nights is always a tough one. It's a third game in a week after a really emotional game on Wednesday. It's always -- these games are always a little weird. I feel like maybe tired legs, maybe a little bit tired minds we didn't put the game away but we felt like it was there. Yeah, we had to suffer a little bit and we had to deal with some balls in our box and some tough moments as well.
But, I think sometimes in these third games you put away some of the stuff that you normally are really, really picky on and you just got to suffer through it a little bit and we did it enough tonight to get the three points and we'll take it and we'll talk about how we want to keep improving and get better and attack the next week, so just I'm glad we managed to get the three points.
Q. Coming in off only two days off the LAFC game, what kind of concerns did you have for the group? We saw Fagundez in the lineup and Nelson replacing Aude, but were there any concerns you might have had coming into this game?
GREG VANNEY: I mean always. Always when you, again, you play a game like the one at the Rose Bowl, it's a big occasion, it's emotional. It just takes an extra toll. We were pushing to the end. You empty the tank in that game. We came back with a few pieces, one with Martin, then John, and Diego coming in midfield a little bit and we started off that way with some level of continuity coming from the game on Thursday knowing that we could probably bring in a couple guys. We don't have a ton of guys on the attacking side necessarily. We were going to have to figure out the long play on that tonight in terms of how we would adapt if we wanted to, anything in the attack. We had Miguel who came on for Dejan. We were trying to measure through it knowing that options are not aplenty at the moment. We have to get a few guys healthy, get Johnny back and fill out the group but credit to the guys out there. They pushed themselves. I think they suffered through the game and I think we left some things on the table that maybe would have made that game a little more controlled and maybe see it out a little bit earlier. They had a tough week, too, in fairness to them. They had to go Portland back to Minnesota to play and back to the west coast so part of it for us is if we could really push them especially early and make them really have to work, we felt like down the stretch we could build a little bit of momentum against them but I don't think we took advantage of our moments and at the end, we finely got our goal, but.
Q. Hey, Greg, what was Dejan's situation?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, the last action of the first half when we had a really good chance I think or Riqui I think played one wide and we tried to square it across, I don't remember, it was one of the last good transition attacks in the half. He laid it off and he turned to sprint and he felt something grab a little bit in his hamstring. I don't know if there's anything to it but I don't think he really broke on a sprint but I think he felt it a little awkward, I don't know. But it's a leg injury and I'm a little concerned. I saw it, probably everyone saw it, him starting to rub back there a little bit and when I asked him, I just said you're done because we don't need to take any risks with this so I don't know anything beyond that.
Q. And what is the prognosis on Aude and what you get from John Nelson in that spot and what you saw from him today.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah. Julian is, in fairness to him, he's been grinding a little bit. He's just had some abdominal, groin sort of -- I don't know what you want to call it. It's like inflammation that if it doesn't get checked, it can turn into a sports hernia type of thing. We saw it a little bit with Jalen last year and we just try to be mindful with shutting him down. We got to a point where we can utilize these couple of weeks, but also possibly even the break for Leagues Cup just to try to get him healthy on the other side of Leagues Cup so just a calculation of we need to give him a chance to heal.
With John stepping in, you get experience, you got a guy back there who, he's probably a touch more conservative than Julian in his approach. Julian is a little more up and down and Nelly is a little more conservative, a little more defensive controlling and he did find his moments, though, to get himself moving into the attack, but he's a good defensive reader of things. He made a great play, I think, in the box and then he makes a hell of a tackle with a yellow card late in the game, made me a little nervous but he made a great tackle. He's just a good, solid, experienced right back who understands the defending things and he has a calculation for risk/reward that can help us, too.
Q. Greg, I know you talked about Cuevas a little bit --
GREG VANNEY: He meant the touch.
Q. He looked fantastic. You put him in situations where you said he's not a mid fielder but you put him in those situations and he's played well. What did you see from him at the end of the game and what kind of player can he be?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I think he has a really bright future. Well, let's talk about what he can do. We've seen him come in as a winger and create some really good moments, really mindful tactically aware when we ask him to do certain things defensively. He's very aware of his potential sense. I see him as a fullback ultimately and one of the things I like is he's an up and down, he's got an engine, he can get up and down the line. He gets himself like tonight into attacking positions. We brought him on because, again, with Mickey had done 80 minutes of up and down at times and up 1-0 he was getting a little more conservative. We talked about choose your moments when we're up 1-0 and that came to being really conservative. We pilled out John, brought Mickey over and brought Maruicio get Gabe running in front of the goal and get going and we'll see if Riqui can switch it or someone can switch it, similar to the first goal. He's a wonderful crosser of the ball. He hits a very hot but kind of friendly ball across the back line that's really difficult to defend. His timing is really good own his running. Again, he has an engine. The things that he's going to continue to improve upon are a little bit on the defensive side of things just having to defend one on one and some of his reeds and choices and some of those situations that we're going to keep bringing him along. I like his future, I like his mentality, it's fantastic. We have used him in situations where we needed an attacker, someone to add a little something in the attacking part of the game and I thought he did a great job again tonight and he makes the difference and he's done that in a couple games now, so.
Q. And then the game of Gabriel Pec, again. Nine goals, eight assists now. He continues to show different flairs, seems he's getting comfortable. Seems like you have been relying on him to get the ball in the back of the net lately.
GREG VANNEY: Again, he's playing with a ton of confidence. He's happy, he's settled into the team and he's understanding the league and his English is becoming really good. I think he's just understanding his environment a little bit better and the things we're asking from him. Today I said against the back five. I don't want you to just stand against the line because their wing back will stand with you. I wanted to get him coming inside and bringing the full back around where he can create separation. How he scored both of those goals are exactly what we drew up for him in the pre-game, just get yourself moving around that space and arrive in the box as the full back is coming and get yourself in front of the goal and he did it, so credit to him. He did the running, he did the work and put himself in a great spot and got two goals out of it. He's super confident in the 1-V-1 now you see him freezing defenders. He'll go right, left, he's done fancy stuff where you see that flair from him. I also like that he's chosen possession and be solid that way. He's been in great form. We've needed it. As Joe gets fit and sharper, he's going to continue contributing goals, the strikes, Riqui, those guys will continue contributing goals but he's hot and feeling confident and he wants to stay on the right side so he's going to keep scoring and getting goals.
Q. You mentioned it already but I'm going to take you to the other wing. Joseph Paintsil seems to get in good positions and good chances. What do you think is happening on the final action that it's not being executed?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I think his running and the danger and all the things are there for him right now, which has been steps in him getting back after being off for a while. One of the things tough to get back is that sprint repeatability. We saw more of that tonight. I think it's just getting sharpens sometimes it's the touch before the finish, sometimes it's just the finish getting a little bit sharper, I think. The first one that he has in the first half, Riqui rounds the corner as he makes a darting run across the face, I think it's probably two yards two long and the keeper is able to get close enough to take the angle away but it's a really good run. He has a couple others in the half where or in the second half where he's behind and then he has a chance and he tries to cut it back to his left.
What I would like to see him do, and this is our discussion, I feel like he's decelerating a tiny bit to make the finish a little more perfect or to try to -- I would like to see him keep his speed and finish running through the play at top speed and just trust the spot and I think when he's decelerating he's trying to be perfect with it. Sometimes you just need to do things at top speed and you have a better chance. He's got to sprint repeatability back. Now he just needs the sharpness of doing things at top speed which is the next thing to come back. He's there in a good spot and I think the rest will fall in place for him.
Q. We have had a lot of Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday. To now have a week without a game, how big is this week going to be for you guys?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, it's been a busy week, an open week followed by a busy week and then an open week so we try to use the open weeks to recover a little bit at the beginning so guys will have a couple of days from a busy an emotional week just to reset physically and mentally and then you start to prepare for what's going to be another busy week after and so we start off in Dallas, which is always -- in Dallas is always tough, especially this time of year. It's a special kind of tough, you know? With the weather. So then we come back for two more at home. We'll road map out how we want to approach next week and prepare the group. It's nice doing that coming off a win. It feels a lot better as you go into this week and everybody can kind of relax and enjoy the next couple of days and then we get right back to work. It can be a little bit of a grind, but I'll tell you from the guys' perspective, they would rather play games than train all week, so this formula or whatever this series of three and then off a week is manageable and the key is we have to keep as many guys healthy so each one of those didn't get more challenging on each guy because we get a little thinner roster-wise. We'll look at the next week and decide what the best way is in terms of our -- how we want to lay it out for the players, you know? So we finish this stretch before league cup.
MODERATOR: Thanks for your time. We'll be joined by one last player, Maruicio Cuevas.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports