LA Galaxy 3, Colorado 1
Q. Maybe a bit of a sketchy first half for you guys. I don't know that you looked subtle, maybe trying to rush the team, trying to fit into that tempo early in the game but these second halves seem to have become a habit for you guys, three goals in the second half, catapulting you guys towards that top spot in the west. What did you say to the guys at halftime and what did you see in that second half?
GREG VANNEY: I thought the press was giving us a difficult time. I mean, I think we were in the spots they were expecting us to be in and they were at times willing just to go man on man at times, and others, I think based on our positioning, they were just very comfortable with where we were at.
Getting to halftime, the idea was to adjust some of our rotations so that we were showing up in such predictable places and we knew how we could scramble that a little bit for lack of a better word. So that they would be in between things and once we are in between against a pressing team moving forward, you can play through their lines and then it becomes -- they are in big trouble. I thought we did a nice job in our movements in the second half. Miki started a little wider and came inside versus just starting inside. There were some really good actions where we were able to get ourselves facing forward and then we found the guys in between the lines that then put the attacks into speed.
And so some really good execution on some of those breaks where we were able to get in behind their pressure, and then also get some transitions. There were a couple more, Dejan off the top of my head, one or two more where we missed Joe on a couple really good runs and we hit the defender or we just missed him when he could have been in for one or two. Really good. And the guys, we talked about halftime just applying it and finding the solutions to the game, and I think capitalizing on the moments.
And then defensively in the second half we loaded up the back line a little bit and kept them really from us as much as possible, and set ourselves up for some transitions, some breaks and see if we could do as we did the third. Proud of the guys. Not an easy place to play. They are a team that's had a success through the course of the year. A great win for us on the road and now looking forward to going home on the weekend.
Q. Riqui Puig and what he's able to do for you guys in center and how he's able to create a lot of those transition moments that finished them as well as he's been doing the last, I don't know, month, and even before that, he scored a ton of goals, is there anything we've missed talking about him?
GREG VANNEY: No. As you guys have seen, he's one of the best players if not the best player in the League at being able to pick up the ball and get himself facing forward. Sometimes we open it up so he can drop a little lower and pick it up, look through the lines and then guys are finding him as he's moving forward and now he's back on the ball but on the other side of the midfield and driving the attack in that way.
I think the commitment for him on those long attacks to then ride into that secondary space for the cutback or for something to set him up and getting himself into that box or the top of box gives him those goal-scoring chances he was able to come up with. I think part of the thing that's really helping him is the movement of the guys ahead of them are also creating some really difficult decisions for the defenders and then Riqui is reading off of their decision. Dejan mid a great run that kind of froze the center back when Riqui cut back to the inside and passes it to the post. There's movement by the group of them that makes the decision-making a little bit easier for Riqui but obviously what he's able to do in terms of changing the speed of the game and getting himself facing forward and now moving with the ball, it's special, right. So we've seen that.
So yeah, we're going to keep building on it. It's a risk/reward for teams. If they want to press us and they find a solution, there's a lot of danger on the other side. If you want to sit low, right, you run the risk of defending a low block for long periods of time. Depending on what the game is and what the opposition is bringing to us, we have to find the solution. Today it took us till halftime to really find a solution but we found it and then we capitalized.
Q. At the very start of the season, one of the first questions I asked you was how relaxed you seemed without all of the added and extra responsibilities, to not have that on your shoulders and coming to the end of the regular season, it seems like you've enjoyed coaching this team more than any other season that you've had at L.A. Galaxy. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
GREG VANNEY: I think, I mean, we all know and as I said before, last year was a sh-t show in many ways, just dealing with a lot of things, right. It was the perfect storm of events and challenges and everything else, and so the visit to England ask separating and getting away and not being here and not being around and going and watching games, it was almost just to try to clear my mind, right, in many ways, of things that was going on.
And then the role sort of shift and getting out of some of the things we were doing last year, I was doing last year and just focusing on the team and our players and stuff.
Yeah, it made things -- I'm in the office working with the coaches. I'm down stairs talking to players. I'm not up in this meeting and that meeting everywhere else at the moment and talking about things that is not necessarily about Winning games, it's about other things, and now I'm focused on that. It's been nice coaching and it's a great group of players.
We picked up the players in the off-season that we talked about that really fit into the style and mode of things that we want to do. And then this whole season has been trying to help mold and breed our guys and mold them into the group that we feel can be the best group we can be and hopefully a contender for championships and hopefully we can close this thing out and win the west. When you're winning, it makes everything better. That's the short answer. When you're winning, everything is better than when you're not. But things with this group, it's nice. It's nice to work with these guys. They are hungry and want to be successful and as you can see we adapt a little bit at half time, take it on and run with. It when you have teams that are able to do that, be successful, it's fun to coach teams like that because you see ideas come to fruition that you want to see. It's been nice.
Q. This season, you've talked a lot about killing games off and a couple of weeks ago, you also talked about closing. This was a brilliant example of that, winning on the road against a team that has been a bit tricky for L.A. Galaxy. Is that the message kind of going into the next few weeks, always be closing?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, it's really what we've been talking about since I've been talking with media, you guys all and the same thing. It's just the end of the game sort of decisions, especially we did the work to get ourselves up 2-1.
For us, it's a fine line between absorbing pressure and setting up our transition game which I think is one of the best in the League, but making sure that we are committing to bogging things down and recovering balls on the defensive side and protecting ourselves, while also keeping guys in positions where they can really punish you when we get out of situations and build speed and really get the third goal which we're able to today.
The piece that I liked, once we got that third goal specifically and I felt at times we rushed things but when we got the third goal there was long stretches of us really defending in possession. The opposition couldn't get close. It's demoralizing when they can't get the ball and they are down and they know they have to get the ball to score.
I thought we did a great job in stretches where we were defending and killing the game in possession, not having to do that necessarily defending at the top of our box, and that's something as a group, we have to take pride in because I think that to be honest it could be one of our greatest strengths defensively is keeping the ball away from the other team and forcing them to have to figure out how to get it. We did a nice job of that in stretches tonight for sure.
Q. Just on Marco's availability for Saturday?
GREG VANNEY: I'll get an update on what he accomplished today on the field. We'll see when he gets through the next couple of days and we'll make a decision going into the weekend. I'm not sure. What I will tell you is we're not going to push him into something we don't need to push him into, that's for sure.
On the other side of this, we have basically another international break, a match that then leads us into the playoffs. No matter what, he will absolutely be ready for Houston based on what's going on right now. I'd say it's really day-to-day. We'll see for Saturday. And just keep moving him forward. But I know he's on the field and he's doing stuff. So it will be just kind of a day-to-day, see how he progresses over the next couple days.
Q. How special is it for you to approach this home closer with the prospect of the team virtually being on cusp of clinching the No. 1 seed in the west? How special is it to be able to perform in front of these fans?
GREG VANNEY: Look, I think it's great. Just we've got a great record and we've performed well at home all year. As I said, that's a community thing. I think that's the fans and the environment and the atmosphere that's created in the stadium, and that's the guys coming out and doing the business on the field that feeds back into that and get the crowd excited and going. The relationship between the energy back-and-forth has been really good. We as a group have capitalized on that in terms of being at home. Our goal is to close out the regular season in a positive way and give the pans that Western Conference that I know they would love to celebrate, especially after the challenges they also endured last year with the rest of us.
And then see out the rest of the regular season, and really lock it in. You know, with the way we performed in the regular season, it ensures us a lot of home games as long as we can keep advancing in the playoffs, and that's also a tribute to them and again, the relationship on and off the field that we've been able to establish in the stadium. So trying to close it out the right way and then look forward to playoff games at home in our stadium with our fans there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports