LA Galaxy 1, Houston 1
Q. Another wild start, I guess, to these games. What do you have to say about the red card, giving up the first goal but how you guys responded in that second half.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought we started really poor. From the kickoff, probably for the next, whatever, five, ten minutes, it was -- I just feel like we never, like, settled into the game.
The kickoff, the way we went into the kickoff and hit a straight ball just didn't make sense. Yeah, we've got to be cleaner and start games cleaner.
I thought all of that, us not using the balling, with turning it over, not really settling in, we're hitting long balls and doing things that was making the game transitional. Opening it up, and again, not really working together defensively to keep things where they were. And they came acrossed us and they got a goal.
But I thought it started from a bit of an erratic start and things didn't settle in. From there to the rest of that half, you thought we did a good job of at least protecting ourselves and managing our way through the first half as we kind of settled in to being down a man.
And I thought the second half reaction was really good. I thought guys, they were connected, made it difficult for them to create too many chances on the attacking side. We protected ourselves. We were down. Because we're still trying to find ways that we can initiate enough pressure to get them into areas where we could try to recover balls that we could use in transition.
And you know, we get a foul. Diego hits a great free kick. It's actually the first direct free kick that we've scored since I've been here, so good timing, I guess. But that's the first one.
And then even after that, I though we were able to break out after a couple occasions. Obviously Joe gets one across to Gab where maybe we have a chance, and one Miki gets to the end line we don't quite get across.
But we have some other promising moments. I'm proud of the guy, this is the fourth game in two weeks with some heavy travel in between and a tough loss on Tuesday. And it started off in a way that didn't feel like it was shaping up for us, and the guys found a way to get a good solid, earned point, even though we came here for three today.
It didn't play out the way we were expecting from the start, and they did a great job of pulling together and taking something out of this game.
Q. What's the frustration level like for you guys you finally look lie you get healthy, you have a pretty strong starting lineup for the first time in probably a while. Zanka gets the red card, things start falling apart pretty quickly there. Eventually this stuff has to get fixed, doesn't it?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, for sure. Again, it has to get fixed. Some of it is it's tough to fix things going game-to-game because you're trying to solve some things inside the game. No excuses. Just we have to stop putting ourselves in holes, and then trying to figure our way out of holes.
Yeah, there's no two ways about it. It's got to get cleaned up. It's got to get fixed. And hopefully as we get guys, tonight we try to give Lucas his first start and settle him into the team a little bit. He has not played many games, so he's still kind of finding his way and his footing inside of the group.
I thought Isaiah came on and gave us a good second half performance, just showing us, again, systematically he understands some things even though we're down a man.
So I think even though we're getting healthier, there are still guys that have not played a ton with us and that are still learning a little bit more about what we're trying to do.
But, yeah, we've got to clean it up. Clean up putting ourselves in a hole and the not-so-good starts. Those are the biggest things. Because after that, I feel like we find ourselves back into the game and we look all right.
Q. When Zanka gets the red card and you have to react to it, is there any thought of bringing Eriq in as a center back and moving something around?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, there's a lot. There's a couple things that go there. One was -- I let it ride for a few minutes. One is Eriq is not in great physical condition right now. His back is a bit messed up. And so if we had to use him for a short period of time, I felt comfortable with it. If I had to use him for a long period of time, I wasn't super comfortable with it.
The second part was, let it ride for a little bit just to see how it was going, and Eddie looked like he was comfortable.
The second part to that, with Eddie back there gave us a lot more capacity to stay and hold the ball. And part of that is because of Eddie's ability to dribble the ball, to move with the ball. It's harder to press a midfielder when he's book in that position and he's very comfortable on the ball than sometimes center backs or other players back there.
We felt like with Eddie back there, it gave us a chance to start more attacks to have a little bit more of the ball, and give us maybe a little bit of composure, even though we were down a man, not to say that Eriq couldn't. But Eriq is not going to move around the ball and carry into new spaces and win some time on the dribble that maybe we could use.
So when I saw that that was pretty settled in on the defensive side, then I was going to play that one for a while because I thought it would help us to try to create some things and not just defending for longer stretches of time.
Q. In that situation, how much do you have stringent ideas of these things have to be taken care of by these people, and how much freedom is there? We saw with Miki and Diego, we saw at times they would shift into places where there might be space that needed to be filled. There seemed to be a lot of reading the game and falling into defensive positions.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, there's a lot of -- we know where the positions are, and the question is: How are you going to fill them? With one less number, sometimes filling them is a little bit trickier.
And so again, you're trying to do that while not exposing yourself, while also making sure that you have enough numbers to start an attack, but you're trying to get enough numbers into positions where you can finish some attacks but then not expose yourself in transition. So it becomes -- it became pretty fluid.
I felt like with that group, and especially with Isaiah out, there I felt like everybody kind of understood some of the fluidity that needed to maybe take place, even on the defensive side. If guys got pulled out, how we would fill back into some of the spaces to cover each other.
I think the guys did a good job. They did a good job of, again, of dealing with stuff.
Q. You've talked a few times in the past month and a half about the need to recognize situations to be at the right speed to take responsibility in these situations. Are you seeing the advances that you want to see there? How much is that still a work-in-progress?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, well, I think it's different for different guys, right. Some guys, they read things. They anticipate. They pick it up early, and they recognize what needs to be done and they deal with it. Some guys are a little slower.
I think collectively, the group, we're trying to get everybody there. And then you have some guys, Joe did not go through a preseason it. Took him a few games but I think the last few games we see Joe at top speed again.
Then you see guys coming into our team that have not been into our team, like a Lucas, who is still going to need time. That's why it's not smooth, you know. And when you put yourself down a man, it becomes even more tricky. And so that's a whole different -- a whole certain scenario.
I do think with the way the group sort of -- with the group we brought in in the second half, there was some continuity within that group, and some recognition of things that needed to be recognized. And they dealt with 11 men and created the chances that got the goal and created a couple other chances and dealt with some stuff through the course of the game.
We've got to do those types of things with 11 and make sure that we can get on top of the game and not do things that put us behind or put us underneath some things.
But I do think -- look, my bet here is that as we get healthy and we get some time and a rhythm to train a little bit and get guys integrated back into the group and into the rhythm, and when you look down on the bench and we start to see guys who can come in to also impact the game and really help us, that we can certainly build our way out of this.
We've got to also get some guys -- we've got four guys on the bench who can do a lot of things to help our group, too. We've got to continue to build our way back into this.
Q. (On injuries)?
GREG VANNEY: The good things are Marco was in part of training the other day so hopefully we can build forward for that for next week. Mauricio should be ready for next week. He checked all the boxes coming into today, and just another week of full training will really help him because where he was.
Maya is still probably a couple weeks or so away, but I think in general, we are starting see some light at the end of the tunnel, so long as we can keep the group that we have healthy.
Q. It's 1-1, as it gets later in the game, what's going through your mind sub-wise? Are you trying to hold onto it or look for ways to pull the game out, or what are you dealing with that there?
GREG VANNEY: A little bit of both. You're trying not to expose yourself and the effort to try to go get the second goal. In my opinion, when you have come from behind and you're down a man, a point is a solid result, and also good for the locker room and good for the group.
But what I saw in the group is they were eager to try to go win the game. And so I didn't want to take that away from them, but I also wanted to make sure that we were mindful of protecting ourselves.
I loved that the mentality was, let's go, we feel confident enough to try to win this thing, and guys were going for it. I was trying to support, and at the same time make sure we got out of here today with at least one. Because that's the -- you know, some of the reward for the work that was put in is at least you come away with something at the end of the day.
So it was trying to find a balance inside of those things. The ten guys that were going in the second half, I thought had really good slowly of it. So I was not necessarily super eager to make substitutions but I did feel like we were losing a little bit of gas, and in transitions and moments like that, that we had our legs to be able to deal with some of those situations.
Q. On Diego's 400th appearance, he scored the goal that tied the game, and he was all over the pitch after you went down to ten men somewhere, and the defense getting linked up and offense as well. Can you talk to us about his impact right now, especially wearing the armband and what you're seeing out of his performances and his importance to the team right now? Thank you.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, a pleasure. Diego, he's a player who he understands how the pieces work, if that makes sense. Just tactically, he's aware. He understands everybody's role on the field. He understands the responsibilities of everybody. And he himself can step into different roles and pull off those things.
You know, when Diego is the out-and-out winger, I think if we don't bring numbers around him and support around him, Diego is not really at a point, I believe, in his career where he's beating guys one-on-one and he's running behind and he's that dynamic super player. But he is really cerebral and smart and can understand the game.
So when he has Joe on the outside of him who provides him some running and some depth, and he's more inside, I feel like he links some of the pieces together for us that maybe we haven't had as much of at times. And again, his understanding of where -- what spaces need to be filled and who should be where and how things should work, both with and without the ball is very good, and it ties some pieces together for us, like I said.
And being able to put him in different positions gives -- as a coach, you always want to have somebody who you feel like you can move around the field who is going to give you sort of that solid connector. And he'll communicate on the field. He'll move people around in different plays, things like that and he'll make good reads over the course of the game.
Again, you just have to appreciate that he's tactically super aware, and that helps everybody else. He does have that ability I think at this point to hit passes and to find guys and to play some of those balls that, more like an interior player or attacking midfielder, probably suits him more than being a winger in some aspects these days. Unless he has a fullback flying around him on the outside which we haven't done a ton of on our left side, it's a better role for him right now. And I think it's something that our team needs.
But this is the first night that he's actually kind of had it all season where he's had a winger on the outside of him who has been able to give him some space creation and running.
The other thing with Diego is he's a captain. He's a guy would connects with everybody in the locker room. He is a guy that he can go sit in that pocket and have a conversation with all the young guys. He can go here and speak with all the Spanish-speaking guys.
He's just a great human being, and he has a way of, again, connecting people in the locker room and similar ways that he connects people on the field. He has a way of being able to say things that you might think are offensive that isn't offensive, right. They are direct, but they are like, wait, I think he just said something that I should take offense to, but you don't because the way Diego said it is so clever and wise and caring and the right way.
I think those are good qualities of a leader, and so you know, for us right now, he's the captain, and he's stepping into that because he's that guy who can pull people together.
Q. Can you talk to us briefly about Gabriel Pec. Is he getting the space that you want to see him get, now that Paintsil is back in the lineup?
GREG VANNEY: I think it's a starting point. But when we go down a man, the opposition has the ability to put in numbers, at least an extra number, where he wants.
I think it's coming. I think tonight at times he was able to be a little more direct in his play and face forward and run without the ball, run with the ball. So I think it's coming for him.
I think the other things are with Diego now, or if Marco comes back, or different guys who can kind of play the role of play maker, he doesn't maybe internally feel like he needs to sometimes be the play maker because we need him to be the play finisher; and a guy who is working behind to get to the box and get beat his man and not necessarily receiving the ball at his feet all the time, which is something he's been doing too much of. And part of that is because he's trying to help create plays. And instead we want him on the end of some of these plays because he's a producer of goals and a producer of assists and stuff.
We talked to him this week about trying to be more on the move and more active running, moving without the ball and picking up the ball on the move, and a little less standing and waiting for the ball to come to his feet.
I think those things will come together because I think some of the pieces that will open the spaces for him are starting to fall into place a little bit more.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports