Philadelphia 3, LA Galaxy 2
Q. Thoughts on how you started and how it ends in the second half?
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: Where to even start in I think everybody sees how frustrated it is. You go up 2-0 in Philly which is a hard place to play, and I thought we were doing so well in the first half. Come into the break and in five minutes, the whole game changes for us and then we try to hold off as much as we can and we gave up a late goal and it's a hard one to swallow. Frustrations.
Just things are not going our way. We're trying so hard to give stuff back to our fans, to ourselves. It's just hard.
Q. We saw the reaction, obviously, from the 7-0 loss. I'm sure you went out and wanted to show there was life after that game, and you guys started so quickly. What do you think was so successful in that first half, just the way that you guys played, scoring first for the second time this year?
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: Crazy. Because we said -- I've been saying if we score first, games change, and today I thought we did that really well in the first half. We score a goal, Mauricio scores a nice goal and we had a couple more chances to score another one. I was able to score one.
It was feeling really good for us. It was one of those feelings that you're like, okay, maybe this is it. Maybe we break the ice now and at a hard place to play. Then you get punished in five minutes and it's tough. But the only thing that we can look at is the team responded really well from New York but now we need to learn how to play 90 minutes. We can't just play 45 minutes and think the game is over.
Overall, this game is 90 minutes plus, and today was not good enough for us to play 90 minutes today. We only played 45, and it's just so frustrating. We want it as much as everybody else. We want to win. We want to give things back, and it's -- hard to swallow this one.
But now we need to look into LAFC and the only thing we can do is look forward and make sure that we give that game everything and make sure that we put a statement out there in who we are. Even though we've been trying to do that.
But now, more important, it's against our rivals. There is no other team now. It's us and them.
Q. Just from the mental side of this, obviously you guys are I'm sure heaping bunches of pressure on yourselves but to have the lead and watch it sort of slip away, has to feel like this is Groundhog Day; that things keep happening over and over. I know you say frustrating but is it more than frustrating? Is there a mental block that starts to form from that?
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: Mentally, I think as a team we're all together and that's the good thing about it. We haven't lost each other. We haven't lost the group. That's the huge part.
But now we need to be mentally in games. Like when you're up 2-0, we know 2-30 is a dangerous lead in soccer. Someone scores one and all the momentum goes their way.
For us, we need to be smarter in that. We were up 2-0. We don't really have to go find a third. We can play our game making sure that we keep zero in the back. In the end of the day, if we keep zero in the back we don't lose the game. Today was just not good enough for all of us. It's another punch to the face.
It hurts really bad and we see it on people's faces, on their fans. We want it as much as they do, and there's not one player out here in this locker room that is happy about this. We are all frustrated. You see the comments and we notice that. Yeah, we smile and stuff when we're around each other.
At the end of the day, you guys go to work, and it might not be your best day but you still have to put a smile on your face because if not, what are we doing you don't think we know -- we know exactly what's happening. And that's not the way the Galaxy runs.
The Galaxy are the best team in MLS, and right now we are not showing that. But at the end of the day, we need to do better.
Q. Diego, I asked a similar question to Greg just right now. Is the season salvageable? Can you save any pride from what's left to play? It's a long season still. But 13 games without a win is very tough on your group of players.
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: 13 games, it's tough. But right now we're taking it a game at a time, and we have our rivals coming to town, and we need to make sure that that game is a win and we put ourselves ahead and we give it our all.
We need to show fans what kind of courage and players we want to be. I think it's time for us to put some balls into the field and making sure that whoever is out there doesn't matter. We're not friends. We go to war and gives it our all. Show them that we're actually passionate and show them how much we want to win. At the end of the day, don't get me wrong, we've been doing this for every game. We've been putting our heart and soul into it and our sweat and things have not gone our way. I think now it's time; we really need one and I want one as much as everybody else.
Q. Talking with Greg mentioned there might be moments of over play in possession, you guys making a lot of decisions the. Do you feel that at times that maybe the right play isn't being made too often and what's your confidence that you guys can continue to be more consistent on that side of the pitch?
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: In soccer, sometimes -- winnable game. Sometimes you don't always win. And I think we need to learn how to make sure that when we're in leads and things are not open, we can keep the ball out of bounds. We can kick the ball high. We need to learn those things. And people need to realize, it's part of soccer.
There's teams that play against us, they kick the ball and try to -- win second balls or win duels up front. They don't care about keeping the ball and they get chances and right now we need to learn how to do that, as well.
But like I said, today we played a good 45 and we need to be better. Now we play LAFC. It's a 90-minute game that we need to play and everybody needs to be ready for it and prepare for it, and there is no more excuses. At the end of the day, it's a do-or-die right now. We need to freaking win and that's it. It's a win or a win. There is no tie. There is no loss. It's a win or a win. That's it.
Q. Can you talk about your 300th start and reaching that milestone and the 75-75?
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: 300 starts, games played but at the end of the day who cares about records and who cares about stats. When you're not winning, it goes down the drain. At the end of the day, I would take a win over 300 starts any day. Would I take a win over scoring a goal. That's where this team is at. It doesn't matter. We just need that one win and it hurts.
Like, as much as I am happy about the goal and being able to have 57 goals and 75 assists it just is not the same. I would take a win any day. But at the same time, it's something so cool to accomplish but like I said, I trade that for a win every day.
Q. You talked about the team being together; do you guys still believe in Greg Vanney and everything he's put you guys up to this season?
DIEGO FAGÚNDEZ: Of course. At the end of the day, it's not just one person this comes down to. I said at the beginning of the year when people were blaming people, it's the whole group. We win and lose as a group and players, staff, organization, we all do it together. Do we want better? Of course we want better. If we didn't want better, then what are we doing?
I said it the other day that if you don't want to win get out of the the locker room because that's not the kind of team we want to be. We want to be a winning team. Sure we won it all but that was last year.
This year we need to make sure we put points on the table because at the end of the day, all of our positions and every single player is fighting for something right now. And we need to show that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports