LA Galaxy 2, LAFC 2
Q. Marco, two goals for you, had a pretty big role in everything that I think the Galaxy did well tonight. Are you just feeling better we know you have the quality but you've been turning it on here recently.
MARCO REUS: Yeah, of course, I feel much better than weeks ago. I was, I don't know, one month, I was out because of my knee problem. It's bothering me still a little bit but it's much much better.
So I don't know when it was last time that I had three games in one week with that kind of minutes. So I'm very happy not with the result today but with the mentality of the team. I mean, we showed not the best game in the second half, especially as a team together but after the 2-1, we did it good. We tried to manage the midfield, control the midfield, especially in the second half.
And then we had with the subs, with Joe, brings a lot of energy in the team. It helped us, especially in the second half. Yeah, we had a quite two or three good opportunities. At the end, it was a free kick.
But I told the guys in the dressing room, as well that, it doesn't feel like a draw. We should win this game, especially with the 1-0 ahead in the first half after six or seven minutes.
But I like how we come back after the 2-1.
Q. Greg told us during his press conference that he watched you one point last year or earlier this year take set pieces and you did like 30 of them and 28 looked just like that. Is that a comfortable distance? Can you walk us through it?
MARCO REUS: Of course not every situation is the same. Especially against LAFC, also very important.
Yeah, I had these kind of situations a thousand times in my career. So I know what I have to do in this situation. I'm not watching, like, ok, the ref is blowing the whistle and I have to shoot now. I have to stay calm. Just concentrate on the situation, and then, yeah, hopefully it goes in, and this time, it was a little bit lucky but it was a good shot, as well.
Q. MLS is trying to tell the rest of the world that there are good soccer players here and we have a good game here. Today's game came down to you, three-time Bundesliga Player of the Year history against the most-capped goalkeeper in French history, most-capped goalkeeper in World Cup history; doesn't get much better than that.
MARCO REUS: Yeah, of course, I mean, Lloris, he's a great goalkeeper. I don't know how many titles he won with France in the World Cup. He's a great goalkeeper.
So it's always good to have them, especially these kind of goalkeeper in the back.
For me, like honestly, I don't care who is in the goal. I don't really care about against we are playing for me just about our team, how we can build from the recent games into the next games, and yeah, nothing changed. We didn't win this game. We wanted it to bad, especially for the fans.
But yeah, we keep going and we try next time, next Saturday.
Q. Speaking of your career, I'm sure you've never had a season like this. You won a championship this year at this time and now winless and struggling. What do you pull on to carry you through? What experiences do you use to stay motivated?
MARCO REUS: I think it's quite hard. Honestly I don't know if any of this season in my career -- last year won the championship and this year, I mean, it's not like the last 14 games that we, like, kicked out from 40 games against the other teams. I mean, we had some bad situations with own goals, and mistakes that we did, and then we could concede a goal and then we have to come back. This takes a little bit of the energy of the team, you know.
Because we have a young team, and this is also a good experience time for them to show, okay, you have to invest every game a hundred percent. It doesn't matter against who. You have to be on your top level, and it starts with the training sessions.
Though for me, it's really like how we can be better as a team and it starts for me with the training sessions. We did in the last days and two weeks much, much better with higher quality in the training session.
Q. Two goals, two assists in two games versus LAFC now. What is it about the big rivalry games that bring out the best in you?
MARCO REUS: I like these games, especially when you play home with the home crowd. For me, it's always an opportunity to step up for the team and for myself, as well. It was a big game. I think they was not expecting us that we showed that mentality, especially in the second half when we didn't have that much changes.
But like I said, we don't give up. We showed mentality, and that's the only way.
Q. Beautiful free kick. I asked Greg about the midfield and whether or not this was, he felt, it seemed from the eye test that it was the most complete performance. He talked about Lucas feeling and looking more comfortable, and Edwin said the same thing as well. And Greg also said that this allowed you the freedom to do what you do best. Is that how you felt in the game?
MARCO REUS: Yeah. Like it starts two games ago where I felt much much better, especially that I don't have to come towards our midfielders and take the ball because then it's much farther away from the goal.
So for me, it's always to find the right balance between be available for my guys and also to be in the pocket that I can turn and can play the ball to Cristian, Joe or Pec. So yeah, I think we did it quite well in the last games, but there's always more opportunities.
Q. Can you tell us how MLS could benefit from a player like Thomas Miller?
MARCO REUS: I think a lot. I mean, Thomas, he's, first of all, a great guy. We have a good character. Always smiling.
We will see. We have hopefully a lot of offers. He told the guys in Germany that he wanted to continue to play football. In the end it's his decision.
Of course I would love to see him in this league and maybe it's going to happen, maybe not. Yeah, let's see.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports