St. Louis City SC 3, LA Galaxy 3
Q. Looking at this game, first time you guys have scored three goals this year, Gab gets two goals, so maybe he is back, maybe that's something to sort of look at but just overall, what are your thoughts you guys were ten minutes or so away from, or even less than that from winning this game and still walk away with a point.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought it was an interesting start to the game because I feel like there were probably, really, two goals, two pretty clear goals in it for us at the start and then Novak also has to make two saves I think in the first 15 or so minutes. It was an interesting start just a little more open than I kind of suspected it would be at the beginning. I know they like to come out and press.
But given it was a warm day, it was just interesting how it opened up. I thought after that, I feel like, I don't know, the game had just like a weird tempo to it because the day was warm. It was humid, and I feel like any time we got into something that looked like a reasonable structure and where guys were working off of each other I felt like we could move the ball wherever we wanted to whenever we wanted to.
I feel like sometimes we get inpatient about our positioning and we try to go moving into places where we think we can get the ball, and I think sometimes we might be better off holding our positions and let the play develop and eventually the ball will get to us but having said that we still got to a lot of good spots. We, having said that, we got ourselves in front of the goal. We probably could have had four or five. Maybe six.
But I still go back, the way we concede goals is too easy. At the end of the game, put all things aside, we got some transitions as you said, we had three goals. at the end of the game there's about five or six minutes to go, there's a free kick which we have 30 seconds plus to defend the organizing of that free kick for them to be able to hit just a direct ball and it end up behind us in the back of the net, two touches, it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't register.
We have a lot of experience in that back line to get ourselves organized in 30 seconds to make sure that -- we might lose the first one because they have Klauss or whoever, these guys are decent size, it wasn't Klauss who won it but some big guys; you may lose the first one. But we can't lose track of our marks and we can't let them win the second one and we have to deal with whatever comes off that first header.
But, yeah, we manage to lose the first one and we lose the second one, and Klauss bangs two of them home from kind of an odd angle where he makes no mistake about how he hits it, and he finds a good spot. Ultimately the shot -- neither of the shots are on Novak. It's how we deal with things in front of Novak to not allow him to get to those positions.
At the moment where we are in a position to take three points on the road, we have to see that game out and we have to manage that situation way better than that.
Q. Specifically on Pec scoring twice and Marco's game as well, and maybe why you pulled him in the 66th minute?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, first with Gab, I thought, again, as the game opened up and I thought on our right side when we were able to organize some collective movement on that side, I felt like we could get to some really dangerous positions.
When Gab was able to get on the run and not just look for the ball at his feet I felt like he could create some dangerous moments. Those are how he got his goals.
Marco, just he hasn't played a ton in the last little bit. It was really hot out there. A little bit, too, miscommunication between him and us. I thought he was signaling that he was running low on gas and he had about six minutes left in him or so at about 60 minutes, roughly 55, 60 minutes.
So that was, I felt like that was the indication that he was hitting about his limit. The guys were also a little bit concerned post 60 minutes on the day that it was today and after travelling and him not really training a whole lot in the last two weeks and didn't play a game. A little bit we were trying to be mindful of him. I thought he was having a very good game. He was finding the right spots. He was distributing when we could find him, especially facing forward, he was able to release us into some good attacks. It became a little bit trying to protect him a little bit on a day that was not easy to be out there.
Having said that, we still got the goal to go up 3-2, right and we still should have seen the game out. So that's the frustrating part of the day.
Q. Nascimento today getting his goal. I know you guys have been playing him the last couple of games. How have you seen him now with the larger sample size and how he fits, like what attributes does he provide that help you guys in the attack?
GREG VANNEY: Again, I think he's settling into the team and the League, and getting a sense of, you know, his movements. What I have liked about him is he's been pretty reliable in the link up play. He's been able to play into his feet and he'll get it to guys. He's done a good job of winning duels in the air at times and keeping some plays alive, and using some of his athleticism and mobility in certain situations that has helped us.
And I do think in some of those moments when we are able to break and create a time edge and get into an attacking moment, whether there's in transition or the speed of the game picks up, Nasci, he shows the physical ability to get to spots, to get to dangerous goal scoring spots, to beat the center back there and to get into positions that sometimes we weren't getting into before.
I think helps us to be a little more dangerous in the transition, just, again, his ability to lay off and then still accelerate and beat guys, beat center backs to dangerous positions. He should have had one in the first half as we score one across, right. We just miss him but he out runs the midfielder -- or sorry, the center back to get to the front of the goal and Joe just misses him on the square ball.
So he probably could have had a couple more. But I like his mobility up there, and I think he's doing a good job of inserting duels in situations where he's able to keep things -- hold things up or keep things alive for us and connect.
Defensively, he's learning some of the things to connect with the group on the defensive plays but it gives us a little more speed and a little bit more athleticism, a little bit more kind of mix of things that I think has been useful for us in the last few games.
Q. You brought it up a little earlier about Joe, having the chance to assist or score, how would you assess, I guess, his recent performances? It felt like maybe he's left goals or assists on the table.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I was hoping at home, he got that goal in the last game and I was hoping that maybe that would ignite a little bit of confidence in him as he's getting into those situations. Because he is finding himself in some good situations by virtue of his qualities and his speed and some of those direct moments. But I feel like sometimes he's still over thinking those moments a little bit, and maybe they are trying to be too precise or -- but just I feel like the play is running through his head too much and it's not just in the flow and in the rhythm and at speed.
I feel like he's -- again, he's maybe in his head a little bit on some of these. I feel like when he's trying to come inside and hit shots, I feel like he's trying to set himself up for the perfect thing and really trying to organize the shot and it gets blocked. And then when he gets into that open space, I think, again, he's thinking too much and he needs to trust his instincts and his ability to do the right things.
Q. Do you feel like this is a case of the team showing big mentality to fight back and get back in this game twice, or letting them slip three points at the end there, what do you feel like this one ends up being at the end?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I think it shows a little bit of both if I'm being fair, like, to the group. You go down one, you go down 2-1 coming out at halftime, again, and just show the resiliency to fight back and get back on top of the game I think shows some good qualities in terms of the mentality of our group sticking with it, seeing that this was something in this game to take away from it and fighting back.
I think, ultimately, because it's the last thing that happens in the game, it feels like you lose two points because it's the last emotion that you have in it, and you are set to take it away, and the way we give it away, just it's too easy. It's a direct ball from a straight position into us. It's something that we have to take -- we have to take care of.
So I think we ultimately leave frustrated, even though you take the context of the whole game, we stayed resilient on the road in a tough place to play, tough 3:30 game where it's hot and humid. There's a lot of things there that are challenging, and we still put ourselves in position to win but given what we're trying to do in terms of learning to put results and points on the board and being better in that regard, it definitely feels like two lost at the end. The guys are definitely frustrated from that side of things.
Q. On Fagúndez, do you have an update? The broadcast said he has an injury. What's the foot on that and what's the fracture?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, it's the right foot. It's like a second metatarsal area. At the end of the San Jose game, I think it was like the 93rd minute, he went to strike a ball and he actually hit the bottom of one of their players' studs, the bottom of their foot. Was operating more like a contusion because nothing was actually presenting for medical like a fracture. He was able to run. He obviously played the next game. It just was -- he was -- as he was striking balls and doing things, it just was continuing to irritate it.
So you know, upon X-ray, they realized that there's two very small fractures in the metatarsal. It's not something that should take a long time, ultimately to get him back. So the reason we shut him down here, he wanted to play through tonight but we shut him down and want to benefit of this next break we have of two weeks. He's booted up and we're all pretty positive that he'll make his way back even for start of the startup of the season again.
It's something but it's not super significant. But it took him out of today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports