Colorado Rapids 2, LA Galaxy 0
Q. I'm sure with the two-hour delay it wasn't exactly the best way you wanted to do it. Looking at the game, maybe lack of an edge from you guys, the dynamic movement wasn't there, maybe some of the tenacity that we have seen. Are those fair?
GREG VANNEY: Very fair. My statement at halftime and my statement after the game is for too much of the game, especially in the first half, we were operating at 60 or 70% of the intensity level that was needed.
Felt like we got off to a decent start. Ball was moving quickly. But then when they started to up their pressure and I think they raised a little bit of the intensity, they weren't going to let us get so comfortable, then the game start to pick up a little bit and I felt like our movement was a little too slow, everything our reactions in transition, everything then we were a step, two behind.
We weren't getting close enough to people on the defensive side. We were losing second balls, first balls, everything in the first half. We get ourselves down two goals and this is a tough place to fight your way back, especially coming off one game in four weeks and a two-hour delay. This is a hard places to go chasing the game.
So, yeah, I felt the things you said were exactly -- we were lacking a little bit of edge, especially in the first half. The intensity level was low. We were second to a lot of situations, in duals and second balls and things like that. Even our movements for each other I just felt like we were one paced and we weren't consistently getting into a higher speed like we have been.
To be fair to the group, this hasn't been how we trained the last two weeks and this hasn't been how we played in the last couple games, but we got to remember we have to show up and push through whatever the conditions are, what er the situation is, and make sure our intensity level to compete is right and the soccer part of it will start to come together.
But if we're not moving at the right speeds and the right intensity it's going to be an uphill battle.
Q. When it comes to Gabe and Joe, did the Rapids take them out of the game or was it a matter of not getting them running downhill and finding space for them? You guys scored five goals in the last two games and the offense was pretty quiet tonight.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, the offense is dependant on high intensity actions and movements, sprinting off the ball, building speed into your actions. I felt at times when we were able to break through the lines in some of the possessions, then we would get the ball up into a higher position.
The running at the higher position would stop and then we would play to people's feet and we weren't playing into the space and we weren't, again, running through the lines and playing and building speed into the final action.
So every time we get into a final action we're either taking a shot from distance or we are hitting across into a lot of numbers because it's taken us a lot of time to build the attack and get into those types of positions.
Again, I feel like when you play at a lower intensity level, then it's going to be harder to create chances. I felt like we, over stretches, didn't get the ball to them quickly enough. Sometimes I think they need to be on the move more. Again, not receiving and not playing at their feet all the time.
Things that can increase the intensity and the speed of the game so that we can put the opposition in an unbalanced situation. I felt like they were pretty much always balanced and covering each other and had enough density to deal with a lot of situations.
So again, the things you said at the beginning are a net result of also not getting some of the clearer chances and the better looks we been getting over the last few games.
Q. You discussed lack of edge. You guys have San Jose this weekend. What's your level of confidence you'll see something different on Saturday and the guys will have a better showing out on the road there?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I think guys are going to want to bounce back and compete. Like, again, it's not an excuse. We didn't have the intensity level, but if there is a place you have to play in our league having only played one game in four weeks, it's not Colorado. You don't want to come to the altitude and have a two-hour delay have only played one in four.
You want to be going, have rhythm, have played games, be at your top fitness. I felt like for some of our guys who haven't really played at this attitude, like Lucas, I felt it really affected Lucas. Early in the game he made some actions and I felt like his brain and his feet -- felt like he was in altitude mode. I've been there. I used to play here. I know exactly what it feels like, and I felt like -- I could tell he was suffering a little bit.
I think, again, some of the intensity is we just weren't ready for the conditions and we didn't push through the conditions and get to the other side of it, so that's on us. We need to be sharper, tougher, whatever words you want to use. We need to fight through the conditions. The two-hour delay, we just didn't find the right intensity level in the first half. The second half, they're protecting a two-goal lead, but for the most part in the second half we did a good job defending in transitions. We dealt with a lot of situations. We were trying to build attacks and get numbers going.
I just think some of our attacks need to be sharper and faster and we need to get guys running harder, and we might see a little bit clearer chances through it.
We'll put in one behind us, get back, and get going on the weekend. They understand what it's like to play San Jose and it's a Clásico. Just played them not too long ago, we have so have a pretty good sense of what they're going to look like how the game will try to be played at least by San Jose.
Q. You mentioned Lucas was suffering a little bit. Is that the reason you brought him off or was it more of a tactical thing?
GREG VANNEY: Well, too, I thought he was suffering a little bit altitude-wise. Also he was on a yellow card. If you're a little bit late and delayed and behind the tempo or speed of game and you're on a yellow card it becomes a vulnerability, so I wanted to also protect him in that regard.
I just wanted to get fresh legs in there with Isaiah and see if we couldn't just build a little bit more tempo to get the ball from the back line to the front line. So Isaiah coming in again with fresh legs just trying to get a little bit more rhythm and get the game moving a little bit faster.
Also with him on a yellow and what I thought was having a little bit of a hard time pushing through the -- what might have been the conditions, might be feeling a little something, I don't know, but I felt like it was a safe move for him and something we could maybe use as a group.
Q. The defense seems to be having trouble with these kind of give-and-go interchanges between the opposition's offense. Saw it against St. Louis and saw it today for Colorado's first goal. Where is the disconnect happening there only the defensive end?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, well, I have to go back and watch the exact actions. I don't remember precisely what happened today, but I feel like sometimes we are stepping forward and moving into guys and guys are either dummying or they're playing off and moving again and now they're playing in combination and we're kind of getting stuck moving in the wrong direction.
Sometimes I've seen us take one step in the direction the ball goes as if we're moving and tracking the ball, and now the player is moving off us in the other direction and there is just a enough of a time edge where we lose our guy and get in trouble.
I don't specifically remember the situations. A lot of game happened after that, so I don't remember the exact situations, but I will review it.
And, yeah, I think some of it is, too, that we're conceding too much space between our lines, our back line and our front line. When that's happening, our center backs or our midfielders are swimming sometimes and the spaces become too big. And then when you step forward you expose space behind you, and so things become a little bit unclear.
That's something collectively tonight I don't think we did a great job of staying connected and managing our spaces front to back and side to side, and I felt like they had a lot of space that they could move and combine and do things like that more than usual.
Again, I would have to look back at the situations to be more specific.
Q. Greg, tonight it felt like it was, from the outside looking in, maybe a mentality issue. Everything was very pedestrian and there seemed to be a lack of leadership and no one really taking the game by the scruff of the neck. Do you think that's fair or foul?
GREG VANNEY: I think to an extent it's fair. Yeah, I don't just because I've seen the last few games and I've seen the intensity which the group has been training and working. I think on the collective whole we didn't meet the intensity level, and I think that intensity level -- I think there were some guys on the field tonight just trying to survive the night physically, whether that's through the altitude or the challenges that are there.
I felt like we had too many guys just worrying about themselves and getting themselves through the game and the conditions, and I think sometimes that can translate into the things that you're seeing. Sometimes it translates to a lack of intensity. Translates to a lack of connection.
I felt a little bit of that, and I do think that at that point you really have to step up character-wise and you have to dig in deep and there has to be some leadership and pull some guys together and drive.
I felt like that was off a little bit tonight, so I would agree with that. I don't think it's been the character of the group for sure in this last bit or for much of it, so take it a little bit with a grain of salt. Again, it's something we discussed in the locker room after the game that can't exist and can't happen.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports