LA Galaxy 1, San Jose 1
Q. Just thoughts on the game. You guys go down early, fight back, and looked very dangerous in the second half. What did you see from the team?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought the start was just a touch slow. Yeah, bit too much space between our lines and too stretched out. And obviously they get between our lines it's a good shot, but shouldn't have that much time to be able to look there.
I thought from kind of that point on I thought our intensity level was raising. I thought we were solving sort of as the game progressed how we wanted to get pressure to the ball and figure out their positions.
That carried over I thought to the second half, which, yeah, they became even more aggressive in the one-on-ones. As I said to the guys, if we can play off each other and move, then we can get to (audio distortion) and then there is going to be space behind the line, and I thought the guys did a really good job doing some of those little things through the course of the game.
The field wasn't in great condition at all, and some of the buildouts, I know some of the guys Novak in particular and some of the guys weren't super comfortable dealing with the conditions of the field, and so there were times where we were just going straight direct and trying to pick up second ball.
So it was a little bit different in that regard. Against a team that wants to go man-on-man, it's not always the worst thing to be a little more direct.
I thought most of our good chances came off of us being able to play off each other and move off the forward passes and get to the other side of our markers, and, yeah, work the spaces behind.
We had a lot of chances. We left a number of them kind of on the table. I thought we should have had a penalty, but it was definitely a better response, good response coming out of Colorado. I think we all would tell you we felt like we should have got more out of this game. It was a good battle for the stretch.
Q. You talked about the chances that you guys had. Gabe had a bunch of chances that were good saves there, and Joseph on the other side, there seems to be something missing from him. What are you seeing from his game and what does he need to do to get centered back in like he was last year?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I feel like for me, I feel like he's maybe second guessing himself or overthinking the situation. A lot of times I feel like he's decelerating in the moment when maybe he needs to accelerate through it and make it more natural and seamless. I feel like he's in his head a bit.
That can happen. You miss a number of chances and you start to overthink situations. That was him a little bit. Honestly, having him out there means that we're getting chances. If we don't have him out there, I'm not sure we're getting those same chances sometimes. We got to help him work through it and get some repetition on the training field as we have a couple days this week. These two games came quickly.
Just try to get him on the training field and try to get him in a natural flow. I just feel like he's overthinking many of these situations.
Q. Greg, on Marco, ten-goal contributions in the last ten games. When he's been healthy I think he's been your best player. What did you see from him in this game, and knowing he went 90 minutes in Colorado were you concerned about that again tonight?
GREG VANNEY: Start with, yeah, I think with just the quality over the last little bit, I think coming out of the stretch where he was doing a lot of treatment and getting a lot of work, I think mentioned to you guys a while ago, he's said he's felt as good as he's felt in a long time.
So we have conversations during the game. I check on him during the game and he's letting me know how he's feeling. He knows himself better than any of us know him. When he's out there if I feel like he's contributing for the group, which he was and he is, then it's really on him to let me know how he feels is where he feels he's at.
Again, he's not a guy who is inexperienced with his body and all that, so we let him kind of let us know how he's doing.
The other hand was Nasci was feeling something a little halftime, and we were talking 10 to 15 minutes that he was going to get in the second half just because he was feeling a little bit of grumbling in his stomach and groin area.
He was going so well I gave him an extra five or ten and then we got the goal, and then felt like we needed to get him out. Little different there. Two ends of the spectrum.
Marco has been outstanding in these games. Again, I think as he feels -- he's just such an intelligent player. He is so just smooth and taking the ball under pressure in these games where teams are trying to match up one-on-one, he's good, his touch is soft, he uses his body very well to protect the ball.
He sees actions before the actions are happening, and that just -- again, when you're a team that plays you like this, it really helps to give you these little time edges and little advantages that actually turn into attacks. Obviously the final pass is different, then he gets a finish, all those good things.
Again, as he's feeling good and getting into a rhythm with the group, I feel like his leadership and his quality has stood out for us.
Q. I know this goes back to California. Emiro Garcés coming back into the lineup again, what did you see from him? I know you made some other changes in that back line as well for this game with Zanka and Yoshida.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, a little bit of rotation there for the centre-backs. Maya, he's been managing a little bit in his quad but he's been playing through it. It's not been debilitating. He's been managing. You know, these games so close together, also just going to be a big ask. Both of them being on road, turnaround being fast, it's going to be a lot for Maya.
Zanka stepped in. That's the point. Thought he had a good, solid game. We swapped and put Zanka on the right. He's more comfortable on the right. We wanted to see what Emiro would do on the left. Emiro does what he does. Excellent in his individual duals. They had Judd up there who was a runner and battler.
I felt like Emiro was battling him toe for toe in some of those situations, and he have good us a chance to be aggressive because Emiro can deal with those. Yeah, thought he was very solid defensively and very simple and clean. Even though he wasn't on his preferred right side, I thought he was clean and found simple passes with the ball.
Probably helped that we played direct more at times and wasn't stuck with a lot of builds. He certainly had a nice game. I thought together they did a good job.
And I thought Zanka was more comfortable when he plays on the right than the left, so ended up working out nicely. Julián gets a game. Again, in a game like this when the opposition is pressing and over-pressing man-on-man, Julián has an ability to scoot past or dribble past the first guy, which can open up some interesting scenarios where you can break pressure, things like that.
We thought it was a good opportunity for Julián to get some minutes, and close it out with John. I thought (indiscernible) came in and gave us some really good minutes, so that was a nice little combination of the right backs and the left backs through the course of the game.
Q. The first goal comes from a nice exchange because between Nascimento and Reus. What are you seeing from Nascimento's integration from the team and maybe that understanding between him and Reus?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought Nasci had a good game. Again, one of his best games I felt like he had year to date. Once again, San Jose in our place, a lot of one-on-one matchups, him against their middle centerback. He showed moments of strength and hold up play. He shows he can scoot in dynamic and run into some spaces and make it difficult.
I think he showed all around all the different qualities he has and that he brings to our group. I thought inside of some of those actions, just showed he's a quality soccer player. Some of those combination plays with Marco, you also have to be reading and understanding what Marco is doing. It's never (audio cut out)play in combination with Marco. If he gives it to you, you give it back, keep moving, and you might get it back again.
I feel like he's settling into the team, getting used to his teammates, getting a better understanding on both sides of the ball with an attack and defense as to what the roles are, and as he gets more comfortable with our league and our team and all those things, I feel like he's a kid coming out of what I thought of the a shell early on. He's coming out of that shell a little bit and obviously showing his quality through the course of these games.
There is goals on the there for him. I hope he starts to -- we start to find him in good spots and he starts to hit the back of the net here a little bit. I feel like he's growing inside of what we're trying to do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports