LA Galaxy 3, Vancouver 0
Q. Your thoughts on the night, to get the early goal and how you see the team play out that first half and second half?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought we played well for the vast majority of the game. There was a few moments where they were able to take away a little bit of the balance of power at the end of the first half a little bit. They reorganized a couple things at halftime. The start of the second half was really kind of stop and start, just with the nature of things.
But we got off to a great start. Let's start there. I thought the ball was moving quick. We were in good spots. They couldn't really figure out how to get pressure. When they tried to press, we were breaking the lines and we were coming at them.
Wonderful to get the early goal for this team. Again, I think our performances, I won't go into the Colorado, but I think really our performances since New York have been solid and I said to the guys, I think we have left nine points on the table in those last group of eight games. Let's start to take what we deserve out of these games, and learning how to win and close out games and do all of that has been a part of it for us.
And I thought we played a nice, complete game. Taking the early goal was important. And then getting the second goal was big. And then, down the stretch, getting the third sealed everything off. I was pleased with the guys. I thought everybody worked for each other on the night. I thought everybody was connected.
They are obviously a good team and I think they play a very collective game and we did a good job of work together on night to deal with situations and getting a shutout was big for the group, as well, so a lot of positives.
Q. We talked about Joseph the last couple weeks, for him to get one, and then to get two, how big was that for him? And the PK, was that his call to take it?
GREG VANNEY: We have a few guys who I think are pretty comfortable inside the game. It's who is feeling the most confident and steps up and can cake it. We have a few guys between, he, Gab, Diego; Marco wasn't out there. There's a number of guys who I think feel comfortable, and it's about who in the moment is ready to take it.
I think Joe having scored the first goal was feeling positive about his night, and stepped up and buried it. It was good for Joe.
Again, he's getting to a lot of good positions where he should be scoring goals and tonight he took advantage of those moments. That's great for his confidence. I think with anybody, whether it's a goal scorer or shooter in basketball, with anybody, once you find your rhythm, and you get the confidence and you get that flow, you hope things start to drop for you. I feel like with Joe, I feel like tonight was a good night, and we'll see if we can start to build some momentum with him. It's a good thing for him for sure.
Q. Going up 2-1, only the third time you've been up by two goals in league play this year. How big is that, especially in terms of main you can build momentum to where you are not taking one-goal leads that then disappear.
GREG VANNEY: The big part of that is after we got the one-goal lead is to defend solid, give ourselves enough runway to try to get the second goal.
There's been times this year where we get the first goal but give one back or give one back at a bad time. Tonight, we got the first goal and stayed solid defensively. We gave ourselves a chance to get the second goal and we were able to get the second goal.
Again, able to hold steady on the zeros. We've given up a lot of goals that are more on us than on the opposition, and so I think to stay steady tonight is important. That's a big part of being able to get the second goal is being able to defend out when you have a one-goal lead.
Q. Marco, he's healthy? The class that he shows out of there. What are the things you see? What are the specifics? He's playing at a different level than everybody else.
GREG VANNEY: He's smarter than everybody else. That's what it comes down to. He sees the game. He knows what's happening in the game. He knows what the next play looks like. He knows what you should be doing, the next guy should be doing, the defender.
The game is already flowing through his brain. So he can play in anticipation when the rest of the players are playing in the moment. He's already played out what's going to happen next, next and next, right. So he can kind of play at his own rhythm and his own rhythm is faster still than everybody else's.
It's a joy to watch, and I think the biggest thing for him, and I don't want to speak for him is he feels better and he feels good. So when you are running around the field and you feel good, then you aren't thinking about this, that or the other. You're just playing the game.
And now he's been able to get into a flow with the rest of his teammates and just play the game and know that he's going to feel great when he's doing it, and I couldn't be happier for him. We're seeing, really, his class and why he's different than everybody, and it starts up here for me.
That's one of the things that I love about the game when you see players that are just thinking ahead of everybody else. It's really fun to watch. Again, because everything isn't their tempo. They choose what it's going to look like and Marco has been orchestrating all of that out there. It's been fun to watch.
Q. Nasci gets the goal early on, and he's really started to develop a chemistry and rhythm. What have you seen from him the last five games he's started? What continues to grow, and what have you seen of him personally open up a bit more to the group and express himself more on the pitch as well?
GREG VANNEY: Look, I think we see it with a lot of players, younger players, especially, who come to new country, new league for the first time, a lot of settling in has to happen. He's got a good skill set. He's a good athlete. He's play strong. He can link up the play. He's reading games and combining with Marco and the others.
So I think for a lot of it was just him settling into the league and into what we're asking from him. You know, gaining confidence, I think understanding tactically. All those things I think, again, for him are all kind of coming into a place where he's comfortable. And now he can just play the game instead of overthinking or trying to adapt or trying to do all these things.
He's found a rhythm. And what it does for us is it gives us a striker, again, with mobility and somebody who can run in behind if we need him to run behind, who we can play off of if we need him to come down between the lines a little bit; a guy who can win some duels in the air if we need to; and a guy, also, who can beat the center back to a spot and get into a finishing position so that when Gab and Joe outrun or beat their guys, or when Marco plays somebody through, he's able to get to the spot where somebody else, and that gives him a real chance to be a goal-scoring threat.
He brings a nice skill set that's complementary to the guys that are around him, and they are starting to establish more and more of a rhythm together and connection of what each other's tendencies are and things like that, inside of obviously what our vision is and what we are want to go do.
I thought the group did a great job tonight at times from building attack and getting across the field and really building speed, and things were coming out of that.
Again, he was a big part of it; Marco was a huge part of it; the wingers were great tonight. Everybody around them tonight was playing a great supporting piece. And I was really happy. I thought it was our most complete game on the year.
So I'm happy for them because I feel like it's been building and we finally get something to go. We've been three games on the road since the last win so it's nice to come home and put another win together.
Q. You guys get the win at home, two more here and another game up the road. You have a real chance to build momentum. Do you feel like this stretch of games is it going to define what you're fighting for for the final stretch of the season?
GREG VANNEY: For us as a group it's continue to try to improve, look at the next opposition, try to execute what we want to do against the next opposition, build confidence in the guys who had good nights tonight, like Joe. Gab, again, I thought had another good night.
Continue to build on the things that we're trying to do. I just think when we are in a good rhythm we're working for each other and we're starting to work again within our principles and the things we're trying to do. We're a good team. It's been more about us taking points that I feel like we deserve on a night, not making mistakes late in the game, finishing opportunities that we're creating and things like that.
Hopefully, it comes together in a real stretch, I think we have, what, 7 of the next 12 or something like that at home. It's a nice time to try to build momentum and try to take points, and we'll end up wherever we end up. The key is one game at a time and try to take the maximum points, but do it in a way where we're playing each moment of the game the way it needs to be played.
Not including Leagues Cup. If we're in form, Leagues Cup becomes something interesting for us as well. We'll see where we're at.
Q. Even in losses, you said you felt like the team has been there and has not been out played. Tonight, you beat a very, very good Vancouver team, the CONCACAF finalist. Is this win validating for this group? Is it like an "I told you so" to everybody?
GREG VANNEY: Look, I think it's a little bit of a stamp on what I've said the group is capable of doing and also what I think the group has been building towards over this last stretch of games.
Ultimately results come down to moments: Do you finish the chances you get, and do you defend the moments that you have to defend that in your box and your area, not making errors, and results come down to that.
Performances are about a lot of things between inside of the 90 minutes; that there's positives you can take away from a lot of things inside of the 90 minutes. And I think we've had good stretches of 90 minutes but we have not been able to execute in the key moments of the games at times, and that's dictated the results.
So tonight what we were able to do is execute in key moments on both ends, in addition to continue to build on the performances that I think have been coming over the last -- this stretch of the last eight games. I think over the stretch of the last eight games, we've been as healthy as we've been all season. Marco has been healthy. He's been in form. Joe and Gab have been out there. Nasci has come into form. He's been on and off healthy. I feel like we've been healthier and deeper over this last eight, and I feel like we've built some momentum.
Tonight is a little bit of an exclamation point on what we're capable of doing but we have a lot of things to do from us to continue to build momentum with this group of players.
Q. How big is the shutout for you guys tonight?
GREG VANNEY: It's big. I think it's really big. Again, there's games where we have through large stretches of game defended pretty well and we make a mistake. We don't pick up a mark inside the box. We don't make contact, physical contact. We need to -- we've had these little hiccups along the way that have cost us goals.
You see a lot of things kind of come together, even though the process has been very difficult, I believe you see a lot of pieces starting to come together inside of this, younger players growing and he merging, veteran players who obviously have -- Marco has established himself as the guy we all knew he was capable of being. Things like that have come together for this group, and now it's what kind of momentum can we build and how many points we take as we continue to push forward, and we'll see where we are at the end of that.
Q. A clean sheet, three goals, three points, against the best defensive team in the League. Something else the fans want to see is accountability, not just from yourself and the team, but the organization as a whole. What does that look like, and how do you build on that in the next games?
GREG VANNEY: I think accountability for us is guys fulfilling their responsibilities, taking their roles inside of the game, committing to the team, the group. Obviously, committing to the ideas and the way we want to play and the things that are out, there the responsibilities we have to one another, right.
For us, it's to go out and put on a good performance for our fans so that they have a great emotion when they come to the stadium and watch us play and they feel proud of the team that's out there and the work and the fight that they are putting out on the field.
Again, I think that's ultimately what the fans want from us on the field, the players, the staff, all those kinds of things and those are things that we have been trying to build towards and provide the fans, obviously last year was amazing. So there was high expectations coming to the year and didn't start the way we wanted to, but I think we are seeing things come around and they have been incredibly patient with us on the field during the first half of the season.
Hopefully we can reward their patience and show them that we are building back in the right direction to be a real contender. I think we have actually played quite well against some of the best teams in the League. We just have not been able to turn those into victories and that's the thing this group itself needs to continue to learn how to do, to come back and be winners and get the results that we deserve.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports