Seattle 2, LA Galaxy 2
Q. Talk about both of the goals you guys end up scoring, you're down 2-0, end up tying this game 2-2, get a point in a place a lot of people, including me don't think you have much of a chance at. What does this show about the team and how do you create some of those scoring chances?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I thought through the course of the first half, we had probably the bulk of possession. It felt like it, anyways, and we were get to go some good spots. But we were maybe losing a little bit of speed in the final action, and they were able to cut us down and we weren't able to finish.
I thought it was important for us, switching the point of attack and getting from side-to-side where when we were doing that, we were getting good momentum on the weak side when we were able to switch. Those are things we were trying to accomplish as we got going into the game.
I thought the first goal we gave up was a product of us trying to force the ball back to the same side instead of, as it came back to John, as it came back to the other side, we probably don't put ourselves in that situation.
I think it was a commitment, if I'm being honest off the top of my head, after everything, I can't remember the first goal. You want to walk me through it?
Q. It's the set piece goal that Paintsil and Diego had and Maya put in.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah. So I actually thought we were quite good on the attacking set pieces. We had a lot of them. You work through your natural sets when you get to like seven, eight, nine, ten, guys start to improvise a little bit off of some of your natural sets.
I thought we created some pretty good moments off of some of the improvisational moments. That one is something that we've been talking about is not necessarily just dumping it but putting in play and building some momentum. But to be honest, they just kind of improvised on it and they were able to get Diego into a good position and good delivery to Diego on the back post.
Again, it comes off of a couple principles in our set pieces that we've been talking about. But at the end of the day, the credit goes to the guys to recognize the advantage that they are able to get by playing fast and getting around the outside there on the left.
The second goal, again, I mean, I don't remember all of the details on it. We had obviously gotten to a point where we had pushed and were waiting until the last ten minutes to get Maya up into the nine position, trying to get Mauri, getting around on the outsides, just trying to get some numbers forward and maybe use Maya as somebody that we could target off and play. We got around the side, put the ball in a good spot and Tucker keeps it alive as he's trying to and get it.
Miki stayed with it, which means -- he kept his momentum going from a pretty good distance to end up in that position. I think it was commitment. He just made the commitment to go and get there, and in the end, he's able to bury it.
I think the whole game came down, to again, the guys working for each other, sacrificing at times just for each other, trying to stay as connected as we could. I thought we had some good moment in spells of possession but always with a Seattle, team it's can you turn possession into really, like, hurting them and it took us awhile to get that situated.
Yeah, but I thought the guys did a really, really good job. There were times where we got caught and we were overpressing and they were able to stretch us out and get us a bit on the run between our two center backs. One was releasing and the other was getting caught chasing. There's a couple of those.
In the first half, we started to try to stay a little bit more together. Also because I knew they were going to keep coming on with top subs and we were going to have to manage our minutes a little bit and get through it. So we were trying to play the game within the game a little bit, too.
Super proud of the guys. Like you said, this is not an easy point to come and get a point, especially if you go down two to take a point out of it. Really happy for them, this particular group of players has picked up a win and two draws on the road, and it's been most of these guys just working collectively and sticking to the program.
So it's been fun for them and fun to watch them.
Q. One of the guys who had a big night, Novak Micovic had seven saves. Seemed really aggressive toward the etched the game, punching a couple balls and grabbing that ball at the last whistle. I know we've talked about his progression so much this year, but what does that performance do for you just on the night?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, it's interesting because I felt like in the first half, there was a couple situation where is we wanted him to be more aggressive, to cover in behind the back line. There was a couple balls that were slipped in that I felt like if he's probably a little bit more connected or aggressive he could get to but he did make one quite good save in the first half where he was able to close it down one or two.
But I felt like with Kevin chatted with him at halftime and really encouraging him to be aggressive; it was going to be important for him to be that way for us to be able to get a result, and I felt like he took it on. When he's like that, he's a very good goalkeeper, and he really helps our group. Especially when he's taking those balls out of the air, it helps us out so much. That's one of the reasons why he's been pushed in there with that opportunity is to show us that range and that cover and taking and controlling more of his box.
It was a great night and a great sort of even adjustment for him through the night because I felt like he got more aggressive as the game progressed.
Q. Miki scoring, I believe his first goal for the club. He's always on the ball down the right plank and very much a good player in your system. Can you just talk to me about your reaction to him scoring his first goal? He definitely seemed energetic afterwards in his celebration.
GREG VANNEY: I thought he had a great night. I thought he was wise about his movements and where he was putting himself around the field. I thought his decision-making was solid. I thought his in-possession stuff was quite good. I thought he just was having a really good night. That's part of the reason why we didn't put Mauri over there because I thought Miki was having a good match, and so we put Mauri on the left and let him try to get after it on the left a little bit more.
So I just thought he was really solid. He's been working the last few weeks, a lot on just his final action, the crosses, some finishing stuff, things like that. A, getting yourself into those positions is part of it, and I thought did he a nice job of doing that throughout the course of the game.
There's times where we talk to Joe at half and Miki was making great runs and we needed to reward him for those runs. He started to get the ball a little bit more in the second half.
On that last play, it really, for me, it's the commitment that he made to go from the defensive position to get all the way into the box on the weak side, to then pick up sort of a second ball, deflected ball. That's just commitment to getting there and in a game and at the end of the game when you needed somebody to get there, he got there.
I thought he was excellent. There's no doubt he was happy. Again he's been putting in a lot of work lately just to try to improve on a few things that maybe he felt like he wasn't doing as well as he wanted to.
Q. Speaking of firsts, Nicklaus Sullivan came on in the first half, his debut with the first team. He's been up with the first team about a week now. What have you seen from him, and what are some of your expectations for him down the stretch?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, he's a dynamic player. He's quick. He's fast. You know, in a game where at the end, we were trying to get out of our half. If we could get a ball behind him using his speed to track it down or to step out and press something that maybe we couldn't get to but just to use his athleticism and speed when we had Tucker on one side who isn't going to run away from anybody, and we just felt like we needed some more juice.
You know, Nick has that. He can play a couple different roles. He can play in the nine, even though he isn't a nine but he can kind of play in there. He has done with the second team. He can play on either side. But mostly we just needed him to get out there and really compete and try to dig some things out and try to chase some balls down and see if we couldn't break in a counter or a transition or something to create a moment.
So you know, for Nick, that's it. He just needs to keep learning as we go through this process and utilizing his qualities, which, again, a lot of them are his athleticism and stuff like that. He had a chance at the end. He's just got to release a little bit quicker. He's the set piece that we felt we needed at the end of this game that could give us something off the bench that we didn't necessarily really have out on the field at the time.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports