Cincinnati 3, LA Galaxy 2
Q. Just thoughts on today's match?
GREG VANNEY: A lot of chances gone missing. A lot of adversity inside of it. I felt like, again, you know, goals we give up are -- look, they're good actions by them, but we just get pulled apart and lose track of guys running off us. Lose a ball in the midfield and we tried to slide it into midfield.
Yeah, I thought, look, by and large I thought we did a very good job of pulling them apart, playing through them, getting ourselves into some really dangerous situations. It comes down to executing in the moments, and obviously difficult -- more difficult when you go down a man.
But I still felt like even when we went down a man the guys were just fighting and battling and doing the things that they needed to do to try to get themselves back into the game.
I felt like we were gassing, especially in the midfield, Eddie and Diego were having to cover so much ground and do so much work at the end. We tried to get a couple fresh bodes and then we take a third, and we managed to bet one back.
But I was super proud of the guys' effort and the work. I thought, again, by and large we played some pretty good stuff, but we got ourselves behind two goals, and that makes it difficult to claw back. To lose a guy early in the second half, that makes it more difficult.
Proud of the effort. Wish we would've made some better decisions in some of the final actions. Felt like we settled for some shots. Maybe one more pass would've really given us a better chance or better look.
And then I think sometimes when we lined up some shots we just didn't put them away.
Q. Joe gets the goal. He is playing as the 9. What did you like from him there? Also the whistles he wasn't getting as well. What did you think of his performance? Felt like maybe at the end he was playing with anger in a way with the lack of the whistles. Dis you see that, too?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I think we went with Joe as a 9 because we felt like they would try to over-press us and try to leave him one-on-one at the top. We felt like, good luck with that.
And he was in. You know, he was in quite a bit. He was in some good positions. He was able to track some things down. I think, yeah, got him into some dangerous positions and he was able to get us into some dangerous positions.
That was one of the reasons for putting him at the 9. Felt like, yeah, I think he gets frustrated because he doesn't get some calls that maybe he should get. I think unfortunately what happens is you get a reputation and it's hard to shake sometimes. I think that becomes the difference in some of those situations really in my opinion.
Q. The one call that you guys didn't get when he was on a 1 v 1, how did you see that play?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, again, from where I look, a lot of -- Hagglund was using a lot of arms and a lot of different things to try to keep him from running away. Multiple times where he's just trying to grab at him and get any piece to slow Joe down. Then one where last minute he kind of does both hands on both shoulders and certainly looked from where I was like he impeded Joe's ability to keep going in on a goal, and obviously Joe goes down.
I haven't seen it close enough, but I felt like Joe was in it. If he doesn't get a lot of them I would like to see Joe keep going. If he does pull him back, it makes a lit of sense that he goes down.
Q. We seen Harbor and Rindov get more time lately. What do you think this does for their development, playing a different team, different style.
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, it was. I mean, for Chris specifically, just playing against two forwards is very different. A lot of these games before it's been one forward and they were rotating through it. Tonight was just playing against two forwards, two forwards who are strong, dynamic. Each individually are a handful.
Then they have this guy underneath who is one the best players in the league and he is distributing and getting on the ball. And by the way, you got to make sure he doesn't get to line up shots from distance. You got to be organized in who is stepping out and how you are getting to it.
So I think there is a lot of just individual duels in there and decision making inside of it, because you just have the numbers you have up on you all the time is a different scenario.
Again, I thought in general he managed things well. We will look back at all the specific moments. Again, it's not an easy task and I thought he did a nice job.
Yeah, as far as Harbor, again, I think he plays with a lot of maturity and confidence, especially on the attacking side. Just kind of got us out of situations. He's confident on the dribble and moving with the ball, not just standing and passing.
He's playing this hybrid role for us, which is at times like a winger and at times he's defending low like a fullback. We added a layer tonight where he was actually coming inside a little bit more and he was adding the overload into the middle of the field, which I felt like he handled pretty well as well.
He is a good soccer player and he's played different positions coming through the academy so he is comfortable around the field and comfortable with both feet, and he is kid with a lot of confidence. Yeah, I thought he was handling the situation well.
This is a team with a lot of mature players and a lot of quality out on the field. Again, they set up a little bit different than some of the teams we've seen lately. Sometimes the tasks and references are a little different, but I though both of them handled the game well.
Q. On Isaiah picking up the second yellow card at the start the second half, does he need to be more careful there in a little bit of two soft yellows and sort of a red card there? What did you see from it?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, I think probably on both of them they were difficult ones, because I think the first one on the entry pass wasn't so easy to deal with. Ends up lunching to deal with it. Now he's off balance and he feels like he has to try to make a play. Takes the first yellow.
The second one, it's a tough one. I think the player sells it a little bit. Like I don't think he really goes -- doesn't slide. Kind of goes in and doesn't really stomp him.
But I do think as you're seeing that, if you know you're on a yellow, probably want to hold your ground a little bit more and not end up in it. I think he was in two different situations and came out on the wrong side of each of them.
Q. How you guys played in the second half, doesn't seem look you looked like you were down a man. What do you take from that?
GREG VANNEY: I think with the ball I think the mobility of our group and the ability for guys to move through different spaces and to (zoom froze) I thought was really good. They have a couple guys who don't love to defend through large stretches of the defending aspect. They might give initial effort but not the second or third effort.
If you can get beyond those players and players can remain available after that, then I think you can deal with the extra -- being down a number.
The problem is when you do get beyond it they'll leave guys high who are hanging out for the transition, which is something we had to deal with all game. Felt like they were comfortable trying to leave three, four guys out of the defending effort at times, and seeing if we could hurt them, and if not, seeing if they could catch us going the other way.
Again, the mobility of our guys. Miki being able to go inside, outside. Gabe inside, outside. Joe's ability to run away. Because of the fluidity of our group and also everybody is comfortable on the ball and was moving that I think the guys just did a good job finding spaces and moving for each other.
And then getting the ball to Gabe, to Joe in positions and driving us forward. So I think that took care of the man down. Defensively it's a tougher task. Any time we stepped out to press they pretty much broke through it and then it's a recovery. In the second half we dealt a lot of things around the top of our box. Once we got down into that lower block, we did a pretty good job blocking some things and digging some balls out.
Again, we were able to get out of that and get into some attacking situations. I just think a ton of effort by the guys to remain available and work for each other through the second half was a big part of it.
Q. Kind of a mixed bag from Micovic. Feels like he could have done more on the first goal and got some really key saves throughout the match. What did you see about his performance tonight?
GREG VANNEY: Yeah, similar. Thought he made some huge saves, some really big saves. Again, just to keep the score in a position where we could feel like we could keep chasing to and going for it.
You know, I think for me, some of his kicking through the course of the game wasn't where we talked about trying to find. We were hitting balls all over the shop. He's better than that with his feet. So I think him being more targeted about where we were trying to play the longer balls would've been part of it. I have to see the first goal again to have a real opinion on some of that.
Again, I thought -- I think in some of these games he grows into the game as the game goes. I think he needs to start strong and finish the whole game.
So maybe that's part of the maturity for him. I feel like if we get behind he makes big saves. We also need to do that when we are even or up or those things. Those become big moments for goalkeepers.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports