Galaxy - 2, Loons - 1
Q. What does it say about this team that you guys were able to finish this season with two wins against two playoff teams and do it in a way that seemed comfortable for you guys?
MAYA YOSHIDA: The second half of the season wasn't too bad, to be honest. But the first part is horrible. That's very clear. That's killing us, killing our season. And it was too late -- it was too difficult to come back.
Even when we come back okay, still wasn't enough. This is our season. As you know, we had too many mistakes, including today. We were missing a lot of the details to look at today and the beginning of the season. That kind of part we need to improve. To be honest, many things we have to change, we have to improve.
But the season's a big lesson for us, a huge lesson, for myself as well. To be honest, my performance wasn't the same as last season. I wasn't satisfied with my level as well. To make sure everybody comes back in really good condition and start well, because the season started really fast. And (indiscernible) CONCACAF.
It's very important during the offseason what we do and how we prepared and the team as well, individually and as a team, as a club. We shouldn't be where we are. And, again, next season is a big challenge. And we need (lost audio) to be where we should be.
Q. When you look over your career, playing, how difficult is this season compared to maybe many of the other seasons you've had?
MAYA YOSHIDA: It was really difficult, but because of different relegation, it's even more sometimes frustrated, probably like when I was at Schalke we were fighting relegation. It's more stress. The stadium has more than 60,000 every game. And the expectation is more and more pressure.
Schalke is a big club. The same stress we have now. But there is relegation. That's totally different and more mentally, physically tough. But you can see us today or even the last game, we can dominate most of the teams from especially from the distribution. No one can press us, and we can dominate every time.
But the other side, on the other hand, we consider so many goals, we're giving so many goals. Like last minute to Luka (phonetic) today. Also it's very unacceptable for me. We need to improve this.
Q. You guys spent a lot of the season at the bottom of the table, the bottom of the West, but you were able to climb out of it, 26th overall, ahead of Kansas City in the West. Does that mean anything?
MAYA YOSHIDA: At least we didn't finish at the bottom. As I say, we are the LA Galaxy. We shouldn't be here. So still not great result, totally agree. But after we are already eliminated, my target is finish all of them probably (indiscernible) as well but at least above Kansas. We played them twice in Kansas. Totally we're a much better team.
And probably second half of the season I would say maybe half of the league, we play better than them. But this is the punishment that we have done beginning of the season. Again, this is a huge lesson, painful lesson, but we have to learn from this.
I don't think this is a fail. If we stop and give up, it's a fail. But until we stop, this is not fail. This is still challenging and this continues for our next season.
Q. Are there positives to be drawn aside from the fact that you guys were better in the second half that you found yourselves in the second half, when you look at the season as a whole, were there positives to pull out of that beyond that?
MAYA YOSHIDA: Uh-huh. First beginning of the season also CONCACAF is first experience for me. To be honest it was really tough, tougher than I thought. Go to Costa Rica and different countries and mid-week playing, flights, different -- it's a huge difference. So fortunately we have CONCACAF next season, this ensures the positive side for even a difficult season this year.
We want to challenge again. We want to accomplish something. But if we want to accomplish something, we have to work hard and many sacrifices. Like today we show a lot of positive performance, positive vibes that we have to -- this has to be our standard or even more. This is where we should be and we start again.
Q. The team ended up with two wins over playoff teams to end the season. Does that give you optimism heading into 2026? And then since the season is potentially starting so early, as early as February 3rd to 5, how is the team getting prepared for next season?
MAYA YOSHIDA: Generally, I'm very optimistic. But in this results, overall, I can't be. We shouldn't be. And we have to think how we can improve ourselves, how we can change. And we have to focus on more details, the pieces, the defensive line, transition.
Very simple basic things, what basic things do -- I saw the Japan-Brazil national team game. Brazil, it's a big success. But the transition is unbelievable quick.
This we need to -- we shouldn't copy someone, but we have to have our standard, not one game good, second game really bad, that up and down, too many up and down. We need consistency. That's why we have to keep our fitness very well from the beginning of the season, not second part of the season.
This is the target for next season. That's why we practice extra three weeks from now on and also play against the Mexican team for the training game to maintain our fitness.
Q. Your 22nd season in professional soccer. Were there any unique challenges that you faced individually from your standpoint, or were there any unique challenges you faced this season that you might not have faced in previous seasons?
MAYA YOSHIDA: This season, first of all, I didn't realize it was so many years. This season is my first season to play as a champion. Probably Greg mentioned a couple games ago we eliminated already and we played not great and we had a difficult season.
But until the end, we are still MLS former champion of the season. So I wanted to fight as a champion. I wanted to play as a champion until the end.
The last two games we showed that part a little bit, and that was okay for me. Of course, the overall result wasn't good, and this is challenging. I could learn many things through the difficult season. Also CONCACAF new experience and everybody want to beat us and it was really tough, really difficult.
And we couldn't make it better midseason. It's really difficult probably May, June. But after that we get better slower and slower and some players can see -- you can see some of the players are improving a lot.
If you want to try something more high standard and we cannot wait to play, the young players improve. We have to have a standard, better standard and a high level standard as a team, as individuals for next season, if that makes sense.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports