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LA Galaxy Postgame Quote Sheet: LA Galaxy 2, Houston Dynamo 3 - Sunday, October 28, 2018

October 28, 2018 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
LA Galaxy News Release


LA Galaxy 2, Houston Dynamo 3

Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018 - 1:30 p.m. PT

2018 MLS Regular Season

StubHub Center - Los Angeles

LA GALAXY INTERIM HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR

On the team not giving a good enough second half performance as the first half:

"You're right. Your eyes are good on that one. We did not. We were little complacent. Our passing became shorter, and a little bit negative at times. But we still had chances, I think Emmanuel [Boateng] had a wonderful chance at 2-1, which would have made it 3-1. Then the third goal puts the game out of reach. I think we put a lot into it. You love to see the same energy come out in the second half, but we didn't. We didn't do that."

On the second half defensive performance:

"We possessed the ball great in the first half. And they didn't really get a kick. The only time they got a kick was when they broke off on set pieces. We stopped possessing the ball, and when we did, it was too close to our goal. We were binding pressure at times, but we needed better movement off the ball. We lost our shape a little bit. They went a little bit higher, but I still think with our passing, our movement, if we would've been a bit sharper, we would've opened up a little bit better."

On emotion of the game:

"A bit empty right now. Even at the half I knew the game wasn't over. We needed to keep on playing, because they have some players playing forward that can hurt you. And, like I said, our possession the first half kept them away from our goal, and then our lack of possession the second half brought them a little bit closer to our goal. You wish you could kind of take a timeout out every now and again and get the guys together. But, obviously you can do that in this game. But, we still had chances at the end. We still had a lot of chances to score some goals. We were throwing everything forward. The guys gave it everything they had. It's an empty feeling right now for sure."

On the future with the LA Galaxy:

"That's a question for another day. I just went from feeling empty to trying to be philosophical about my short period of time as the interim head coach. So, it's a tough one to answer. That stuff for me is not even at the back of my mind right now. My feelings are with the team, the front office, and the fans. It's a great club, as we know. As I walked in here, Brendan [Hannan] said that LAFC finished in third, and it makes it just a little bit more hurtful. But, like I said, I can't fault the players at all; It's been a good group to be around."

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER SEBASTIAN LLETGET

On the result:

"We're all devastated to say the least. We can't allow that to happen. We were 2-0 up and we are mature enough and we have the players to kill this game off. We have only to blame ourselves. Yes, it has been a rollercoaster this whole season, but we did such a good job to get back into it. If we got through this game, nobody was going to stop us and it's a real shame."

On the second half:

"I think we just lost our positioning a bit, our possession, I think that's what killed them a bit in the first half. We had options, everybody was moving, especially after their first goal, they got it early in the second half. We definitely felt the momentum shift. Their wingers are tough and once they get into a grove. I think we're much better than that."

On missed chances:

"I know I can blame myself on one of those. We did have our chances. The ref did give us some time to get two goals in, but again we can't let them score that third one. It was just too easy."

On the penalty kick:

"That was the dagger, especially for our emotion and the momentum. It was devastating to see. It was just hard to get back into it and especially since we were all forward. They probably could have gotten another one because we had no defenders left, everybody was on top. It just shouldn't get to that."

On the result reflecting the season:

"We score, we know we are going to score, but just keeping a clean sheet, that's definitely the biggest topic for us next year that we have to fix. We have to flip that around."

On changes during the offseason:

"It's hard to think about it at this moment. I think it's obviously early but upstairs needs to do what it needs to do and I'm sure there will be a couple of changes. There's one thing I do want to say is that I think we all, as a group, give a lot of credit to Dom stepping in. He's done a tremendous job. It's not easy coming in and flipping it all around and that's exactly what he did. Hopefully he stays, but whatever happens we all think he did a great job."

LA GALAXY DEFENDER ASHLEY COLE

On the second half:

"I think when they scored that first goal it kind of killed us and lost our confidence. We stopped playing. We stopped doing the things that we did in the first half to get the two goals. Then the hat just dropped and that was it, one after the other conceding goals."

On the season:

"We were confident coming into the game, two up at halftime and then maybe a lapse in concentration at times as a team and then conceded one. We're disappointed, we have not made the playoffs. I think the guys have to take the positives from the last five or six games that we played and we just have to use that for next season now."

"I think that when we went two up we put that in the back our minds that they have nothing to play for, it's already won. But, you can't do that in football. I think the first goal hit us hard and then they played their game on the counterattack and punished us."

On the penalty:

"It could happen to anyone, but probably at the wrong time and we just couldn't recover from that and then goal after goal we conceded. We had a go at it, but we just weren't good enough today."

On his future with the club:

"I don't know, I think after today I'm going to sit down and figure out my options and see what I want to do, see if the body can recover and the head, but we'll see. I'm not going to make my mind up right now."

On Zlatan Ibrahimovic's influence:

"He's been a big influence on the field and off the field. He's scored many goals for us, important goals. He's been a great leader for us, I think. It shouldn't just be me the one talking and trying to organize stuff. He's been a big leader for us and what he's done on the pitch is fantastic for us."

On Dominic Kinnear's influence:

"I think the way he came in was a difficult situation for him, being Sigi's friend as well, so he kind of got put in a position that he didn't want to be in at the time, but the way he conducted himself and the way he got on with it changed the mentality of this team and the philosophy of how we want to do things, how we want to play. The intensity in training got better. I really hope that they keep him because I think what he showed in the few games he's been here, he's proved that he's good enough to do it. Players love him, everyone loves him. For me, I hope they consider him to be a good option because what he got out of the guys, I think he got the best. I just hope he does well."

On career with the LA Galaxy:

"I've loved it. When I first came here, probably a lot of people didn't think I still had the fight and desire to want to play. I have to thank people like Bruce Arena when he brought me here, he took a gamble on me probably because of the age. Ever since, I tried to work hard in training and help the team on the field, help the players off the field. It's been great. I've loved every minute of it, even though it would have been nice to win. I've enjoyed every minute. It's a little bit sad walking around the pitch today not knowing what I'm going to do because the fans probably at the start didn't take to me, but at the end the reception I got was nice. To win LARS Player of the Year probably shows that I've done something good in my three years."

On getting to this point:

"I think the way we played in the first half, at times we played well in the first half. Then maybe we came in here a little too relaxed at halftime and thought the game was done. We conceded the goal and then it just hit us. I think it's a lesson learned today and now they have to prepare for next season. This can't happen again. For six weeks, we've been fighting for our lives and then we have the opportunity to kind of finish it here at home knowing one win gets you to playoffs and you're going into halftime two-nil. Then, mentality maybe we weren't strong enough to see the game out. I've seen this happen before in football and it's probably going to happen again with another team. Yeah, it's disappointing to be on the end of this result, but now they have to go again and prepare for next season."

On the ups and downs:

"At times it's been difficult and frustrating, nicking wins here and there, then conceding too many goals at times and then you stop conceding goals and then it all comes down to today, so if you were to give this kind of option to us three months ago, we would have taken it. After the result we come off it so disappointed knowing that it was just one game away from a playoff. I think if we would have going to the playoffs, we would have had the confidence to win the whole thing. It's disappointing."

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER ROMAIN ALESSANDRINI

On the foul committed in the box that led to the penalty kick call:

"I was late because I tried to kick the ball but he touched the ball before me so it's a big mistake. I'm very sorry about that because Houston came back after that and it was tough for everybody. I'm not happy about that but I have to move forward."

On the missed chances:

"After the first half I think we had to continue. But the second half, I don't know why we played a different way and that's why Houston came back. I think we missed a lot of things the second half, and we missed why we were there, why we fight and get into the playoffs. I think we forgot the basics; fight for each other, talk to each other, run for each other, and that's why Houston came back in the game and why we lost this game. But we have no excuse because when we see the season, we don't deserve it. But when we see the last two months, maybe, because we fought a lot to come back and it's a lot of frustration."

On whether he's in a state of shock:

"Yeah, of course. Because it's a big mistake but it is what it is. After trying to give the best I can to come back in the game and make some good cross and finish the play but it's difficult for me tonight. I just want to say sorry to the fans, sorry to the team. But I think in the second half we did a bad game and that's why we lost this game too."

On the team's energy in the second half:

"We gave so much in the last two months, we left a lot of energy in every game to win and it's the end of the season so your body is feeling a little bit tired. The time we played, with this weather it was difficult too, but it's not an excuse. We have to be better, and we had to win this game and that's it."

On the team getting too ahead of themselves and too confident with the 2-0 lead:

"Maybe. We thought maybe it was easy. I think we forgot why we were there. The first half we played good, we fought for each other and that's why we scored two goals. And the second half, it was a different team. We just have to blame ourselves. Now we just have to move forward. It's hard to say that for the fans because a club like LA Galaxy has to make the Playoffs every year, and two years in a row without Playoffs is tough."

On this game being a little version of the season:

"It's soccer. You can't control everything. Sometimes it's hard. When you're alone like a tennis player it's different, in soccer you have to play as a team. Sometimes when you don't give what you have to give as a team something happens like tonight. There was a lot of frustration because we gave a lot the last two months, but when you see the season I think we finished well. Even the last 45 minutes. We have to move forward. It is what it is and unfortunately we don't make the Playoffs, but we gave everything to come back in the game, to come back into the Playoffs. I think we made the fans proud the last two months, and we are sorry about the last 45 minutes."

HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH WILMER CABRERA

On today's game:

"I think we started off well creating chances but again set pieces. We made a mistake and they punished us. We talked about how LA Galaxy are dangerous attacking but we knew we had the possibilities to create problem for them because defensively they take a lot of risks and they gave us possibilities. Despite the 2-0 we felt like we like we could have chances and in the second half we went in with more desire to face the game with good mentality and at the end we possibilities to score goals that changes everything for us. When you score the first one they get a little bit nervous and when we tied them that was really tough for them but when we scored the third it was unexpected but we believed and hopefully we can take this win for the next season, for the next year our competition in CONCACAF and also with Major League Soccer because it is important for us to start building something better because it is a game but we didn't qualify to the playoffs so we are sad about that."

On what he told the team at halftime:

"It wasn't that they were all over us, we had good possession and we created chances but we needed to be more focused and avoid more mistakes. I told the guys we are going to have chances but we just need to put our chances away so it was important."

HOUSTON DYNAMO DEFENDER DEMARCUS BEASLEY

On the team's performance:

"Very proud, obviously I always go by the saying 'You're only as good as your last game.' It's a tale of two halves, first half they dominated and we came out very slow, very passive kind of felt like we didn't want to play in the first half from everybody, from me personally as well. The whole mood wasn't right and I put that on my shoulders. How we prepare for every game we didn't come out and show the preparation we had done all week so that is definitely on my shoulder I take responsibility for that for out start this game but like I said we ended well, we got the 3 points. It is unfortunate that we are not going to make it to the playoffs but it is a good taste in our mouths going into the vacation. Hopefully the boys next year will respond and keep moving with this result."

HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD MAURO MANOTAS

[Translated from Spanish]

On getting the win:

"We came into this game looking to get a win. Nice field, beautiful stadium, great game everyone was going to watch this game and thank God we got the win. I got two goals but the most important thing is that the team won and we are going to keep moving forward."

On the team's performance:

"We wanted to finish happy. The team was finally due for a good result on the road. What better way to do it than in Los Angeles against this great opponent? Thank God we were able to do it and now we can celebrate a little bit."

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