NEW YORK RED BULLS 5, LA GALAXY 4
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the amount of goals scored:
"I think if you talked to Frank Yallop and I behind closed doors, we'd tell you we had a lot of breakdowns throughout the night. But having said that, it's all part of the game. Scoring goals is an important part of growing the sport in this country."
"We are certainly at fault for poor defending on restarts, but I think the performance by Altidore, Angel and Mathis was superb. I think they did a fantastic job."
"For the people here, I'm sure it was a fun game to watch in the stands."
On handling the pair of Beckham and Donovan:
"For David Beckham to be playing at, I want to put a number on it, 60-70 percent, and Landon Donovan, who in my view continues to be the best American soccer player, they were a handful."
On pulling out a win:
"At this time of the year, our team needs three points and I know L.A. does as well. I'm happy to walk away with the three points but I'm certainly scratching my head a little bit."
On the quality of Beckham's play:
"Beckham delivers a great ball. As easy as it might seem from the stands, the skill he has to deliver the right ball, a quality ball in the right spot on set pieces is outstanding. Certainly, you can see what a difference he makes for this L.A. team in the last two games."
On growing the club:
"I think '96 and '97 when the league was new, there was a little bit of a following here. But, I think in 10 years, it's been a real struggle. It's our job when people show up to give them a reason to come back so hopefully we converted a few people to grow this franchise because we have a long way to go."
On Ronald Wattereus:
"I thought he could have done better on a couple of plays tonight, but it's easy standing on the sidelines and say that. The last time he played, we won in Colorado and we didn't want to take that position away from him because of an injury. On the other hand, (Jon) Conway has played real well and I anticipate that Conway will get some games this year."
On the play of Clint Mathis:
"Clint's worked pretty hard. His fitness is kind of a question mark. Clint demonstrated tonight that he is still a pretty good player. His passing is excellent. He scored a timely goal and he showed a lot of heart. We're very thin in the midfield with the injuries to (Claudio) Reyna and (Dema) Kovalenko. For Clint to come in with a young kid like Joe Vide and try and deal with Beckham and Donovan for most of the game, I give him a lot of credit."
On the growth of Jozy Altidore:
"The goals speak for himself. He's a dangerous player. What I like about him is that he is a young kid that has a lot of confidence. The physical ability, and now the technical side is starting to surface for him. His first touch is improving. He's doing a much better job holding up the ball. When he faces defenders, he can go by them and he can finish off his chances. It's a kid that's going to be 18 years old in November and he is starting to show that he is a player with a lot of potential."
On preventing a letdown in D.C. on Wednesday:
"I don't think it's guarding a letdown as much as it's regrouping and getting some gas back in the tank. I think this was a performance that took a lot out of our team and it's going to be important if we can recover physically. We'll need to bring a couple new players into the team on Wednesday. I don't think we'll have a letdown on the mental side, we just have to make sure we do a good job in making sure our players recover and get them physically ready to play."
NEW YORK RED BULLS MIDFIELDER CLINT MATHIS
On playing in such a special game:
"If you're at this level, and you don't enjoy playing in front of that many people, then what are you playing the sport for? You have to get pumped up for a game like this, but you hope that every game is like this one. I am not going to get that experience in my lifetime but hopefully a kid like Jozy does. This is how it is in Europe and this is how it should be every game. I don't care if we are playing David Beckham or the Kansas City Wizards, it should be like that every single game. Hopefully we get more games like this, more media attention like this against David Beckham and the LA Galaxy or another team. But the final outcome is that we want every game like this one."
On scoring his 45th goal and setting the Red Bulls record for career goals:
"It was great. I didn't even really think about No. 45 until I saw somebody cheering. Records are great, but they are just numbers -- they are meant to be broken. It is a great honor to pass someone like Giovanni Savarese, who is a great guy and a great soccer player. It's a great honor in that respect, but I was a little happier that we got that second goal to tie it up right before halftime."
On David Beckham's appeal:
"We need to teach this sport a little bit better in America, so we can have more games like this, so we can draw in more fans and instead of them expecting a 1-0 or 0-0 game, they can understand the passion of the game and come out and see a 5-4 result. David helps in bringing and attracting new fans to the league."
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD JUAN PABLO ANGEL
On playing well with so many people watching:
"It was great for everyone involved with the club and for everyone involved in the league. All those first-time watchers enjoyed a great show -- nine goals, a lot of quality, and a few mistakes. All in all, I think it was a great performance for us as a team. Winning a team against such a fine side will give us confidence. We have won two in a row and we look good. We have a tough game in the middle of the week against D.C. But we want to keep going and make it to the playoffs and do something unique for this city by winning a championship."
On David Beckham:
"He was very effective. He was involved in the first three goals. Every ball he touched was a piece of magic and he has the ability to change the course of the game with one of his balls. But I will give credit to our team because we showed a lot of resilience and character to win a very difficult game against a very fine side."
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD JOZY ALTIDORE
On playing for the first time in such a great atmosphere and in front of so many fans:
"I am never going to forget a game like this. It was an amazing feeling. Clint told me earlier in the week, 'Remember this.' He's right, the atmosphere, the crowd, the game itself, it was truly amazing."
On David Beckham:
"He was as good as everyone has talked about. Every time he touched the ball something good came from it. The way he moves the ball, the way he moves about the field is very positive. I think he played very well and had a great game."
On emerging as one of the league's major stars:
"So far it has been great for me. It has been an invaluable experience playing alongside Juan Pablo Angel, Claudio Reyna, Clint Mathis, and Ronald Waterreus. They have taught me things about the game I didn't know before. It has been a great experience and I look forward to playing more and more and more."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY HEAD COACH FRANK YALLOP
On the game:
"It was a great game, obviously a bit diappointed to not get the win after getting back in the game tying it at four. I'm proud of my team and the way they performed. We had a lot of different guys play at the back and I felt they tried their best to get something out of the game. We just didn't manage it tonight."
On the team:
"If anybody can understand the schedule we have just had, it shows that at times we can't maintain the type of pressure and the type of play we would like to for 90 minutes. It's nobody's fault, it is out there and we have to deal with it. I think David came through well, he was sore at the end. Whether he's ready to play the game on Thursday against Chivas will depend on what he does with the England squad. The same with Landon, both of those guys want to come back and be apart of our team. It shows their determination and their will to play for us."
On the effect of Ante Jazic's early injury:
"Kevin Harmse had to drop back into the back and David had to play 90 minutes. We hadn't planned on that, but it was a huge part of our ability. Once David gets fully healthy and him and Landon continue to work together, you will see some good stuff from both those guys. David was outstanding tonight."
On the state of David's injury:
"For me, if a player is not fit to go, he will stay. David has been wanting to play and be on the field, but he hasn't been playing. As you saw tonight, he is still not 100 percent this week, but he's a lot closer."
On the state of soccer in the United States:
"Tonight, you saw two teams that played the right way, which is good. You don't set out to score four and them then score five, but you saw some good players out there that were dangerous. When you have that combination, you are going to see exciting games. If the fans tonight didn't enjoy the game, then they know nothing about soccer. That is encouraging and to also see some fight and some scrapping is good for our game."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY MIDFIELDER LANDON DONOVAN
On the game:
"They were good at finding a place to score, give them credit. We had a lot of chances, at 2-1, I had a lot of chances. We didn't stop anything. We played well offensively. We just didn't score on those couple. Then we went into a lull for a little bit then finally we got back into it. It's actually disappointing because we played well. We can't be mad at our guys. We played well and it was fun to watch I'm sure."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY FORWARD CARLOS PAVON
On how the game was developed:
"We played very well in a difficult field, and the Red Bulls played very well too, but we made some mistakes that eventually cost us the game. "
On his personal play:
"I think I'm working well, and today we saw the outcome of my efforts. Personally as a forward the only way to get through a bad scoring patch is working hard and gaining confidence."
On the impact of Beckham:
"For us to have a player like Beckham is great, we are getting to know each other very well."
On the goals he scored tonight:
"I dedicate today's goals to my family and my wife, and to everyone who has supported me. The game was good and bad at the same time because the goals were worthless, it's a shame because the team was playing really well and we lost the game in the last minutes."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM
On the game:
"It was very different. I haven't been involved in a game like that since I was nine or 10 years old where there were so many goals and the change of play changes so much in 90 minutes. But it was a great game and great for the people who turned up tonight. You see the stadium and you see the fans, it's pretty incredible and it's great for the league and great for both teams to play in an atmosphere like that. We're disappointed because I think we played pretty well in the game and we created enough chances to win the game. Congratulations to Red Bull, I think both teams made it exciting for all the people who paid their money, but we're disappointed to go home without points."
On his advice for other potential soccer stars who might play in MLS:
"I think if anyone is thinking about coming to the MLS and playing their soccer in America, you just have to experience it. I've enjoyed my time here and I've only been here a month. I'd advise anyone to give it a go because it's exciting and it's different. With the excitement that I've seen so far, I've enjoyed it immensely."
On his ankle after playing 90 minutes on the turf field:
"I was surprised to actually play 90 minutes. The manager and the coaching staff kept asking me if I wanted to come off. But I'm quite a stubborn person on and off the field. When we were winning I didn't want to come off and when we were losing I didn't want to come off. I think my stubbornness took over and I didn't want to come off the pitch. It was such a great atmosphere and I was enjoying the game, with so many goals on both ends, I didn't want to come off. My ankle took a pounding obviously, I'm not used to this surface but it wasn't bad. It played quite well tonight. There were a couple instances where I rolled over on my ankle but at the end of the day we have to play on this surface. My ankle is more swollen than it was before the game but I'm sure it'll be fine for the game on Wednesday."
On being booed:
"It's not strange. I've been booed at many away grounds and I've had worse than that so I was quite happy with that at the end. It's always nice when you win games and you can turn around and smile at the people that are booing. But it's part and parcel of playing at away grounds and it adds to the atmosphere. It's all in good fun, I clapped the crowd that booed me at the end and they put their arms up and clapped me back so it's all part of the atmosphere."
On linking up with Carlos Pavon:
"I think that when I can put a ball in a position where a player is, then I'll do it. And lucky tonight, Carlos was in the right position twice and we could have had a couple more. The other day with Landon, when you've got players that can play and understand the game like that it makes it fun to play with them."
On increasing the fan turnout at a game:
"It makes me feel great and it makes me feel wanted to be able to do that. I'm hoping it continues because this is what this game needs, it's what this league needs in America. It's got the attention so far in every game that we've played in. Tonight, I have to say thank you to the fans that paid money and came to see the teams play. They witnessed an exciting game and they witnessed a sport that is, to me, the best sport in the world. I hope it continues. I think it can continue if players keep coming over and players and teams keep performing like they did tonight, we have a chance of doing that."
On the performance of the Red Bulls:
"He (Jozy Altidore) is a great player, they have a few good players that we knew about before the game and it was all about stopping them. We did it to a certain extent but good players will always get chances. When he got his chances, he took them. He's a good player."
On playing in New York:
"This was a fixture that I was looking forward to playing in when I came over. I was hoping that I would be healthy enough to play in it, which was in question the past few weeks. But I've enjoyed playing here, it's a great city, one that I love coming to. The atmosphere was great tonight so I was really happy and pleased that I could actually play here."
On the recent play of the Galaxy:
"I think it's about confidence. When new players come to the team, it can go one way or the other and it's gone the way I hoped it would. I think tonight we're a little disappointed because we lost the game but there's a lot we can take from the game because we showed a lot of character tonight. To go one-nil down, then 2-1 up, then 2-2 and down 4-2, then come back, it's a learning curve. Sometimes you've just got to accept that you're only going to get a point tonight, but we've got the mentality that we want more and I don't see that as a bad thing I see it as a good thing. It might be bad when you don't end up with a point but on the other side we've got a team that wants to win and that's a positive."
On playing for England this week:
"Only time will tell. I have to see how it is tomorrow. I'm traveling tomorrow morning to London to meet up with the team and I'd like to play some part in the game on Wednesday and then flying back, hopefully get some rest and play some part in the Chivas game. I think it's important for me to get back and be at the game and hopefully play some part in the game."
