NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION 2, LOS ANGELES GALAXY 1
LOS ANGELES GALAXY HEAD COACH RUUD GULLIT
On the game:
"If you look at the first half, I think our biggest problem was our midfield. People panic under pressure and give the ball away to the opposition and you lose your rhythm. I thought we came back and played better in the second half. Today I feel that we had a lot of chances, a lot of possibilities so therefore it feels unfortunate that we lost the game today."
On the play of Steve Cronin:
"I think that Steve Cronin has been excellent for us this year. If you lose you do it collectively, and if you win you do it collectively."
On his frustrations in the game:
"It is just marking. You see how much freedom, especially with the second goal. It is unnecessary. If you look at it, I thought that they [Revolution] were playing excellent, especially in the midfield in the first half. It is not that they were better than us, it is just that we were giving the ball right to them, so they were getting right into the game, without any reason. But with the corners, it is hard that we lost by two set pieces. We had so many chances to finish in the game, I think that a draw would have been OK."
On the play of Edson Buddle:
"Again Edson was excellent today. He shows how good he is and how important he is for the team. He holds the ball, creates chances, and for that reason, it is going to be very hard for Carlos [Ruiz]."
On the play of David Beckham:
"He was the most dangerous player for us, especially in the second half. They also on purpose put an extra man in there to hold him which means that he was dangerous. He was involved in everything, so I think he played excellent."
On ball distribution:
"Our exercises are based on that, distribution even when you are under pressure. Today it was not good in the midfield. If you give the ball away so easily to the opposition without any pressure whatsoever that is not good. The midfielders need to give the ball to the front people, and if they just give it away to the opposition, then it is hard. I think that is the main problem at the moment. I think that is the biggest problem for this team. It is not the defense, it is that you do something that is unnecessary."
On the play of Abel Xavier:
"I think it was his man who scored the goal. He knows that is his responsibility."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM
On the game:
"A disappointing loss for us. I think decision-making has cost us with two goals in the first half. In the second half we came back, had a lot of heart, but did not take our chances. When you don't take your chances you punish yourself, and tonight we are disappointed with a loss. We are still encouraged that they are one of the best teams that we have come up against and we have competed with them, especially in the second half."
On the team play:
"I think that there is always a frustration when you concede goals. We are not individuals, we do not put the blame on any individual player. When we lose games it is as a team, and that is the way we need to think, but it is always frustrating when you concede goals, especially when you concede them early, in the first half, because you are always chasing the rest of the game."
On playing in front of a large crowd:
"Whether there is a big crowd like there was today, or a few people watching it is always disappointing to lose a game. There was a great crowd there tonight, very enthusiastic and they wanted us to win. Unfortunately we did not. It is always disappointing."
On receiving the ball during the game:
"I think they were looking to get me the ball when they could. They closed us down well in the midfield. Sometimes in games you receive the ball a lot and sometimes you only receive one or two passes. You have to make those one or two passes pay for goals or assists."
On the impact of Landon Donovan in the second half:
"It is always good to have your best players out there. Obviously Landon is one of the best players we have got so it is good to have him out there. He has been ill for two or three days and he has not even trained so it was impossible for him to start from the word go. When he did come on it changed the game and it set their players back because they know his pace and they know what he can do. It put us on the front foot and gave us for opportunities to create chances."
On his goal in the second half:
"At halftime we talked about it and we knew if we could get one goal we could put pressure on their team and their players. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten to the ball because it seemed to have been in the air for a while and I thought their defender was going to cut through and charge through me with his studs up and that is why I did not hit it as cleanly as I wanted to. Maybe if I had hit it as cleanly as I wanted to it would not have gone in. It is nice to get a goal, but it still means nothing. We have lost the game and that is the biggest thing."
LA GALAXY DEFENDER SEAN FRANKLIN
On the game:
"In the second half we talked about how they were going to have set pieces. Both their goals were off set plays, so it's frustrating. I mean besides that it's frustrating giving up two goals at home, especially losing at home. All in all it's frustrating."
LA GALAXY FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
On the game and his scoring opportunity:
"I'm disappointed because we're at home. [The shot] felt good off my foot but for some reason I think maybe I was leaning back a bit so it went high. It is unfortunate. I was concentrating because I know when those balls get low like that, they come real fast. I was focusing on keeping it down, and to not look at the ball at all but it still popped up."
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER MIKE RANDOLPH
On the game:
"I mean yeah, I thought we played pretty well. We just gave up some goals on set plays. We let our guard down; we should not have done that. Other than that I thought we played pretty well. We were down 2-0 at halftime. We came into it trying to get back into the game -- that's what coach wanted us to do and I think that's what we did. I thought we fought all the way to the end and didn't give up."
On his shots:
"I had a couple shots that were in for sure. There was one that went over the top, and one that went over one of the players and I shot left post and went straight out. I mean I had a couple of good shots, but can't always count on those to go in -- hopefully next time."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On the game:
"I think we should have been 4-0 up. The game would have been over. You can't afford to miss so many chances. It should have been a given. We had two chances that should have been goals and would have killed the game. We end up holding on at the end. We probably deserved to win but we sort of maybe it difficult for ourselves."
On how the team played:
"To be honest, this season so far between the first game and last week's game, we have a lot more to come from this team. I don't think we've played our best between the first and last week. We're starting to pass the ball better. It's probably a shame that we don't have any league games for the next month. We've started passing the teams a lot better, putting teams under pressure, whether at our place or away from home."
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION FORWARD ADAM CRISTMAN
On his two goals:
"They both came off set pieces. The first was corner on the left side. Mauricio (Castro) whipped in a great ball, and Shalrie (Joseph) got a good head on it, and made it difficult for the keeper to save it. He gave up a rebound and I hit it toward the back the post. I just tapped it in. The second one, Steve (Ralston) served a great ball and it just came in from the back post, and I just jumped in the air and get over Abel Xavier, and just tried to get a head on it."
On the second goal:
"I was just trying to stay on the other side of Abel, and try to keep him turned around, so he didn't know where I was. I started in front of him, and he turned to look at the ball and I came in behind him. I guess he lost me."
