YOKOHAMA F. MARINOS 2, LOS ANGELES Galaxy 0
LOS ANGELES GALAXY HEAD COACH STEVE SAMPSON
On the game:
"It thought it was a good first half, a pretty even first half. I thought that the changes that we made (in the starting lineup) were quite interesting. Without Paulo Nagamura and Michael Umana and others, I thought Todd (Dunivant) did a very good job. That's why we had the majority of our first-team players out there. I thought we did a good job holding the ball and creating some rhythm. I think with the changes in the second half, especially with Ned Grabavoy coming off due to a hamstring pull, we lost a lot of rhythm in the midfield. There was just too much inexperience out there to really play against what I thought was a very, very good opponent; a team that has good pace at all positions. In the second half, I think their speed of play forced us to defend way too much. And our inability to create any kind of rhythm in the second half, especially the last 30 minutes, caused a lot of problems. The Yokohama team was just outstanding, two great goals, so I give them credit."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY GOALKEEPER STEVE CRONIN
On the team's performance tonight:
"Obviously, there were a lot of changes coming in the second half. We took out three of our usual starters; that's obviously going to change things. Maybe we started off a little bit slow [in the second half], and that led to the first goal. Throughout the course of the second half, we were tying to get more guys time. There was inexperience on the field, you could see it, but at the same time it was good that some of the younger guys got some good minutes in against a good team."
On playing international friendlies:
"Well, it's a different style. You look at these guys; they play totally different from anybody in MLS. It's good to see a different style of soccer. Those guys are really good, they have a lot of good players. It was just good football from their side."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY DEFENDER TODD DUNIVANT
On the team's performance tonight:
"We wanted to come out and knock the ball around and get a good rhythm, and I thought especially in the first half we were able to do that. In the second half, a couple lapses cost us a couple goals. But we're looking ahead to Saturday. It was a good midweek game for us. Give credit to Yokohama, they played well and it was a good test for us."
On playing international friendlies:
"It's great. It gives us a new look. It's somebody you don't see four times during the year, so it's nice to get somebody fresh. It's a good challenge for us. We had Osasuna earlier in the year in Spain, and we played Real Madrid's B team. These types of games are only going to make us better. So, it was a good step for us tonight."
YOKOHAMA F. MARINOS HEAD COACH TAKESHI OKADA
Overall thoughts on the match:
"First, I would like to thank the L.A. Galaxy for accepting this match during their season. Since it was the fourth match since we started testing this four-back system, we were very slow in getting used to the system. However, after halftime, the combinations started to get better and the team started to (run) the system better. However, there are still many improvements for the future."
On comparing the quality of MLS to Japan:
"I believe both teams were not at their full motivation as Galaxy was during their season and Marinos were here for various friendly matches. However, in the first half of tonight's game, where mostly starters played, there were times where we saw a lot of very skillful plays that our players were not able to cope with. Therefore, I believe the level of the skill of the players is very high. Therefore, we believe that Marinos is not beyond what the level of Galaxy is, and we believe that Galaxy is a very strong team as well."
YOKOHAMA F. MARINOS DEFENDER DAISUKE NASU
On the game:
"The first half of the game, our combination play was not good. However, as we went on with the game, the combination improved...however, there were some times where there were certain counterattacks that we allowed. Therefore, I think there are still improvements to make in the future."
