Sporting Kansas City Head Coach Peter Vermes
On tonight’s game...
“I thought in the first half we played really solid. Getting it to 1-0 was good unfortunately we made a critical mistake right before the half and gave a penalty kick but coming in 1-1 was good. The second half is what put the dagger in us and that is the part that gets frustrating.”
On the play of Landon Donovan...
“He is a game changer, there is no doubt. They have some guys on their team, obviously Beckham as well. We talked about both of those players prior to this game knowing full well what they bring and both of them were very good tonight. Credit to them they played a very good game tonight.”
On the team’s performance...
“In the first half I thought we played very good. We are playing away from home we were 1-1 we were actually leading 1-0 but start the second half and not be ready and knowing they would come out that was the frustrating thing because we talked about it.”
Sporting Kansas City captain Davy Arnaud
On tonight’s game...
“It was not good enough to come out in the second half and let the game go the way it did it is just not good enough.”
On playing all seven of their games on the road...
"We have been talking about the same thing about playing on the road, we have known that. It is not easy but at the same time it is not so difficult that we should turn in a second half performance that we did tonight. It is just not obviously what we wanted and it is very disappointing.”
On the team’s performance...
“First half I thought we did okay we got the goal we were up 1-0 and we give a PK a minute before half time that is a tough one to swallow because we obviously want to come in up at that point 1-0 at the half but still we are even at half time. We gave them a ton of good looks in the first half and we had a few decent chances ourselves. The second half, like I said to come out and give up in the first minute it’s poor, it’s really bad because we knew they were going to come at us for the first 15 minutes and from there it was going to be tough for us and our response was not good.”
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On tonight’s game...
“I obviously thought we played well, it was a fabulous result. I can’t be more proud of our team; it was a challenging week with New York here, Philadelphia and tonight Kansas City. A lot of teams could use that as an excuse but our guys preformed great. It was a week that we could’ve won all three but came out a little short there, but I think we played well and are starting to play better as a team."
On the importance of the penalty kick before halftime...
“It certainly was important and legitimate. If you saw Beckham’s leg you’d understand why it was a penalty. It was legitimate. He was taken down in the box and kicked pretty good but that was important and obviously the way we came out and started the second half. It was all the difference in the game"
On the message at halftime...
“We just said that if we passed better we were going to create chances. We continue to grow as a team and our passing is improving. When you play a team like Kansas City that tries to get after you, pressure the ball and turn you over, if your passing is good, once you get through the initial pressure you are going to create some chances.”
On who he would select as his Man of the Match...
"Landon is an obvious name that you throw out there. For a coach, I think Juninho was brilliant tonight. I thought Dunivant and Franklin, were very good. Our whole back line was very good. I don’t think I can single out one player tonight but I thought Juninho had a brilliant game. They were all good tonight.”
On David Beckham’s goal...
“Terrific. What can you say? I don’t know how he managed to do it. It was a great goal. I think he was shooting, right? Great goal. I think we scored some real good goals tonight and created some good chances.”
On Juan Pablo Angel’s goal and performance...
“I thought he played a real good 30 minutes. I am real pleased with Juan. I think he’s a really good player and he is going to score goals and that’s why he’s here. I think the transition with switching coasts and being away from his family and adjusting to the Galaxy and California, it’s not easy. I think that he’s starting to get his feet on the ground now and I’m real confident that a lot of good days are ahead for him.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Landon Donovan
On the team’s performance...
“It is always fun to score. It is always fun to play well, pass well, move the ball well. You can either spend the energy defending and chasing or you could spend the energy with the ball it is always more fun with the ball and I think at the end of the night we did that.”
On playing the third of three games in eight days...
“I think there was always going to a little bit of a let down because of the tough week we’ve had. But once we got going, we were a little bit better and the quality came through.”
On Juan Pablo Angel’s goal...
“He is a guy that has made a living off scoring goals so it helps a lot confidence wise. He’s been playing really well the last few games and he has done a good job of getting all his teammates involved, but we’re all happy to see him score.”
On David Beckham’s goal...
“There is about one person in the world that can do that and he did it tonight.”
On being the MLS-leader in goals...
“It feels good to be on top of the league in points as a team and that’s the goal. But it’s always nice to score, it’s always good to hit the net. Like I’ve said a million times, when you put yourself in good spots and are you are aggressive, the chances come. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t, and right now they’re going in so we’ll just keep going.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham
On the team’s performance...
“I think it was better for us once we got the possession because the guys have been on a road trip. It is tough for them to come into this game with a tough game on Wednesday and traveling on Thursday and not training until Friday and not doing much. It was some great performances tonight all the way from the back four, Josh [Saunders] obviously playing in goal, and I think it was Juninho’s best game of the season. Obviously Landon [Donovan] and Chad [Barrett] and it is great that Juan [Pablo Angel] scored tonight it is important. At first it started off difficult, we started slow. We went in and in the second half we came out we got the ball a lot more and obviously the early goal helped us out and we pushed on from there.”
On his goal...
“I like to score goals. It is not the biggest thing that I go to games thinking about. My game has always been about getting assists and if can get a goal then great. I always enjoy scoring goals, who doesn’t? I think more importantly tonight the performance of the team, the character of the team especially like I said coming off the road trip and the travel it is a great performance by us tonight.”
On Landon Donovan...
“When Landon said a couple of weeks ago that he is not a goal scorer, I don’t know what he is talking about. His game is about scoring goals and when he scores goals it is exciting and it is good for teams that he is playing on. At the moment Landon is playing really well and coming into this game obviously he is going to be a little bit tired because of the travel. He didn’t look tired once he started, obviously that is good for him scoring goals that is great for our club.”
LA Galaxy Forward Juan Pablo Angel
On scoring a goal...
“I felt good. I feel happy. I felt good in games against New York and Philadelphia … I knew it was a matter of time. The team has changed its style of play from how it played the last couple of years. We’re now playing a lot more possession ball. I’ve said it from the beginning, we were first working on correcting our defense, which we’ve done very well, and the next step was fixing the offensive part of our game, and that the moment we got some rhythm on our offensive game this team was going to be very dangerous. Tonight we showed it. Against Philadelphia, we played well in certain situations and all that was missing was converting on our opportunities. Tonight was the perfect game. The possession was the same, the way we distributed the ball was good and we converted the scoring opportunities we had.”
On coming off the bench...
“I had played two tough games and with the travel Bruce decided to go with players who were fresh at certain positions. This is going to be a long season, we’re going to have a lot of games, and we have to be ready for when the coach calls on us. Today, I had to come off the bench, and I went in and did well. This is a long season and we all have to be ready.”