Major League Soccer Quote Sheet
LA Galaxy 2 : 1 Real Salt Lake
Saturday, April 17, 1010
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
REAL SALT LAKE HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On RSL’s performance:
“They played outstanding. We all
knew the circumstances coming into this game. Having played 120 minutes
Wednesday night was a difficult situation for us, and our guys handled it
really well. For me, the details of the game are still some of the hardest to
put together. When you don’t have 100% fitness, when you are not 100% ready for
these matches and regenerated for the match, that is where sometimes the
difference can be. You can see tonight, Edson [Buddle] makes two fantastic
individual plays and that is the difference in the game.”
On Edson Buddle:
“I cannot remember ever seeing a
guy that is this on fire. Everything he is touching is quality and the goals he
is scoring are uncanny.”
On Nick Rimando:
“I think Nick [Rimando] is playing
very well right now – and we need him to. We need individual guys to step
forward and have great performances and he has done that in every match.”
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER ANDY WILLIAMS
On the match:
“We got a very important goal
right before the end of the (first) half. We tried to keep possession of the
ball in the second half and I thought we did well probably up until the 75th
minute. I don’t know if the guys
got tired from our Wednesday game, but Edson [Buddle] is in fantastic form
right now. He had some great shots tonight and he finished two.”
Thoughts after going down a goal:
“We weren’t panicking at all. This
team has fought a lot of doubters from last year and we are doing it again this
year. It is a long season and that is why the Galaxy were the Western
Conference champs last year and they are one of the top teams in the league
right now. We tried to measure up to them tonight, and while we were missing a
couple of players I think we did well.”
On his role on the team:
“I have been through a lot. My
skill is to possess the ball and try to get the team as calm as possible
whenever we start panicking. We need to keep the ball away and kind of control
things in midfield, and I thought we did well for most of the game until the
end.”
REAL SALT LAKE MIDFIELDER KYLE BECKERMAN:
On his goal:
“I guess we whipped it in off a
corner and it came off of I think [Michael] Stephens’ head. He tried to clear
it and it came to me, so I took a touch and tried to get a hard shot on goal.”
On tonight’s loss:
“It is early in the season. We
definitely would have liked to come away with a point or a win, but Edson
Buddle is on fire right now. He is something else. He’s playing at a different
level and he is really carrying them right now.”
REAL SALT LAKE
DEFENDER NAT BORCHERS
On tonight’s game:
“We obviously didn’t want them to
get behind us; we wanted them to play in front of us. To be fair they didn’t
have a lot of chances in the game, a few set pieces – and obviously they made
the first one and they were dangerous on a couple of others. They really had
one or two chances in the run of play and they scored the second one in the
second half, and that is was what good teams do.”
On his exchange of words with Edson Buddle:
“That is between me and him. I
know him pretty well; we both played in the U-23’s. After the game there are no
hard feelings, but when we are on the field we like to battle and that’s what
happens.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On Galaxy the play of Edson Buddle:
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen
anything like it. I mean, the goals are going in but there are other chances in
the game where he is just missing. He’s getting pulled around like people
wouldn’t believe. He’s getting fouled and hammered and with a little more luck
tonight he would have scored three or four.”
On the battle between Buddle and Real
Salt Lake
defender Nat Borchers:
“At one point he got tangled up
with Nat pretty good in the second half and he was pretty riled up. I said,
look, man, just put it in the net. And he did. Nat didn’t have much to say
after that.”
On the Galaxy’s depth:
“We pride ourselves on our depth.
By contrast, Salt Lake
had a couple of injuries and it really affected them. We’ve had a lot of
injuries - a lot of injuries to veteran players. So, we don’t have a lot of
leadership on the field right now and guys are stepping in, kind of learning on
the run, and doing a great job.”
GALAXY FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
On the win:
“It’s a good win overall. It was a
tough game, we let them back in five minutes before the half and you never want
to do that in any game. You want to maintain the lead going into half, whether
it’s a mental lapse or a lucky bounce. Bottom line is we won and we want to
find ourselves in those games coming out on top.”
On his hot start:
“It’s good. I’ve always stayed
levelheaded because, like I said, there are always ups and downs. I’m just
enjoying it right now and I hope that I keep scoring.”
GALAXY MIDFIELDER MICHAEL STEPHENS
On making his first MLS start:
“It was an exciting day, I was a
little bit nervous going into it, but once I got going I felt real comfortable
and it was a great game to get my fist start in. It was a real big win for us.”
On the team’s ability to recover the lead in
the second half:
“It was the first time we had
given up a goal all year so it put our backs up against the wall a little. It
questioned our team and forced us to show what kind of team we are and we
responded well.”
On the team’s effort throughout the game:
“It was a battle. They’re a
physical team and a real good team and we weren’t happy to give up the goal, but
we responded well, worked hard as we had all night and we were able to get the
win.”
GALAXY MIDFIELDER CHRIS BIRCHALL
On the win:
“The guys were brilliant tonight.
That is one of the games where we played good soccer, passed the ball around
and Edson took another two chances – he’s on fire at the moment – and it’s
another three points and we’re full of confidence.”
On playing with a forward who is as hot as
Edson:
“It’s great. Everything he’s
touching at the moment is going in the back of the net. We just need to
capitalize on that while he’s scoring and we need to collect three points as
well, which we are doing. We’ve only conceded one goal so Donovan and the
defense need to get a lot of credit, but Edson’s scored seven goals in four
games and he’s full of confidence so we’re feeding off that and want to keep
doing so next weekend in Kansas City.”
GALAXY FORWARD BRYAN JORDAN
On playing right back:
“I’ve been playing a little bit of
everything at practice, a just-in-case player so to speak and given the players
that we had out there tonight – Gregg is just coming back from an injury – once
Sean got injured, which is going to hurt us, I was ready to step right in.”
On being nervous playing a new position:
“I’m an attacking player so just
playing in defense I was a little nervous to start, but once I got out there I
just played my game.”
On the team’s current form:
“The team’s been playing great.
Edson’s been getting our goals, the defense has been playing great, we’ve only
given up the one goal tonight and the rest we’ve been shutting them out. Now we
just have to keep it up.”