TORONTO FC 5 – LA GALAXY 3
Toronto FC put three-goal lead before pulling out a 5-3 victory over the LA Galaxy on Saturday night at BMO Field.
GREG VANNEY – HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC
Greg what are your emotions after a game like that, belief that you got the win or shocked at how you got it?
Nothing is shocking this season. I’m happy we got the win; the goal of today was to get three points and stay in the mix. We got it, not exactly how we drew it up, the start was okay, obviously up 3-0 we’d like to keep control of that game and see it out. I like the fact that we’ve talked about being resilient, because things have happened over the course of this run and we have to be able to bounce back when things don’t go exactly we want them to go. We were able to do that tonight, so I’ll take that. Like I said to the guys in there, there’s a lot of times this year that we didn’t celebrate wins like we should have. All wins are tough to come by and with this one we have to celebrate the win. Use what we need out of it and build momentum for the next one.
The issue against LAFC, at the start of the second half, maybe a lack of focus in the back maybe manifested again today, what did you see coming from the team at the second half?
I thought in the second half we were a little unclear in terms of getting pressure to the ball, so we could manage things outside our box. What we didn’t want was to give them enough time to put balls into the box with Ibra’s size and obviously his athleticism, because the first goal was incredible. Obviously, we have to not allow him to just dink a ball into our box, but the finish was something that he could do and I’m not sure how many people his size could do, but again the set piece goal is about concentration, guys filling their set roles, the set piece scenario and obviously we didn’t do that how we wanted. We made an adjustment in the second half as the game progressed. I thought we started to get more control over the ball and managing players where they were setting up. It took us a while to get there but when we did we settled in and controlled the game again to get some more chances and some more goals to open up the lead again. Nothing has come so easy, we’ve conceited a lot of goals this year and luckily today we were able to score 5 which got us out. That is something we need to continue to tighten up.
Would Michael have played that position if Drew was healthy?
No, we spent 10 days preparing this game a certain way, and two days ago Drew in training comes up with a calf, we were hopeful that it would be nothing and he would recover but he didn’t think he could go. It’s not a severe calf, hopefully it’s something we can get by this week and then he’s back on the fold. It’s about nine days of preparation to play a certain way and then all of a sudden it switched and that’s how the season has been. But the guys managed it well, enough to get up to 3-0 but as the game progressed we started to get, I mean our reference points started to get a little loose. We needed to get Michael back in to create a natural 2 vs 1, two centre-backs around Ibra, have Michael in front, clear some things up that way. Once we settled in and started getting our connections I think we started to control the game again.
JONATHAN OSORIO – MIDFIELDER, TORONTO FC
What does this mean for the play off push, going into next week?
It means the same thing as before this game, it is a must win. At least a game that we need a result. It is going to be tough, next weekend is against a very tough team, away. But we are up for it and we know what we are up against. We showed the fight today and its good step forward.
What does that say about the fight of this team, coming back into this game.
I think we have been with each other long enough that we believe in each other. We have grown to be a team with a lot of big character, and a lot of resilience. I think that showed tonight, not many teams can come back from the fact of winning three nothing and losing that lead, it’s difficult but we held in there really well and we did a good job to win it.
Does it make it that the fact that Zlatan scores that goal now the victory, can you appreciate the goal.
Yeah, its a typical Zlatan goal. I think the crowd gave him an ovation, I think that it was a great goal, don’t get me wrong. I think they were a bit quick to give him an ovation. It’s like they wanted him to score, I didn’t like that but give credit where credit is due, it was an amazing goal.
ALEX BONO – GOALKEEPER, TORONTO FC
You were able to persevere in the end today, what does that say about the fight of this team?
Yeah obviously it is a step in the right direction. You look at some of the goals we give up, some that we don’t want to give up. But I give credit to the guys in front of me today. They really had the guts and the grit to come back and find a couple more goals after they came level. We are happy with the win, but they are all not going to be pretty. So, we will take these 3 points and go into Wednesday.
Can you give yourself a pass on the goal, like the one that Zlatan scored?
Obviously, you never want to give passes to yourself on any goals, but that was a pretty unique finish. I have never had a goal scored on me like that before, so that was definitely different for me. But he is obviously super talented, and I thought he took it pretty well.
When did the oh crap this is going in kind of sink in on that.
To be fair once it came off his foot I didn’t really get to see it until it was past me, but you don’t really have time to think like that. For me it was just it was just he did a good job of holding off Nick I think it was and was able to just kind of side foot the ball into the net.
You made a statement, by coming back is there enough time left…
Yeah sure, until we are mathematically eliminated we are going to believe and play like we have a chance. We are going to take it one game at a time. We have a tough one next week after the Tigres game, that we need to go and put a performance in and get more points on the road. So, like I said until we are mathematically eliminated we are going to go for it and that is something that we’ve said, ever since we were behind, until the end no matter what. We are doing this together, we’re doing it as group and we are going to fight right until the very end.
DOMINIC KINNEAR – HEAD COACH, LA GALAXY
Did you feel the guys got a little push from Zlatan’s goal?
It’s a great goal, it’s a good time to score right before half-time so it gives you a little momentum going into half and in the locker-room. You just want to make sure you jump on that and take it out in the second half and we didn’t.
How much harder is it to take a result like that when you climb back from three goals down?
Anytime you lose, don’t get me wrong some are more heartbreaking than others, but I thought at 3-2, and we said at half-time the next goal is going to tell a lot about the game, so we thought at 3-2 there would be a little jump in our step and the third goal we’re happy about it. By no means is the game over and I thought we were going toe-to-toe. As I said before, the fourth for me, if you want to say it’s a good play by them that’s fine, but I thought we defended the cross very poorly and we did that a couple times tonight and we paid for it.
What have you seen watching a player like Zlatan playing over the course of the year?
He’s ultra-competitive, obviously we get to know him personally rather than watching him on TV. He’s ultra-competitive, he wants to win all the time, every minute of every game. And then you throw it on top he is a wonderful soccer player, it’s sometimes real fun to watch.
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC – FORWARD, LA GALAXY
Thoughts on the game…
I think we had a good game. Second half, the first 25-30 minutes I thought we did good, and I think we got overconfident, we didn’t stick to the plan, the organization and they punished us. It was difficult because we came back from 3-0 so I think we did a good game; the guys should get compliments. We haven’t been this organized for a while, so it was positive but still negative in the way that we lost.
To score your 500th goal in the fashion, what does that mean?
I mean, from my personal objective it’s fantastic. I probably have more goals than the guys on the field have games together. Of course, it’s huge. I don’t know how many have scored 500 goals in their career, but I am one of them and if would feel nicer if we win the game but still, I did it so there is nothing I will hide from.
On the team’s fight to comeback…
We have a big wheel, we have a very good morale in the team and good character. But still we make decisions and simple mistakes that we get punished for. Normally sometimes when you do those mistakes, you don’t punished, you get away from it but at the moment we get punished very badly.
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