Saturday, August 15, 2015

Mas y Mas Gio

More leftover quotes on Gio/Galaxy. 

Head coach Bruce Arena


Players are getting better. We’ve had a long year. We’ve had a lot of injuries and absences for periods of time. For the most part, we’re over the hump and hopefully, we can get our team healthy and ready for the last nine season games and hopefully for the playoffs.

--Injuries?
We’ll see. Baggio should be back soon.

--Expectations? 
Not at all. We have to step on the field and play well each and every game and try to win. All that other stuff is all garbage and hype. We don’t talk about championships yet.

--Supporters' Shield?
It’d be nice to have. The way the league is made up right now, with the regular season schedule, it’s hard, because too many teams play without their players for so many games. The Supporters’ Shield is an awkward goal to have, given that a number of teams play without their players for long periods of time. So it makes that difficult.

--Robbie Rogers Achilles heel issue?
Every player has injuries and deals with it differently. He’s playing 90 minutes now.

--Dallas?
They’re a good team. I haven’t watched them that closely, but Castillo continues to be dangerous player. Diaz is good. Perez has been outstanding goalscorer. Defensively, they’re pretty solid. They’re a good team.

We’ve seen the weather before. We had weather the other day, so it’s not an excuse. Still weather.

--Gio adjustment? There’s been no issues to date. Like any player, they’ll be some ups and downs along the way, but he’s doing very well.



Ignacio Maganto, Galaxy midfielder

--On playing with Gio in his Galaxy debut
It was good for him to get minutes and he did well.

--Gio adjustment?
He spent many years in Spain, and his style of play is similar to mine, and I like that a lot. We understand each other well.

Chris Klein, Galaxy president.

--On what it took to bring Gio in. 
We feel great about the opportunity that we can provide to a player. We’re thankful that we have a club that has history, with good people involved from top to bottom. We want a certain type of player to be in our club. We have a list that we always come back to. We evaluate a number of different options and where that player is at in his career and what the cost is going to be. Gio’s name kept popping up at the top of the list. We’re thankful that we got the deal done. It was the right time for him and the right time for us.

--Does Gio signing combat retirement stereotype of MLS?
We’ve got players like Gyasi, players like Omar, players like Jose, Landon, the list goes on and on. The fact that Gerrard is here and that Keane keeps playing at 35 - they could play on a number of different teams around the world still. 1,2 players doesn’t make it a retirement league.

--Did LD retirement push Gio chase?
We look at our team as a whole.

Jovan Kirovski, Galaxy technical director

--On Gio adjustment. 
I think the travel is a big part. You’re playing 100 percent humidity in Houston, altitude in Colorado, That’s a big adjustment. The style of play and the way that they’re playing is a little bit different than it is in Spain. It would be more spacier, a little slower pace, but he’s getting adjusted to playing with these players as well. It’s a little bit different.

He’s arrived, he played his first game, scored his first goal. That's the main piece. After that, there’s the travel. He’s in a great group here. So he has a lot of the tools here and a good environment.

When you look at different DPs and who can make an impact here, not just playing on the field, a DP for the Galaxy isn’t going to be the same as for any other club. He’s one that checks every box. It was no question that he was one of the top players we could get.


Alan Gordon, Galaxy striker

--On making Gio feel comfortable on the team. 

I’ve just tried to be myself. That’s who I’ve been all along and I’m still that person. I’m trying to be a leader, the most I can, even to a young star like Gio. I just try to be myself, not look at them as the stars they are, but as teammates. I hope that’s refreshing for them in a way. We’ve had instant connection. He likes to laugh and smile and so do I. Anybody like that, I’m going to connect with right away. It’s been good so far.


We just joke around, laugh and smile.

Very eager. It’s been a long year. We had all this anticipation waiting for Gerrard, and Gio and then Keane was out a while, too. Finally, for them all to be here. We grinded it out earlier this year - we battled. Now it’s time to have a little bit of fun with everybody available and see what we can do. We’re just as curious as everybody else to see how it’s going to all play out and work hard and we’re anxious to see where it can all go.

I don’t think it’s all going to be supersmooth. I’m ready to lace them up and work hard.
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