Saturday, August 20, 2011

More Galaxy Reax

By the time Keane and Arena finished the post-game presser, the visitor's locker room was almost all devoid of Earthquake players. That wasn't too surprising, because in general, the losing team clears out quickly. 

The lovely Mrs. Keane was in the hallway to have a quick word with her goalscoring hubby. She was twirling a lock of blonde hair around her finger while speaking to him. I think she was a bit startled at the reporters rushing past her as if she wasn't even there. Sports media in the USA hasn't really caught onto the WAG culture of Britain, and no one tried to take a picture or ask her a question. 

In the locker room, rap music was blasting. I asked defender Omar Gonzalez about it and he told me the players take turns playing DJ for the locker room during training days, but he wasn't sure who was in charge of the tunes for gameday. He guessed goalkeeper coach Ian Feuer was responsible. 

Omar also acknowledged that he's been trying to emulate teammate Beckham with that long pass sent to Keane that Robbie couldn't quite convert. 

"I see David hit passes like that all the time, and I'm pretty confident in my ability to hit long passes from the box, too. So I thought, why not? It worked before. It almost worked again."

On the loss of Juan Pablo Angel to Chivas USA: It was hard. Juan was a great teammate with a great work ethic. That's the toughest part of this profession, but I hope it works out for him.

On the Galaxy's upcoming stretch of games: We've just got to take it one game at a time. Maybe we'll see more players in during certain games. 

On Hejduk on the backline: It doesn't matter who is back there. We trust every player. AJ, Gregg, Frankie, Sean, Bryan, they can all step in and do a great job. 

On Keane: He scored, so that's exactly what we wanted. It's great.

The scrum around Becks for quotes was scary large, so I avoided it completely, talking to Todd Dunivant instead. 

On the SJ rivalry: I think it's still alive. It's changed through the years, especially because the team didn't exist for a couple of years, but I think it's still there. You saw our fans trying to shout them down this match and that really made a good atmosphere. 

On Angel's departure: Angel will really be missed. He was a great guy, very classy player and a hard worker. We found out at halftime that he scored for Chivas USA and I really wish him the best. 

On Keane: What a way to introduce himself to the team and fans. We're really happy to have him here. 

On the red card foul on Donovan: It happened right in front of me. (Beitashour) had a chance to avoid him, and go clear over him, but he very clearly brought his foot down on Landon's knee. It was definitely intentional. I was just trying to defend my teammate.

Stats - Saunders had six saves (say that five times fast), and the Galaxy had only two shots on goal the whole match. Of course, they made goals out of both shots. Keane had three shots total. Aside from the goal, his other attempts were high and wide. 



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