MLS Regular Season
San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 5 Los Angeles Football Club
March 30, 2019 – Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif.
Attendance: 18,000
Scoring Summary: LAFC – Carlos Vela (Mark-Anthony Kaye) 8; LAFC – Steven Beitashour (Eduard Atuesta) 26; LAFC – Carlos Vela (Diego Rossi, Adama Diomande) 45+3; LAFC – Carlos Vela (Steven Beitashour) 66; LAFC – Diego Rossi (Carlos Vela) 68.
Misconduct Summary: LAFC – Mark-Anthony Kaye (caution) 30; SJ – Cristian Espinoza (caution) 34; SJ – Anibal Godoy (caution) 53; LAFC – Eduard Atuesta (caution) 55; SJ – Harold Cummings (caution) 57.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: Daniel Vega; Shea Salinas, Harold Cummings, Guram Kashia, Tommy Thompson; Judson (Jackson Yueill HT), Anibal Godoy; Cristian Espinoza, Vako (Danny Hoesen HT), Magnus Eriksson; Chris Wondolowski.
SHOTS: 6; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; SAVES: 4; FOULS: 15; CORNER KICKS: 2; OFFSIDES: 3.
LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB: Tyler Miller; Jordan Harvey (Niko Hämäläinen 69), Eddie Segura, Walker Zimmerman, Steven Beitashour; Latif Blessing, Eduard Atuesta, Mark-Anthony Kaye (Peter-Lee Vassell 74); Diego Rossi, Adama Diomande (Christian Ramirez 68), Carlos Vela.
SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 7; SAVES: 2; FOULS: 6; CORNER KICKS: 5; OFFSIDES: 0.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH MATIAS ALMEYDA
On the team’s adaptation to his system:
“There are moments in sport that are sour, like this one. You are confronted with the reality. I’m not at all happy. I started a process that for the first time as a head coach that I lose by five goals. As a player, I never experienced this either, so I take this all as a learning lesson, and I take out conclusions. I’ve been respectful with the players that I have inherited, that I accepted, and I have given them enough time to change. Honestly the game was disastrous. We knew the quality of our opposition and they marked the major difference between the team in first and the team in last, so there is a big difference.”
On the expectation of seeing change so soon:
“The magic doesn’t exist in soccer and here you repeatedly see mistakes that happened last season. My decision to come to San Jose was because it’s a long-term plan. I didn’t think that today we would be first. Simply, I am looking for a style of play and even if they were to score 10 goals, I’d have the same mentality because I like a certain style of soccer. I would never play defensively, for example play with a 5-4-1 formation. I would never do this because it wouldn’t be me. It wouldn’t be the way I train. It wouldn’t help contribute to a society that contracted me knowing how I play.”
On the usage of two subs at halftime and how they played:
“As a coach it is hard to plan subs before a match. As the minutes go by, you start to see what is needed and you look for different characteristics and energies from the players that don’t start. I want the players of San Jose to be reversible. They know they have the freedom to play and risk, but also have the obligation that when they lose the ball, they must leave their soul to recover it. The moment that we are going through now requires a rebellion that I’m not happy with at the moment. Like I said before, I think I have given a lot of time out of respect that I have for the players and now my mind will continue to spin until I have found the team that I have obviously not found. So that means that the first one at fault is the head coach, which is me, because I am taking too long to find the team.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On what needs to improve before the team’s next match:
“First and foremost, our execution. If we come up with a game plan, we need to execute it a little bit better. We need to have a better attitude, a better mentality, and we have to do the little things a lot better whether it’s connecting passes, easy passes that we miss, or tracking runners. That what we need to do a lot better.”
On whether or not the Quakes can bounce back from the result:
“Absolutely, we’ve been talking a lot, it’s time for actions and I think that we have still have belief. The ceiling’s pretty high and we know we can eventually get there. It’s one game at a time. The good news is for us that we still have 30 games left.”
On takeaways from the match:
“This is a great teaching moment in the sense where we played an excellent team in LAFC. They came out, and their coach [Bob] Bradley, he definitely had a game plan. He’s a great tactician, and I think they executed it. I’ve been able to play for both of them [Bob Bradley and Matias Almeyda], and I think they’re the two best tactician coaches I’ve played for. We didn’t execute it and that’s the difference.”
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER TOMMY THOMPSON
On the result:
“We weren’t good enough today, it’s as simple as that, but no matter what happens, whether we lose 4-1 at New York Red Bulls or we lose 5-0 at home to LAFC, we’re going to keep believing. I think Matias has something special. We just talked for 30 minutes, and I think we’re going to have a different belief this year, but good things take time. I want to thank the fans for believing in us, for staying at that game. I know how hard it is to watch a game like that. I believe, and I know Matias believes that we’re going to change, and so we’re going to continue doing everything we can to make things better here.”
On the postgame team talk:
“We talked about how much we need to change. I mean there’s a lot wrong, the game plan we had was not executed and it wasn’t good enough for us, it wasn’t good enough for Matias, it wasn’t good enough for our fans. But like I said we’re going to continue doing everything we can to change it.”
