Postgame Locker Room Reaction

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTESHEET
SATURDAY JUNE 26, 2010 -- TORONTO FC 0–0 LA GALAXY

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the return of Donovan and Buddle…
“Well Landon is in the middle of his MLS season he should be fine, Edson will be fine. Landon may need a couple more days because he played so many minutes but he’s going to be fine. He’s very fit and he’s very motivated and I think he’ll be ready to go.”

LA GALAXY CHRIS BIRCHALL
Thoughts overall on game…
“I think the overall performance was improved. We played well and moved the ball around and in the first 20 minutes. We went off the ball for the last 10-15 of the half and they got into it, but I think overall we were solid and we created chances, just unfortunate we didn’t put any away.”

On strong first half…
“That’s what Bruce wanted us to do. I mean, sometimes on the road we come out and we are a bit lazy in the first 20 minutes and fortunate enough to not concede goals. Today we came out really well, we created chances and it gives people confidence when they get on the ball straight away and make good passes. We were just unfortunate to not get a goal.”

LA GALAXY FORWARD TRISTAN BOWEN
Thoughts…
“I thought we could have played better, moved the ball a little bit faster, we were a little bit slow on that. We didn’t finish the chances with our opportunities and it was disappointing to not come out of here with a win, but we’ll take a tie.”

On having the break if it affected him…
“No, not really we needed it. There was a couple of guys that were playing a significant amount of minutes but we just have to come back a little bit sharper and start off the next game better.”

TORONTO FC HEAD COACH PREKI
Thoughts on game….
“It was a difficult game after 3 weeks of not playing. I didn’t think either of the teams was very sharp. It was a tough fight and if someone makes a mistake that is how the game was going to be decided. Neither team really made any big mistakes and it ended zero-zero.

Was asked if players were affected by what’s going on in the city… “I’m sure it was in the back of their minds, everybody was following what was going on in the city. That can’t be the excuse though, once you step onto the field, once you step into the locker room actually, you've got to focus on your job and what’s ahead of you for the next couple of hours. I thought we worked hard but we’ve got to find a way to have a little bit more soccer in us and little more creativity. We didn’t create enough.”

TORONTO FC DEFENDER NANA ATTAKORA
Asked if the goings on in the city affected the team… “No… not at all. We knew we had a job here to do today. We saw it on TV and we just focused on the game - and just did what we could do.”

Was asked if they noticed the decent crowd considering what was going on in city… “To be honest we did notice, me and a few of the other guys were talking about how many people would show up today and there was 18,000 – that was shocking. We were thinking like 11 (thousand) might show up but it shows the support we have here in Toronto.”

TORONTO MIDFIELDER DAN GARGAN
On playing after the lay-off…
“You’re antsy to get back onto the field, and that makes your play kind of antsy. Defense on both sides definitely stepped up a bit because they were trying to pressure as much as possible, as they haven’t played in a couple of weeks. I think that makes it tough to settle in and get going. I think the later stages in the first half we were a lot better. We moved the ball around a bit cleaner and in the second half kind of the same thing, but we had a few chances at the end, maybe a bit unlucky but that’s the way it works sometimes.”

“Anytime you keep a clean sheet you got to be happy about that. They are sitting on top of the league with the best record so to get a draw isn’t a bad result by any means. We’re still undefeated at home and that’s the way we want to keep it. We want to be tough to play against.”