No comments from me tonight on the game. We're in LA all day tomorrow and will leave for Honduras first thing Monday morning. Things aren't going to slow down, that's for sure. Here are your post-game comments. You can see highlights of the game here.
D.C. UNITED HEAD COACH TOM SOEHN
On the match:
"They had a lot of life. Landon and Beckham obviously add so much to the team. They caught us in spots in counter attacks. And Landon did a good job of finding the holes and we didn't account for them. They did pretty well and they exposed some of our weaknesses."
On the red card:
"We all saw it, it was an absolute travesty. Especially when we were fighting to come back and we actually had a good part of the game. Lots of times they wouldn't call it because of who it was. Everyone looked at that and said it wasn't a red card. What are you going to do?"
D.C. UNITED DEFENDER MARC BURCH
On the match:
"I think when we get one goal up on the road we should have everyone settled. Make them beat us, and not us beating ourselves by spreading out and letting them break through. You know, Landon is a great player, he's fast. We missed some of the long balls. Marking up those guys up top is hard because they're fast, with Landon running through the midfield. But you know, I think in the second half we were playing well."
On the red card:
"It's not a red card. He's straight up and he went told the ref that. It's a foul. I don't know how he ended up hitting the sign boards, because I didn't even run into him. I swung for the ball and hit the back of his leg. It comes with bringing him to the league, you know."
D.C. UNITED DEFENDER DEVON McTAVISH
On the match:
"We just kind of got caught in two mindsets, trying to press them at times. And no one was really on the same page. Defenders got caught sitting too far back. Some other players got caught trying to press. There are certain times to press and certain times to sit back. And it's situations when you're on the road and your up one nothing, you just got to sit back and get 10 guys, 11 guys behind the ball and defend. I don't think we did that very well."
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the match:
"First of all, over 90 minutes, being a coach -- you are never satisfied with a complete match. I was disappointed with the way we started the game, but I was very pleased in the way we reacted. We came back and took a pretty impressive lead into halftime. A three-goal lead. The way we came out in the second half and gave up a goal. These are bad habits. These are things we have to get better at. Concentration has to improve. I think the effort, although wasn't perfect, they played as a team today. They worked for each other. I think David had an excellent game. Obviously Donovan with the three goals and I think you can see the value Eddie Lewis is going to offer the team. He's a very good player, very experienced player. Excellent on both sides of the ball. I think our two young center backs showed some good minutes tonight. They did a pretty good job. Overall, I'm certainly pleased with the three points. We talked to the team at the end of the game, and we know that there are certainly areas of improvement."
On Landon Donovan's performance:
"It was certainly an excellent performance. I've seen him score goals in World Cups, in World Cup qualifying and obviously in this league now. I think he's around 19 goals and Landon is expected to do that. It's the big thing I emphasis with Landon you have to play it through ability. He's a goal scorer, he's very a good passer, and he's a good team player. We have to get all the qualities that he has out. That's the expectations. I think the goals were great goals. I think the performance tonight was terrific. We need to see his consistency from here to the end of the season. As we continue to move forward with this team, those are the expectations of every player."
On the win:
"Beating D.C., that part of it isn't important. Getting a win is what was important. We have to be a team that's going to win at home, for sure, and get other wins. That's the type of pressure we want to have on ourselves while we move forward and try to make this team better."
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM
On the result:
"It's nice to get a win at least. I think that all the players are relieved. We're happy. We knew it was coming; we felt that it was coming. We just had to have a little bit of luck and confidence to go out there and play our football. The way that we know that we can play. Like the coach says, there were a few bad moments and there were a few lapses in concentration but overall the togetherness of the team, the unity of the team is what came out tonight."
On the win:
"It was an important win just to get us going again. I think more than anything because to go so many games without a win, I've never done it before and many of the players haven't done that before. For confidence more than anything it was important that we started well, which we didn't start well tonight, but then we got ourselves back into it. And, then we stayed together to win the game. I think that was the motive tonight. We need three points. No matter how we got it, we needed to get them and we did."
On Landon Donovan's performance:
"I thought it was exceptional. I've seen that a few times with Landon. When he plays like that, no one can stop him. He's a goal scorer and he's done that throughout his career. We're lucky to have a player like that on the team because like I said when he runs at players or when he runs off the ball, no one can get near him because he's too quick. And he's a great finisher of the ball, and he showed that tonight. And it's something that we needed. You need certain players to perform in games, especially when you are going through tough times, and Landon did that tonight."
LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On getting the three points:
"It feels good. It's been a while. You get to the point where you don't even look at other scores or standings because it's just depressing. It's nice to finally move a little, but we're still a long ways away and we realize that."
On the team:
"There wasn't a lot of confidence, but we felt good about our team. We certainly weren't perfect tonight, but our attitude was excellent. Especially after they scored. We continued to put pressure on them as the half went on, and made it hard on them. I was proud of us for that."
