Match Data
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 - Los Angeles FC 1
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Venue: Banc of California Stadium
Referee: Kevin Stott
Assistants: Brian Poeschel, Cameron Blanchard
Fourth Official: Baldomero Toledo
VAR: Alex Chilowicz
Attendance: 22,000
Weather: 63 degrees and clear
SCORING SUMMARY
LAFC - Laurent Ciman 90’+3’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
SEA - Osvaldo Alonso (caution) 15’
LAFC - Mark-Anthony Kaye (caution) 63’
SEA - Cristian Roldan (caution) 82’
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam, Kim Kee-hee (Jordy Delem 69’), Gustav Svensson, Nouhou; Osvaldo Alonso - captain (Magnus Wolff Eikrem 79’), Cristian Roldan, Nicolás Lodeiro, Clint Dempsey, Alex Roldan (Lamar Neagle 87’); Will Bruin
Substitutes not used: Bryan Meredith, Jordan McCrary, Tony Alfaro, Handwalla Bwana
Total shots: 13 (Dempsey, 5)
Shots on goal: 6 (Dempsey/Svensson, 2)
Fouls: 16 (Three players, 3)
Offside: 2 (Lodeiro/Bruin, 1)
Corner-kicks: 6 (Lodeiro, 5)
Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)
Los Angeles FC - Tyler Miller; Steven Beitashour, Walker Zimmerman, Laurent Ciman, Jordan Harvey; Mark-Anthony Kaye (Eduard Atuesta 64’), Benny Feilhaber, Omar Gaber (Latif Blessing 59’), Diego Rossi (Joao Moutinho 89’), Carlos Vela; Marco Ureña
Substitutes not used: Charlie Lyon, Dejan Jakovic, Tristan Blackmon, Shaft Brewer
Total shots: 14 (Urena, 4)
Shots on goal: 4 (Urena, 2)
Fouls: 11 (Kaye, 4)
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 4 (Vela, 2)
Saves: 4 (Miller, 4)
Post-Match Quotes
BRIAN SCHMETZER
SOUNDERS HEAD COACH
RE: Last minute goal
‘’Marco Ureña impeded Stefan’s [Frei] view. So as he runs across, he ducks like this, it goes right over the back and Stefan couldn’t get a clean look at it. Normally that’s a save Stefan would make all day long.”
RE: Stefan Frei addressing the team after giving up the goal
“No, he doesn’t have to. He saved us more times than not.”
CRISTIAN ROLDAN
SOUNDERS MIDFIELDER
RE: Overall thoughts on tonight’s match
“Credit to both teams, I thought we fought to the final whistle. Unfortunately, that’s just the way soccer goes. You know, you commit guys forward and you defend with numbers, and you feel like you’ll leave a hostile environment with a point, and all of a sudden, once that goal goes in, all your confidence goes down.”
RE: Defending Carlos Vela
“They play a lot through the middle. Obviously, Carlos Vela is a huge part of their attack. I thought in both games we focused on him quite well, and, you know, he’s the player he is because of how dangerous he is and all of the big clubs he’s played for. So, obviously, my focus was on him and [Diego] Rossi coming in. Hopefully I did my part, but you know obviously unfortunate. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth to lose in this way.”
RE: Thoughts on Kim Kee-hee’s substitute performance
“Kim was awesome. He was confident in his playing ability. You know, he reads the game extremely well. He’s a very aggressive player, and I see very positive things about him, obviously. He’s learning the language, learning the league, but I think he’s gonna be important for us. That combination with Roman [Roldan], Chad [Marshall], and Kim is gonna be vital for our success this year.”
RE: Thoughts on team performance
“Yeah, like I said, I think we limited their most dangerous players on the ball. You know, with Carlos Vela, Rossi, you know, we didn’t let them penetrate through the middle. And, you know, a lot of their goals come through that. So, you know, we limited that, and then, obviously, we hit them with the counter a couple times. We had some opportunities. Next time we need to score those.”
RE: Thoughts on what it will take to finish more chances
“It’s the final pass, the one touch finish. You know, we’re getting there. It’s just a matter of creating these occasions to goal. Now it’s about just being good in the final third and finishing those off.”
RE: Thoughts on playing brother (Alex Roldan) in your hometown.
“Yeah, emotional. I mean, I think Alex is a really good player. I don’t think he’s on this team because he’s my brother. He’s a very good professional. He’s a very good player, and a very good brother to me. You know, he just wants to compete every day. You saw it on the field today. He got into tackles. He created some chances. You know, the most important thing is he’s not afraid. You know, as a rookie, maybe your confidence is low. He has all the confidence in the world, and still stays humble.”
STEFAN FREI
SOUNDERS GOALKEEPER
—
BOB BRADLEY
LAFC HEAD COACH
RE: Overall thoughts on tonight’s game
“You get in all kinds of games, but it’s nice to not have to open this incredible new stadium in Los Angeles with a zero-zero. So, we take our one-zero. It was a physical game, Seattle did a really good job of making it hard by closing off passing lanes, closing off spaces, and we had some stretches in the first half where I thought we started to get going, but overall the first half wasn’t as sharp. We started the second half well, but still didn’t have a great feel for the game. In terms of getting by guys, in terms of timing, getting the right passes, not our best, but great win.”
RE: Importance of final goal at Banc of California Stadium
“When you get the goal, then you need the goal, so yes. My favorite part was just walking out there at the beginning, it was awesome. I talk often about if you want to be a team that can play football, you have to have a great field. The field was incredible, it was wet, the ball moved, but at the end we also weren’t shaken. We could talk about little things at halftime in terms of movements, how they’re pressing us and how they’re closing off things in the midfield.”
RE: Fouling on Vela
“Yeah, we talked about it in the first half, because it was clear what was going on. It doesn’t take much to figure out that a lot goes through him and now he’s going to be targeted and we have to make sure that at a certain point it’s controlled. I thought there were a number of fouls in the first half just on [Carlos Vela], so I don’t think it was clamped down on early enough.”
RE: Importance of Laurent Ciman
“That wasn’t something that we picked up on him when we brought him here. We picked up on his leadership, he plays with emotion, passion and when you play out of the back, he’s a guy who can make passes, so you have all those things. He’s been great since he’s arrived, he is a good leader, and he’s been able to knock in some goals. It’s extra, and when a guy like that comes from Montreal where he had settled and done really well. At first for Laurent [Ciman] and his wife there was some emotion, but quickly he got a very good idea of what we were going to be about, with the commitment of the ownership, the training facility and the stadium. I’m happy for him, he’s a good player.”
LAURENT CIMAN
LAFC DEFENDER
RE: Going for goal in the 90th minute
“It was a good chance for me to go to goal. Based on the last game, I felt that I had to go for it, and I didn’t question it too much.”
RE: Defensive stability from the back four
“Defensively, I felt that everyone was focused, there was a lot of concentration in the back, we spoke a lot, and we got the clean sheet.”
RE: Playing in Banc of California Stadium
“I’m a player that has a lot of experience in environments like tonight’s. There was a lot of excitement of course, and every player felt it. The important thing again was that the team was able to win the game, and now we have to think about the next game coming up against Dallas.”
CARLOS VELA
LAFC FORWARD
RE: ¿Cómo describes el estadio que inauguraron hoy y el tipo de ambiente?
“Obviamente estoy contento por haber ganado, por haber redondeado el día para el club y para los fans y para todo lo que representa este club. Obviamente no fue el mejor partido creo que ninguno de los dos equipos creamos tantas ocasiones como solíamos hacer en los otros partidos, pero creo que puede ser parte de los nervios del primer partido, de la emoción de jugar por fin en nuestra casa para que llegara el momento – pero lo bueno es que seguimos sumando. Creo que el equipo está demostrando que podemos sumar jugando bonito y podemos conseguir grandes cosas y conforme sigan los partidos en casa vamos a jugar mejor, vamos a encontrar la manera de ser un mejor equipo. Esta es nuestra casa y debemos ser fuertes en casa.”
RE: ¿Qué piensas sobre el estadio?
“Por dentro es de los más bonitos estadios que he visto, yo creo que si tú te pones aquí afuera crees que es todo menos estadio, me puedes decir un museo, un bar, una discoteca o lo que quieras - parece más que un estadio, creo que el club hizo un gran trabajo y hoy están gozando el fruto. La afición estuvo increíble cantando del principio hasta el final, obviamente ayuda un poco que seamos mexicanos en la grada y siempre le ponemos un poquito más de ambiente.”
RE: Thoughts on opening the new stadium
“All the people were waiting for this moment and I think it was a great day, of course maybe the game was not the most fun to watch, but in the end, we won and everyone was excited and they enjoyed.”
RE: Fouling
“I think it’s part of the game and I’m trying to play good for my team and they [Seattle] were trying to stop me but it’s OK, I like the play but of course that is not a fun way to play. Sometimes you have to play strong and work really hard during a game like that. We played really well in the back, defended really well and we scored in the last minute. It was a really great team win and I’m really happy.”