LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 23, 2020

Mark-Anthony Kaye

Press Conference

LAFC 2, Portland 2

Q. I'm wondering, your initial thoughts about facing Seattle next, and whether it matters to you -- when it makes a difference to you who you end up playing next?

MARK-ANTHONY KAYE: Yeah, obviously we know who we are going to play next. We're excited to have an opportunity to play against Seattle considering what happened last year. But again, we don't focus too much on who we are playing really. We just are excited to have another opportunity to play our football.

So yeah, you know, it's disappointing today not winning the group, but we have to focus on the next game and make sure that we go into it better. So if it was Seattle or Cincinnati, it doesn't really matter.

Q. Strong performance from you, both ends of the pitch, your press was on. When you look at the entire roster and the way that you guys can play, what you're playing at the highest level, do you ever think about the fact that so many of your teammates can probably get to Europe pretty quickly? How long do you think you guys are going to be together?

MARK-ANTHONY KAYE: Obviously that's something we don't focus on too much, you know, because we are trying to do with a we can here with LAFC. The club has done a good job of trying to bring a lot of young, talented players into the fold.

We see it. We know there's a great potential for all of our players. Obviously the next step is Europe. But we want to win championships here. We want to be top players in the league, and you know, the rest will take care of itself. But like you said, there's a great amount of talent here, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk about what your evaluation of the team is right now after three games in this tournament? Bob mentioned you guys are shipping maybe more goals than proportionally you've given up in terms of chances. What's your view and what do you think you need to work on?

MARK-ANTHONY KAYE: Yeah, you know, I think getting back to the football we were playing before the quarantine break and stuff, it's been a challenge.

I think starting on the wrong foot of games, they don't help us, but as everyone can see, we are a very good team when we have the ball, and you know, our football ideas are good.

So I think every game has been a little different. But yeah, we need to figure out how to stop the goals going in, because I think that allows us to play our football a little bit better and a little more calm. Yeah, that's just something that needs to change, and I believe in the group and I think it will. You know, I think going into the next game, everyone will be even more intense and aware of situations that could arise.

So today, I think we did a really good job when it came to being tight, and our defensive transition, we were unlucky with the first goal. I just think we were a little asleep at the beginning, but we had a good chance and the second goal is just, you know, bad organization. So it's just little things we've got to fix.