LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 24, 2020

Bob Bradley

Press Conference

Seattle Sounders 3, Los Angeles Football Club 1

BOB BRADLEY: It's difficult to gather all my thoughts right now. Obviously getting knocked out of the playoffs is a hard one, and in the start/stop season we still felt coming into the end much the year that guys were training in a good way.

I didn't think we started the game tonight very well. We were second to a lot of balls. You know, their first goal is a good example where off of a goal kick there's a series of plays where we are just a little bit late.

After the goal, I thought the response got better. We started to pick up the level of play. Made a change at half to see if getting Carlos in the middle also could get him a little bit -- create some chances for him. And I thought we started the second half also pretty well. Second goal for them comes off of a second face corner and again something that has hurt us this year. I think when the ball came into the first on Carlos actually got his head on it and Diaz had just pulled away, and did a good job, obviously. He's a sharp finisher.

After going to 2-1, we just did a poor job because at 2-1 there's a real chance now we can push and try to get an equalizer and push the game into extra time and then very quickly we lose a ball and then in transition, we don't handle it well, they do a good job of holding their run and in the final part when it comes across, I don't think we run hard enough to make play to keep it at 2-1.

So those are disappointments that we've seen in different moments throughout the season, and so that part where we feel like we've been close to getting it to a more consistent level but too often we have made some of the same kind much mistakes we made tonight.

Q. This season is a little bit unusual because you still have at least one more game to play in the Champions League, so is this a time when you sort of turn the page and start looking immediately to that game and not really reflect on this game as much except to try and overcome the mistakes that were made and the problems on the night?

BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, the process of getting better never stops, and so we've done that after every game win or lose, and the fact that we now are knocked out of MLS playoffs doesn't stop us from now trying to push our team forward. It seems like a long time ago the two games with Leon, obviously the home game was a special night for us before COVID hit and a night where we could really celebrate a great game with our fans.

The final part of CONCACAF as everyone knows is in Orlando but it's still a an opportunity to continue on in that tournament. So we'll prepare ourselves and go for it and as always, see if we can be a little bit better.

Q. I know it's a hard time. Just in general what do you take out of this season, and this difficult season, and also Carlos had a really good second half, but how much do you think it affected mentally, also, like after that missed PK that would have made it 1-1.

BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, Carlos was angry with himself, and even at halftime, he was committed to the second half, committed to getting a goal so that we could get back into the game. He's a competitor and he's come through many nights for us, and I know he was disappointed with that opportunity in the first half, something that for him is normally automatic.

I said at the beginning that the No. 1 thing this year is I think we haven't been consistent enough. We've had moments when I think we've played good football but we still have hurt ourselves with not always finishing advantages in the best way. We've hurt ourselves giving up certain kind of goals, second phase set piece goals hurt us this year, and then some other moments just were some defensive errors.

But it goes together. It's all part of a package when you step on a field in terms of how you play, and in certain moments, decisions on the ball, was it the right time to go forward, is it the right time to control the game.

So for me, the work to become a more consistent team, that's the key. And maybe this year, that work was a little bit more difficult but that's no excuse. Difficult because when you miss portions of the season, and the start/stop periods in other moments, there's lots of games and you don't get the normal training time.

But when all is said and done, I take the responsibility that the development of our team, the improvement of our team, the ability to get to the next level, I thought in different moments maybe we were close, but so far when you look at everything this year, you would say we didn't -- we didn't get to the next level which was to go far in MLS playoffs. We wanted to defend the supporter shield, and then, look, we still have Champions League to play for.

Q. It's a game in which Seattle has their key players; did you see guys on your side of the field that were at least trying to put that extra effort and try to wrestle back control?

BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I'll have to look again at the game. Certainly they started out in control. They were first to balls. My sense is that after we went down in the latter part of the first half, we picked things up in a pretty decent way. Maybe didn't create enough.

But still, I thought that we were doing better in terms of picking up the tempo, stepping up a little bit higher. I thought we started out the second half better. Had some moments where maybe there's something there for us to get to 1-1, the goal off the corner, yeah, sets us back. They had two other big chances in the second half to get to 2-1. You know, then it's disappointing when it's 2-1 that we don't give ourselves a chance to get to 2-2 so quickly. We allowed the game to turn back against us.

Credit to their team, to their big players. I still thought in periods we did some decent things, but on the night, you'd say that their big guys delivered and they were better. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...