LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 17, 2021

Bob Bradley

Press Conference

Los Angeles FC 2, Real Salt Lake 1

BOB BRADLEY: Overall, really good team game. Started with great tempo. Got a goal. Lost a little bit in the first half. We got spread out and the tempo dropped. Recommitted ourselves in the second half, pushing up and getting the distances right so that now there's more short passes so when balls turn over we have more people around the ball. Had to work hard for it, and it's a night where certainly we could have scored more goals but we're creating a lot of chances. Great finish by Carlos to nail down -- to nail the lead down.

I thought the mentality from that point out was great. Chances to get the third but still, finished with a really good game just in terms of the collective football tonight.

Q. What do you make of that stretch that you mentioned and just how the guys were able to come back from it and get the win?

BOB BRADLEY: When I said we were spread out, it just means that sometimes we tried too many long passes. When our front three stepped up to go after them, that was too big of a gap between the front three and the rest of the team. I think defensively at times in the first half we were slow to push up to the midfield and close the spaces.

But what I really thought the difference in the second half was when we got into the attacking half, if we didn't go to goal, we moved up as a team and we connected more passes and as I mentioned, the distances between players are shorter so that there's more short passes, and then when you lose balls, you're in a better position to defend.

Q. What did you see from Carlos in particular after the penalty; that he just needed a goal like that to open things up?

BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, great goal, and certainly you could see his mentality on the field, kicking the ball more, making more things happen, and then obviously fantastic finish for the winner.

Q. And what did you see from Raheem and Kim and the way that they played tonight?

BOB BRADLEY: I felt on both sides we were aggressive. We created chances, really in the first half, it was really dangerous, Raheem started the second half really pushing forward, creating things on the dribble, getting into the box. So that gives us extra dimension in terms of the way we can attack teams.

Q. I know you've had games this season and also have put a lot of shots up and maybe have not gotten the results. Can you say today just seeing the fans in the stadium at almost 100 percent and the turning point getting the amount of goals?

BOB BRADLEY: We've been so excited to get back to playing games with a full stadium and the atmosphere that is so important to us, the connection between us and our supporters. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the fact that we continue to push hard in training and raise our level. I think the mentality of the whole team in terms of showing up every day, pushing training, competing, that part in this last stretch has been for me a key and you can really sense that something's taken hold with the way they collectively are pushing things every day.

Q. What are some things that the team didn't have before --

BOB BRADLEY: To be fair to the whole team, I don't speak about things like that one guy has made the difference. But I do want to give credit to Moon because I think as I've said many times, when he arrived, it took him a while to get fit, to feel healthy, to pick up ideas.

But what you see in this last stretch is the confidence. You see that his ability to step up, intercept, to be active in the attack, not only out wide but coming inside so that he's more complete player. We've asked him to be that and challenged him in those ways.

Certainly we're a team that has sometimes different ways of how we set up but the ideas stay the same and when you get his football, his quickness, when he's involved, not only just running up and down the line but coming inside, seeing opportunities to pick up loose balls or intercept like he did against Austin, that big part of the contribution is great because he has to work hard to take our ideas and understand them and push them for himself.

Q. Three wins on the road, can you say this one was the most important of these three wins, and which was the key for the development of this team?

BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, the most win is the next one. That's how it works. I think we played really well tonight, and it didn't come easy. So sometimes you have a game where even when you play well, you've got to fight to get the result and keep pushing till the end.

So I think that that's the most important take away from tonight. Together, the football part, the way the team pressed, the way the team won balls, played quickly, the tempo of moving the ball on the field was very high in stretches tonight. So those are the things that I take away the most.