Los Angeles Blues News Release -- www.bluessoccerclub.com
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
LOS ANGELES – With the 1-0 defeat to visiting Antigua Barracuda FC still on their minds, the Los Angeles Blues are looking to redeem themselves this coming Thursday and Saturday in back-to-back home games against the Charlotte Eagles as they resume their USL PRO schedule. While Head Coach Charlie Naimo displayed the appropriate skepticism ahead of the two clashes with the Eagles, his players stressed a perceived increased intensity in training ever since the disappointing defeat.
“I would say the loss changed the mentality somewhat,” midfielder Jhonatan Bravo said. “It made us realize that we need to step up the intensity and become even better. The training sessions since the Antigua game reflect that. Everybody is going hard after every ball and the tackles are flying. That’s just part of the game when you have a hungry team. Especially after a defeat, everyone wants to win the next game and prove that they should be on the field to help make it happen.”
The Peruvian’s observation is representative of those by many Blues players these days. While Naimo admitted he doesn’t necessarily share their perspective entirely, he considered it positive nonetheless.
“I haven’t seen a reaction I would attribute specifically to the Antigua game,” he said. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. I’ve simply seen it become more and more intense with every training session since day one, so that’s something I consider normal. To be honest, I don’t think there was really a need to step it up even more after the loss to Antigua. It’s not like we had been training poorly, and the way we played didn’t show any signs of laziness or lack of competitive fire.”
Even so, Naimo once more provided evidence of his high expectations toward the team by sharply distinguishing his own, more critical view from that of the players.
“As a coach, I will always notice little things that are still not perfect in terms of discipline, like one or two guys usually arriving late to training,” Naimo said. “But if the players sense an increased intensity, that’s significant. They’re the ones who know what’s going on in their own minds and who are out there getting an up-close feel for their teammates’ attitudes. If they say the group has stepped it up, hopefully that means we’re in an even better place than we were ahead of the last game.”
While the Blues faced an Antigua side with plenty of speed in their USL PRO home opener, the players and staff agreed after the final whistle that they had brought the loss upon themselves by not finishing their scoring chances and lacking concentration on several occasions. Defender Nelson Akwari took some of the blame for the latter.
“There’s no denying that I was at the heart of some of those mistakes,” the 29-year-old said. “I was way too lax and got turned way too easily on some of the plays. But even as a team, some of our giveaways in our own half were highly uncharacteristic and we lost our shape on some of their counters. I feel like we just weren’t quite as sharp as we were in our first four games, so we need to get back to that.
“Anytime we give away simple five-yard passes, it makes it easier for the other team to get in promising positions. And anytime we help them get in promising positions, especially early on, they’ll always build more confidence for the rest of the game.”
Speaking through a translator, the Blues’ Mexican goalkeeper Oscar Dautt agreed.
“The team is aware that we had a lot of lows individually and collectively. That’s why we’ve been working very hard to try and become as solid in the back as we were in the previous matches. In addition, the attacking players have been focusing on their finishing. Being able to take advantage of most of our scoring chances helped us be a lot more comfortable in the first four games.
“Soccer is about creating looks on goal, and we did that. However, I still feel like we’ve let our supporters down with the loss. It’s the small details that can become important in a match. If you don’t put your chances away or if you make a mistake in the back, you suddenly find yourself with your back against the wall. We have to find a way to avoid that in future games if we’re hoping to win the league.”
As he did immediately following the match against Antigua, Naimo conceded that his side committed some unnecessary defensive errors but put much greater emphasis on his attackers’ struggles at the other end of the field.
“We made a couple of defensive mistakes, but every team in the world makes mistakes in every game,” he said. “It’s a question of whether or not you get punished for them. I’ve never seen any team play a perfect 90 minutes. We certainly weren’t perfect against Antigua, and we were a little unfortunate to get punished for one of our three or four defensive mistakes.
“To me, the bigger issue is that we failed to finish any of the chances we created. That’s why we lost the game. With the way we play, we’ll create chances in every game. The question is whether we can put them away while also limiting our mistakes and recovering quickly when a mistake is made. If we can do those things, we should be okay.”
The sentiment was echoed by Bravo, who hit the crossbar with a thunderous effort on one occasion against Antigua and tried to lay the ball off when he should have taken a shot from close range on another.
“We’ve been trying to work even harder in practice so that hopefully the intensity will carry over into the games,” the 25-year-old Peruvian said. “In addition, we’ve been working on our finishing. We controlled the possession well against Antigua, but we were lacking the execution. I definitely include myself in that, because I had a couple of really good looks that I could have put away. Each time we don’t finish a chance, it makes it more likely for us to get punished for it at some point.”
In looking ahead to the upcoming pair of home games, Naimo admitted that it’s difficult to prepare for an opponent his side hasn’t faced in 2011. While the Charlotte Eagles had a poor start to the season, going 0-3-1 in their first four games, the Blues Head Coach cautioned not to read too much into the losing record. All three of the Eagles’ defeats came by a one-goal margin and against high-quality opposition, as they went down twice to the Charleston Battery and once to Orlando City.
“All of our knowledge about Charlotte this year is from one game on USLLive.com,” Naimo admitted. “I also called some people who have seen them play more often this season, but that’s pretty dangerous because their observations might be very different from what I end up seeing. We know that the Eagles are a classy franchise and that their players always work extremely hard, but the real worry is that they haven’t won a game yet. All of their matches were extremely close, so they could be a very good team. It’s scary for any coach to be playing a good team desperate for its first win.”
After facing an Antigua side that made life difficult for the Blues by closing down the spaces and looking to hit on the occasional counter, Oscar Dautt sent a polite request the Eagles’ way. The 34-year-old goalkeeper joined Los Angeles ahead of the season, following a successful career in Mexico.
“This being my first year in the U.S., I don’t know much about Charlotte,” he said. “My hope is that they might come out and play head-to-head rather than just bunker down. That would make the game more entertaining for the fans, but also more enjoyable for us since we’re an attacking team. However, if they end up sitting back and counter-attacking like Antigua, we still have to find a way to create our chances. Only this time, we have to make sure we put them away and get the win.”
The team will likely be looking to Akwari for some advice on what to expect from their opponent in the two upcoming matches. The Houston, Texas, native played 20 games for the Eagles in 2007 and 2008 before moving on to the Charleston Battery.
“I know Charlotte very well,” Akwari said. “They’re a very strong team that’s capable of gritty defending. They’re always working extremely hard, challenging every single pass and fighting for every defensive tackle. I feel like we have to really match their intensity going in. It will be a true test for us.”
The task is not made easier by the fact that Naimo may not have his full squad available. The former UConn duo of Akeem Priestley and Chukwudi Chijindu, among others, are still laboring minor injuries, and while Walter Gaitán is eager to dress and see time against Charlotte, it remains to be seen whether he can start the game. The Blues’ star playmaker is still feeling some of the quadriceps pain that kept him out of the home opener. Still, Naimo refused to take a less attacking-minded approach and finished on a spirited note.
“We have some guys that are nicked up, so the starting lineup and our active roster for Thursday are a bit of a guessing game with even a few game-day decisions in there,” Naimo said. “However, we’re going to keep playing our style and not adapt to any opponents until we run into a team that’s flat out better than us. Of course, Charlotte could be that team. If they are, we may have to adjust at halftime. But we’re playing at home, so we have to go in looking to create a similar amount of chances as we did against Antigua.”
The Blues face the Eagles at Centennial High School’s Husky Stadium in Corona this coming Thursday, May 12, at 6 p.m. PST, followed by the second clash at Fullerton’s Titan Stadium on Saturday, May 14, at 7.30 p.m. PST. Individual tickets are $10 if ordered in advance and $14 if purchased at the gate. Fans looking to order tickets to any Los Angeles Blues home game should call 310-264-4649 or visit www.labluesprosoccer.com. Special deals are available as well and include discounted group packages starting at $6 per person.