LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 23, 2020

Bob Bradley

Press Conference

LAFC 2, Portland 2

BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, at the end of the night, we're disappointed. Hate to give up a late goal, a failure to clear a couple balls, and some poor organization on the corner.

We started the game poorly; slow. But then we had a good response, and I thought we picked things up in most of the second half. I thought we had control. Didn't do a good enough job of finding the third goal, being sharp in the right moments and finishing the game that way. We showed a little bit of fatigue and when we made some changes, our ability to fin everybody the game, that's where we let ourselves down.

Q. Quick assessment of the group play; three challenging games in their own separate ways. What do you see with the team, fitness level, fatigue, fighting the conditions of the heat in Florida and the overall dynamic of the tournament?

BOB BRADLEY: I think we've had progress. We've had periods of good football. We're disappointed we still, in key moments defensively, failure to clear balls. We had a couple headers in a couple of games that we just didn't do enough of a job of clearing. We've not given up that many chances in the games, but we've still given up too many goals.

We're pleased that we're still creating things moving forward. We've gotten some different guys experience. That's positive. But all in all, we still feel that there's more for us to improve to get to the next level.

Q. Bradley Wright-Phillips with another great goal tonight. Did you see when you guys came back that he was starting to become the player that we all saw for the past five, six seasons before the injury?

BOB BRADLEY: Early in the season we saw good things and thought he would really fit in well. Like everyone, the period when we were off presents real challenges, personal challenges, and so it took Brad a little bit of time when we got started again to catch up.

But once he started to get sharper and fitter; once he started to develop a good understanding with guys like Diego and Brian, you could see that he could really be an important player for us and we've seen it in all three of these games.

He's still someone around the goal who has got special qualities, and there's more I think he can continue to add more. Tonight, the goal was good. He had a couple of opportunities where had he been a little sharper slipping a pass when we had an advantage going forward, might have helped us get the next goal. But all in all, he's done a great job.

Q. How concerned, if that is the correct word, how concerned are you about the way that you have started the three games here, and do you have a feel for what has not gone right at the start?

BOB BRADLEY: Each game's different. I think that we have tried to take control in the other games, but our ability in certain moments just where we have got people in position but to be able to defend a moment a little bit better, and when you think about goals we have given up, failure to clear balls in own goal, those are the main things that we've looked at.

So there's always the part of how you start the concentration. Early in the game, you don't just get a chance to start to connect passes. You have to fight through early parts of the game until you can get a little bit more control, and in those periods of the game, we have made mistakes and we have paid.