LOS ANGELES FOOTBALL CLUB MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 28, 2021

Cristian Arango

Press Conference

Los Angeles FC 3, LA Galaxy 3

CRISTIAN ARANGO: Thankfully I was able to score in my first game here home at the Banc. I think overall we just have to focus more in the last stretch where we continued to give up goals that ended up costing us points or the match.

However, I can say I'm very happy of the effort that the team put in and all the hard work we all put in together. Yeah, I can say that. I'm happy about that takeaway.

Yeah, derbies are definitely different. You want to give it your all. I want to say I'm very happy with the support of the 3252 and the support throughout the duration of the 90 minutes. These are fans that deserve wins and hopefully we're able to continue giving them wins and continue to build off of that.

Q. How significant is it to be part of such a classic game at home?

CRISTIAN ARANGO: I'm very pleased with the determination of the team and we showed a great will, and I can say that based off that, we deserved the win. But this is football, and sometimes the results don't go your way. Hopefully we can get a chance to celebrate more at home, and we look to make improvements so we can get to that point.

Q. (Do you feel more pressure as one of the stars of the team)?

CRISTIAN ARANGO: I really don't look to be a protagonist or the star, but my goal is to make sure that all my teammates shine and that overall we get a result collectively, and I want to thank you, as well, for congratulating me on my goal. Thank you.

Q. Can you talk about the play with Diego?

CRISTIAN ARANGO: I asked Diego for him to give me his confidence to allow me to shoot the penalty, which he did. In Vancouver, it was the inverse scenario where he wanted to shoot, and I definitely trusted him. And we're teammates and our goal is to think on what's best for the group. Glad that we made the right decisions.

I really don't believe it matters how we score, whether it was a penalty or off a play. I think in this case, the playoff the penalty, had the penalty not been called, I might have had a pretty clear chance at a header but this is how derbies are. They are close matches at the beginning, and they start opening up as soon as the score opens up, as well. Those are things that we can take way and definitely doesn't matter how we get the goal.