An unusual number of good one-liners today, especially from a happy Ruud Gullit who finds his team first in the West.
But in some respects the game bore a strong resemblance to a defeat given the poor second half performance.
“It was a crazy match for a coach,” Gullit said. “The second half instead of being 4-0 up you make it difficult, unnecessary. … We failed I think to close the game earlier.
“The thing is we won the game,” he reminded himself. “I have a feeling I’m sitting here and we lost. We won the game.”
David Beckham agreed:
“We made it difficult for ourselves because we stopped playing the ball around, we stopped keeping the ball. Being in the locker room there it was like we lost the game.”
On the “fan” who ran onto the field, he said:
“I was slightly concerned when I first saw him running up because he didn’t have a smile on his face and he wasn’t wearing a Galaxy shirt.”
Gullit singled out the forwards – and one in particular – for putting undue pressure on the team:
“The defense had nothing to do with it today because it had to do with what you do up front. Ruiz didn’t hold one ball for us.
Gullit clearly would rather be sitting at home watching Euro 2008:
“It’s a little bit odd for me to play while your players have international duties.It would have been nice for us to have a break.
But he had praise for Ely Allen and his game-winning goal.
“Ely has huge potential and I’m willing to get it out of him, I want to get it out of him and if he has a little bit of pepper up his arse…”
Gullit brushed aside the notion the referee only sent Erpen off because he saw the replay on the big screen saying that had no influence on his decision: “He wanted to talk with his linesman about it. And at the same moment he saw it on screen.
Ely Allen was clearly in a partying mood:
“I’m pretty excited. I haven’t let it out. When I get home away from everyone I think it will be pretty crazy.”
When asked for the address of the party he said: “Only if you bring the girls.”
