John Hackworth and Hartel Pre-Match Press Conference | St. Louis CITY SC vs LA Galaxy

um how's how's the week of practice been leading up in very hot um but good like we had some excellent uh training sessions uh we obviously have a lot of things to work on in particular on the defensive side of things but the willingness um the attention that the guys are putting into it is impressive so um you know I I feel like every time I walk into this room I walk in feeling very positive that we're making progress and I absolutely feel that way now CL good to go CL is good um I think Rass is also good uh yoim probably a little bit behind them uh when I say good you know I don't think they're ready to start yet but they're ready to to be in the game day roster and ready to potentially play which is super nice I mean if I can sub Claus into the game and actually have a nine playing at the end of a game that would be you know that'll be nice yeah what does a team Miss by not having him probably obvious yeah I mean look you Simon's done an unbelievable job but before we had Simon you know we were playing Nuki out of position in the nine and we didn't really have a nine um so multiple guys are being asked to do that Indiana played at the end of the Portland game as a nine um now bringing back back klouse not only do you have a nine but you have klouse and that's going to be um that's going to help us in in so many ways cuz he's you know he's a really good Defender as well as attacker whether it's on set pieces whether it's just willingness to press whether it's willingness to track back um he gives us a better defensive structure for sure Justin uh Galaxy are a very transitional team just like Poland last week talked earlier this week about defensive understanding and then the pullback play as well are you happy with how that pest progress this week it's been really good competition and training I think our our staff is going to have two really tough decisions to make um you know tots and Jaden have been playing a ton and they've played well uh in so many moments but um you know we as a team have been vulnerable um on the back post a lot and so um the competition uh has been good Giannis is you know uh acclimating more and more feel comfortable that you know he's in a position where he could uh get a start so sough decisions but good decisions to have rasmus's status is questionable or what do you how do you no I think I think he's ready ready I mean I want to talk to him and I want the medical staff to give me their feedback after today but we you know I need to go into tomorrow with an idea who is in the game day roster and and you know rash is so important when he's healthy and available similar to clous we'd love to have him uh be available and potentially get minutes but y still I think yim's behind both of those guys so probably not Yim at this point anything new with julo uh we're just talking to uh another club right now so what we didn't talk about on Wednesday when we when we spoke but um yeah defensively I mean how much of it is is X's and O's and how much of it is the guys have performing the X's and O's de it it's hard to um put it in the context of Portland because Portland you know for a lot of that second half played with two Defenders I mean they literally threw numbers forward so you know we were overloaded on the our fullbacks were getting overloaded they were 2V1 almost the whole time you know centrally they put numbers so that's natural the ways that we talked about the solutions to solve that um don't have as much to do with individual defending however it I can't sit up here and tell you that it wasn't individual mistakes either because clearly you can look at game film and be like okay that was a mistake and that was a mistake and so I you know I would say that we have to get that individual uh defending to be better and we have to eliminate those mistakes and even if we're doing it you know perfect nine times out of 10 it's the 10th that seems to be burning us right now and we can uh we're not in that position so um it's been a big emphasis this week um as I said earlier a lot of competition on the training field for and which is healthy you know um there's a lot of guys that are trying to step up right now and that's making everybody um Step Up in particular you know like I think tots and Jaden have done a great job this week um you know they they recognize that they have to do a better job and so they're doing it and that that's helpful you know we are we are progressing we are we are trying to fix on the things that we haven't been good at previously Justin how much of that defensive liability does open up when you are successful offensively to start the game as things like that out having success by that offensively does that hurt you defensively as well yeah I mean it it look you have a lot the opponent matters and what the opponent does in that situation um you know if so to answer your question it it matters but it also matters what the opponent is doing and in this case if we're talking about the Portland game you know we get beat by a free kick from Vander who plays easily one of the best games I've ever seen him play in this league you know and it's a royalty of a free kick he doesn't score that like we're probably not even talking about our defensive woses right now um and you know you got to give a guy like that credit for hitting a free kick we did the same thing you know cello was you know got three assists and you know served up a couple balls on a platter for us so um we know though that defensively we have to better you know specifically our box defending it has to be improved and whether we're getting the kitchen sink thrown at us like we were uh in the latter part of that game we think there's ways to control that both with the ball and without the ball you know if we would have just possessed the ball better in that last I mean it was 20 minutes of the game and then it became another 17 minutes of the game but whatever it was if we would have done a better job when we had the ball we we would have made them chase a little bit you know this game is so much about momentum and and energy and where you expend the energy I would love for us to expend more energy uh or have the ball because we you always think you're spending less when you have it rather than chasing it defensively and I think we got to get that balance right and we would be in a much better place something else we tried to work on and and address this week n's come he's scoring goals you Pro leagues cup he's got three goals in four games that tough with him decisions as other guys come back is yeah yeah um I mean look uh nuk V is playing great and um so are a lot of other guys and now you have clous and Ras back nuk V was given a chance because of some injuries and he took it and has played really well it doesn't discount though that now the competition for playing time is increased and everyone is going to have to understand that um you know I'll give you a very different example um when we were GNA sign Johnny Klein I said Johnny like this team needs you so right now you're walking into a prime opportunity and Johnny has been great at that same conversation I said at some point when these guys come back from injury like you could have played great and you might not play just because of the situation that we have you know we knew we had guys coming in and cello and and uh seti and now you got Ras and klous back I mean I can only put so many attackers on the field so it it's going to affect everybody the thing that I like about our our locker room right now and our group is that there is a good understanding about shared responsibility and what role we're asking them to play on any given day I like the competition in in training guys are expressing themselves you know playing with a little freedom and even a smile on their face at times and that's again making us all kind of Step our games up and that's nice hson played so much who was number two on the depth chart I mean I would think it it depends a little bit on the situation probably nnsky um if you talk about just a pure outside right back easily the most experienced and um veteran on on our team but then you have ail who's played both right back left back and six um each of them have different qualities uh so it's it's some tough choices you know Giannis has come in he's a very different Defender than Jaden um they're they're different players and we have to think about adjusting how we play with the ball a little different with with any of those uh selections um but right now it's it again I can't emphasize it enough it's been good competition and training right thank you for join appreciate your time thank you thank you good what did you take away from last week's game against Portland now yeah I think it was was a tough game good opponent uh good Stadium um in the end we shot four goals there and uh we only get a draw so this is only the point where I can say yeah it's it's a bit a bit tough you shot four goals you you get a lot of energy in this game and you don't win it and um yeah we spoke about this week we analyzed it this week and yeah we are in the good mute we are positive uh to change our mistakes in this game and do it better against La saying earlier in the week that you they put up on the video screens in the I guess in the dressing room the the goods and the bads or what you need to do is that been a constant reminder this week yeah of course it is but it's not only for this week I think it's will will uh be on the on the television the rest of the season so it's our yeah I say Benchmark for for every game so when you see that what do that does it also remind you gosh we we we did this wrong last week we need to be better of course there there are points we we we did well there are points we don't get did so well in this game and everybody can see it how we want to play foot soccer how how we want to defend how we want play with the ball and also some things outside from the pitch and yeah everybody can can read it and can do our best to to do it you've been here a month now how's it how's it going actually very very great uh I'm feel very happy here and yeah I can say it every time we have a very very good team uh that was very open to me to me and my family and yeah me and my family feel feel great yeah how's good how good has it been to have your sorry how good has it been to have your family here with you of course it's it's the biggest point for me to have my family with me just my daughter one and a half so after a game like that of course the mood is dampened by them coming back in but you individually you're just the second m l player that's have three assists in their debut since 1998 do you have time to kind of sit back and enjoy those moment yeah of course it's uh it's a cool cool thing to do three assists in a game and have the second play in history from the MLS but if I can change it to another guys on our team and we win this game I will do it immediately so yeah it's cool to have but in the end we don't win this game is it hard to like get out of that mindset of individual success over team success just one for me the team success is overall ever done anything like that before sorry ever done anything like that before had three assists yeah yeah not that much not that often but uh I remember one game that I I think I had four assists actually in one game yeah this I think was the most in one game was it like that with a lot of corner no there was in the game I think in the game not not from from set pieces to set decision to come here I mean you could have been playing in the Bundesliga why why come to America because of of the experience uh I was sitting with me and my family together on the table and we was talking about that I have that we have the chance to to go to America and it was always yeah a dream for me to to go out from from German Germany to see uh another other countries and yeah I spoke to to Lots I saw the the city and in the end was easy for me to decide to come to to St Louis for me and my family is it like an exciting thing for you of course it's an exciting thing uh to see how is the culture here in America how the peop are and um yeah it's it was for sure in in our decision to to to move here things you've left behind there things things you miss from so far actually only my family my friends but uh nothing special from Germany now things you've come to embrace here in St Louis sorry things you've come to appreciate or like about yeah I think we have a it's the parks the playgrounds for for for my daughter actually better than in Germany and yeah we we appreciate that a lot that we have so many things to do the restaurants are pretty well here so yeah it's a great great great City a fair amount of small kids yeah team yeah we have a lot of kids in the team yeah do the kids play together and know jannis has a yeah me and my my daughter uh we saw a lot of times uh Janis Janis son so we meet us with our wives together go to playgrounds different playgrounds and also s family is still here now so he have also two kids and we meet all yeah the most of the time we go out together do you guys live near each other or is uh me and tianis we live near to each other yeah not that saying just that big where you could be that far yeah Justin oh yeah I was going to follow up on that how important has it been to have you know people you are familiar with here of course we talked about l in the past as well but you're having some people you kind of lean on and talk to about the city and about your new surroundings yeah of course it's uh it's very very important to to have uh my family at first here with me and in the end also also good guys in the team to to to help me to uh yeah say in this W can can go this player going is well this park you can work good with your family and it's important to to have guys in the team who who help in the end uh me and my family to to yeah to live here well do you sense back on the soccer side of things that the way the season is going that you guys almost are in a case where you have to win every game I mean is there do you feel that of you just got you just got to win of course of course we know that that we're if we want to to go in the playoffs we have to win the most of the games now and uh we will started on on Sunday against La is it different you come from a world with promotion and relegation where that's if you you don't have to worry about that is that anything different than how you know it feel different just knowing that there's not no I don't no it's not not different of course you you play there I played in the second league and we get promoted in the first league but in the end it's also for us now to to give everything what we have to to go on the playoffs and this is the goal for the rest of the season and uh we have to do a very good job in the rest of the games and especially on Sunday we will we will go for our first first step to to move in the playoffs and we have to win against La you ever played against Marco Roy yeah I played against him yeah what what what's what are the challenges that he presents yeah of course he's a amazing amazing player he's um yeah one of the best player in Germany and um yeah we have to to be careful about about him we have to take him take him under pressure that he can't can't do the magic things he can do and um by the end we have to defend as a team all of all of us have to defend from the striker to the goalkeeper we defend together we shoot go together and we defend our goal together so we can do it you always been called cello has that been a yeah since my career starting everybody they say cello to me c e l o c e l l o yeah one L yeah want to make sure you get that right thank you anything else any great discoveries anything if you had gooey buttercake in sorry what have you had gooey buttercake no okay no what is that it's a it's a dessert oh okay not not not yet not yet not necessarily that gooey but