Lloyd Sam scored his first-career MLS goal in Saturday's 1-1 draw against the New England Revolution. We caught up with Sam after Wednesday's training session to get his take on the goal, the match at Gillette Stadium and returning to Red Bull Arena for a three-game home stand.
First off, congrats on the goal. It must’ve felt pretty good to get your first.
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It’s just my second start of the season. Obviously when you start you want to get assists and goals and wins, so that felt good to get a goal.
Can you walk us through the goal again?
Alright, alright. Kick off. Juninho had it from kick off, gave it to me. I played it down to Andre [Akpan] and made a run. Towards the edge of the box. And then I think Kosuke [Kimura] and Andre had a pass or two, and then Andre saw me just creep into the box, I had a touch, and then hit it low and hard on the keeper.
Did you see that spot open on the goalkeeper? Is that where you were aiming for?
Well I knew just hit it low and hard and it’s got a good chance of going in from that distance.
Watch: Sam's Goal
When you started playing for us and you came into this league, did you ever picture what your first goal would be like? Did you imagine maybe a 20-yard blast or something from inside the penalty area?
(Laughs) Nah, to be fair I didn’t really think about it like that. But I’ll take it however it comes. I was happy to score however it goes in. Even if it comes off my knee I’m happy.
What would you say about the way the scoring went down against New England? The Revs took a 1-0 lead, and just a minute later we were able to tie it up with your goal.
It felt even better to score while they were still celebrating. I mean, it was straight from kick off. It’s the best time to score. And then we got a draw, so yeah it was a great time.
Overall, with the injury last season and coming back from that, does the goal help with your return in some way?
Yeah I felt like it submits that I’m back and doing what I need to be doing, if you know what I’m saying. It shows that I’m going in the right direction.
Let’s talk about LA a bit. What can we expect from them when they come to down on Sunday?
I guess it’s like, apart from us, one of the other bigger teams in the league. It’s a big city. I’m not familiar with playing against them, so I don’t really know too much. But obviously there’s a lot of press about them, I’ve seen them play, and it’s obviously a big game. New York and LA; it’s something when you’re from other countries you’re interested in and you hear about. So it’s a big game. We got to do what we’ve been doing the last five games.
As for the three-game home stand, the largest of the season, it must be nice to take a five-game unbeaten streak back to the home crowd here.
It’s about time we got some home games in a row. We actually stayed in New York for a little bit. But I feel we’re stronger at home and we have an even better chance of keeping the streak going.
