HEAD COACH ERIC RAMSAY
On what went well in the first half…
“... relative to that, we were really pleased. We wanted to take some steps forward performance wise. I felt like we were very good value for at least a draw coming to the end of the game, if you take the last 10 minutes out of it, so in that sense we were really pleased. The biggest thing for me tonight was that we had a positive step [where] we felt like there was a performance that we could be proud of. We felt like with the group that we had, we were making progress and we had that. So as much as the result is frustrating and we’ll be really disappointed with the manner in which we lost the game, we were happy and there’s definitely something that we can take forward to Tuesday and something that we can take into the second half of the MLS season.”
On the final 10 minutes of the game…
“The end of the game in a situation like that, where you’re down to 10 men, it’s tough. I said to the players at the end, in a situation like that, you have to be mistakeless. You have to be perfect, and unfortunately, we weren’t. We’ve committed to big errors that have been really costly, but I’m very willing to put the context on the table in that you’ve got a group of guys there that are very unfamiliar with one another. It’s not a team that’s in its rhythm, but for large portions of the game, it was a team that looked pretty cohesive, which was a big thing for us. So I’m disappointed, the players are disappointed, but I know if I look at it a touch more objectively, there’s more good than bad there, for sure.”
On the team’s game plan after Hassani Dotson’s red card…
“Obviously, in a situation like that, you accept that you’re only going to get a limited amount of pressure on the ball. We’ve got a single forward Tani [Oluwaseyi], who is a very good pressing player capable of applying good pressure on his own. So we left him up there by himself and had three players behind him that we hoped would be able to cover the width of the pitch. Obviously, we stuck with that with our back five hoping that would give us some flexibility to be more aggressive in the wide areas on both sides of the pitch and largely we did it relatively well up until the point at which we really switched off on that one side on a couple of occasions in quick succession and that’s been a bit of a problem of ours over the course of the year so far. Different personnel, of course, you finished the game with [Devin] Padelford, Morris Duggan and Sam Shashoua on that left side and that’s for sure the first time they’ve shared minutes on a football pitch together, so you’re perhaps expecting a little bit of a lack of coherence. But I would say the error that leads to the first goal is pretty fundamental, so that’s disappointing. But we did enough to be good value for at least a draw and penalties, I would say up until that point.”
On not starting usual starters like midfielder Robin Lod…
“Robin [Lod] is a really special case in the sense that he’s had a difficult year and a half injury wise. He’s obviously played. We’ve been really short of players over the course of the last six weeks and he’s played a lot of minutes. He’s someone that we want to make sure has almost perfect training time and rhythm in the build up to games. He’s been away with the [MLS] All-Star Game this week. For him to have played, albeit only sort of 15-20 minutes, Wednesday night to have then flown Thursday without then having trained in the build up to a game on a turf pitch, it wasn’t a risk that we were willing to take. So there for me, it is a sensible decision. And then we’ve got to balance the fact that we have a period now where we need to make sure that we have a very good look at someone like Hugo Bacharach who’s had a very unlucky couple of months in the build up to this, someone that is perhaps high potential that could really add to our depth with our final nine games in MLS and this is the perfect opportunity to see him play. Morris Duggan is the same. So we wanted to make sure that we really balance doing absolutely everything we could to win the game with making sure that we made some sensible decisions like that. So I’m going to stand by that. Loïc [Mesanvi], Morris [Duggan], Hugo [Bacharach] all handled themselves really, really well and in no way contributed to us losing that game. So, on balance, it was a sensible way to go about it.”
On what he saw on Hassani Dotson’s red card…
“He’s obviously made a rash decision of course, he’s been left exposed one-v-one, so I won’t be too critical of Hassani [Dotson] there. I do think and the general consensus amongst the staff and hopefully sort of stripping any biased societies, it’s perhaps a harsh red there, in the sense that there’s not a load of malice there. He’s very low, certainly hasn’t come over the ball, so I think there’s an argument to say that he’s been slightly hard done by there but of course it makes life very difficult for us from that point onwards for a number of reasons. Not ideal, of course.”
On Loïc Mesanvi playing as a right back…
“Well, we obviously don’t have an obvious choice on that side of the pitch at the moment. We’re playing with Carlos Harvey, a midfield player, at the right side of centerback and then the three options that we would typically go to there are not available, so I felt like Loïc [Mesanvi] would give us what he did give us which was a real pace, a real change of rhythm on the outside, a willingness to run in behind and also the ability to handle the ball. So, we have struggled over the course of the last month for real continuity on that side, often spells of possession will break down very easily, we’ll turn the ball over cheaply and Loïc really helped us navigate that in the sense he was secure on the ball, he helped us get back inside the pitch from that side. And I’ll also say he’s a phenomenal guy to work with, incredible enthusiasm, brings a real energy to the group, so I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to give him a chance and that he handled himself well. Obviously, we’re a club that’s trying to promote youth and trying to really strengthen the link between the academy and the first team and he can be a bit of a beacon for that. I’m pleased that things went relatively well for him tonight.”
On Dayne St. Clair's performance and wearing the captain’s armband…
“We’ve obviously really missed Dayne [St. Clair]’s presence and leadership over the course of the last six weeks or so, not to do with the lack of that from Clint [Irwin] or Alec [Smir], but Dayne is a big personality. He makes big saves, he’s very loud, and he’s very vocal. We’ve given him the captaincy in Michael Boxall’s absence for that reason and Dayne has really stepped up tonight and we’re going to need him over the course of the coming months. He’s someone that you really want to represent how the dressing room feels and he stepped up as captain as we expected him to do, as we know he can do.”
On the chances in the first half and needing to finish chances…
“I was really pleased and we made a big point prior to the game and we’ve talked postgame over the course of the last month a lot about us not really striking that balance between attacking directly, quickly and using the pace of our front players, and having a fair share of the ball, attacking with more precision, a touch more patience, keeping the ball, keeping the team together through a higher number of passes, and we certainly did that in the first half. We really wanted the back three to be brave in trying to find the middle of the pitch. We really wanted the two sixes, Hassani [Dotson] and Alejandro [Bran] to try and connect the game a little bit better. We wanted Fraga [Franco Fragapane] and Bongi [Bongokuhle Hlongwane] to really link from the middle and that was a really pleasing part. I suppose the frustrating part was that beyond that we threatened, but without any cutting edge which was of course pretty counterproductive for us. Obviously, when Tani [Oluwaseyi] comes on we look like a big counterattacking threat. We were able to press higher up the pitch and we turned the ball over a lot and had some good opportunities in that sense but again, almost pretty toothless which is disappointing for all the big steps we made in other elements of the game.”
