Head Coach Adrian Heath
On takeaways from Saturday’s match against the New York Red Bulls…
“Not much different than what I said after the game. I thought that we started the game slowly, we didn’t play to the conditions, thought they played to the conditions a lot better than we did. But overall, it’s not a really good game to look at because the game was so different than it normally is. When you’re telling players, ‘don’t take any chances in your own half, put it in their half, turn them around, play the long [ball], play straight, and play in behind people,’ that’s not the way we try and work it. There’s not an awful lot to take from it. The last 20 minutes, having watched it, we were a lot better. I thought Hassani [Dotson] gave us a lift when he came on, and we suddenly started to get a little bit of play in their half of the field. It wasn’t a great game. It was a spectacle, for sure.”
On the set-piece goal concession…
“No, we’ve had a look at it. Obviously, it’s poor marking from us. It’s a decent ball-in. But, when you’ve got a guy who’s 6 foot 3 coming in and having a free header, sometimes you’re going to concede because of the size of people. You expect people to be competing for the first ball and we weren’t. That’s something we’ve spoke about and something we’ll work on during the week.”
On players being disappointed with the conceded goal…
“Yeah. At the end of the day, everyone has a role to play. Sometimes it’s blocking, sometimes it’s zonal marking, sometimes it’s man-for-man marking, but like I always say to the players, it doesn’t matter what system you play. If you do not attack the ball in your box, then eventually you’re going to concede goals and that’s what happened.”
On Kervin Arriaga’s performance…
“I thought Kervin [Arriaga] was outstanding at the weekend, I really do. Took him about 10 minutes to understand it’s going to be a different game. The amount of ground that he covered, the amount of headers that he won in our half of the field and our penalty box, I’ve been really pleased the way he started the season.”
On Tani Oluwaseyi…
“Well Tani’s [Oluwaseyi] still learning. He’s a project for us. When we signed him, we knew he had issues with his knee, but we thought there was enough there to have a gamble on. He’s working really hard and I think if he listens and continues to work hard, he has tools that will make people be uncomfortable playing against him because he’s super athletic, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s quick. Now we’ve got to try and work on him to get consistently in the right spaces at the right time.”
On adjusting after the international callups…
“We might take that into consideration this weekend because we’ve got seven players away next week, six of which who played this weekend, so it’s not ideal. We will pick the team in Colorado with that in mind and then we’ll work from there because what we can’t do is maybe risk one or two people who we know are going to be here for the following week, if that makes sense.”
On scoring on rebound opportunities and if it’s right place, right time…
“No, I think the first goal in Dallas, Mender [Garcia] makes a good initial first move and drops it for Fraga [Franco Fragapane]. Fraga has a great strike and then he [Mender] follows it in. This weekend, I’m pleased for Bongi [Bongokuhle Hlongwane] because we keep telling him about getting in the right spots at the right time. I think he’s started the season really well. He told me he’s going to get 25 goals when he left, which I thought was a little bit of a stretch, but he’s on two games [with] one goal. We want the wide guys to be scoring between seven and 12 goals a year, and he’s had a good start, for sure.”
On how the international callups will impact this weekend’s game…
“What I won’t do is jeopardize people who I know are going to be here for the following week, and maybe they get injured, so you’re even more men down. So, we will take that into consideration when pick the lineup for the weekend.”
On the players called up to their respective national teams…
“Robin [Lod], Boxy [Michael Boxall], Kervin [Arriaga], Joseph [Rosales], Dayne [St. Clair], Bongi [Bongokuhle Hlongwane] will be away, Molik’s [Jesse Khan] going as well. With Jesse, I think actually it’s eight who are going. Not ideal but that’s the way it is.”
On Brent Kallman and Doneil Henry…
“Yeah the both of them trained. Doneil [Henry] is getting a lot closer to where he can join in fully. Brent [Kallman] played and trained as normal today. We’re going to need them because obviously Boxy [Michael Boxall] will be away next week.”
On the availability of Brent Kallman and Doneil Henry this weekend…
“Doneil [Henry] probably not. Certainly Brent [Kallman] will probably be available for selection, I would think.”
On Mikael Marques…
“He’s good. He’s started to run today. The swelling has gone down. He’s cleared up the swelling. Hopefully, we can get some work in. He might be available, I would hope, for the Vancouver [Whitecaps] game.”
On his expectations for Fred Emmings…
“Well Fred [Emmings] is a baby in terms of goalkeeping years. Now he needs to start to play regular. We would like to get more games into him where he actually now, it’s gone from academy football to, what I call, ‘men’s football’ where suddenly the results matter. I think that’s the next stage in his development.”
On anything new on Bakaye Dibassy…
“No, he’s training really hard, but he’s still going to be another couple of months minimum, I would think.”
On if the recent potential signee from South Korea is on his way…
“I’m hopeful, yeah. Hopeful that he maybe gets here before the weekend. I’m hopeful.”
On where the South Korean striker fits between Luis Amarilla and Mender Garcia…
“Plays wide, plays through the middle, plays as a 10. He’s played all of them positions so it will be another body that we feel at 20 years of age, there’s an awful lot of potential there. We’re really pleased in what we’ve seen and it looks like we’ve got a deal done now, so hopefully we’ll get him in here in the next 24 hours.”
On Wil Trapp being in pain during Saturday’s match…
“No, he was fine. I just thought we needed a bit more physical presence as the game started to open up, and that’s what I thought Hassani [Dotson] gave us.”
Defender Kemar Lawrence
On the form the team has been on…
“It depends on what you consider form. I feel like we’re just coming off preseason and mentally we didn’t win or we won the first game of the preseason. The last two results, we didn’t like it, and we knew that we had to do better. Not only playing football, but we need to run more, we need to fight for each other more. We spoke about it, and we went on the field and did just that.”
On how the backline has come together in two games…
“We got scored on last game, especially from a set piece, so there’s still stuff that we’ve got to look at. We’re trying to make less mistakes as possible. Last game we spoke about that, whoever makes the least amount of mistakes would’ve won that game. It felt like we did our best, given the circumstances of the pitch and everything.”
On early impressions of Micky Tapias…
“I like him. I really like him. He’s funny, he’s aggressive. Now I have to learn Spanish, but I like him a lot.”
On his level of Spanish speaking…
“Horrible. My Jamaican is way better.”
On set-piece defending…
“It’s just defending overall. For me personally, I pride myself in defending. I think Boxy [Michael Boxall], Micky [Miguel Tapias] all of those guys are passionate about it. We don’t want to give up anything at all. We know that in any game you play, sometimes the games are so tight that a set piece is the only opportunity, so we’ve got to really mark up and do better. It’s just one that we’ve got to live with.”
On what didn’t work on the set piece goal conceded…
“I don’t know, it looked like too much people in one spot because it wasn’t like he [Andres Reyes] was unmarked, everybody was just so clustered into one spot. Somebody went up first and won it. I haven’t looked at it yet, to be honest.”
On if he played in similar conditions in Toronto…
“No, not in Toronto, but my first game ever in MLS was in Colorado and it was exactly like that, so I was ready.”
On his surprise at the amount of snow on the pitch…
“Yeah, I was a little bit surprised, but I understand it’s a part of the game. If you look anywhere else in the world; Russia, sometimes Belgium, it happens. That’s why we have orange balls. It does happen.”
On the team identity…
“Honestly, it’s togetherness. We started to climb a little bit more in everything around the training facility, when you step onto the pitch, you bring in more. Right now, as you say, we don’t have Rey [Emanuel Reynoso]. We don’t have that one guy that we can say, ‘alright, let’s depend on him,’ so we have to make it a full team effort, and it’s been working.”
On if adversity has brought the team together…
“I felt like we’ve always been together. Would we rather to have Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] here? Of course. I feel like we’re pretty much the same, but we know we just have to work a bit more for each other.”
On Devin Padelford’s development…
“I love Dev [Devin Padelford]. I try to talk to him every day so that he has an understanding of the position overall. His personality is great. He’s willing to learn and soon he’ll start to play. You’re not going to have me playing 27-28 matches every single year when I’m winding down to 32-33 [years old]. You know I’m a gamer, and I love to play but I’d love to see Dev start to get some minutes as well. It’s good to just inspire him and keep him going.”
On his game development as a homegrown player…
“That’s the thing. It’s so funny when we talk about development. I am one that’s always a believer in experience come off of playing. You’ve got to play the game to [get] experience. It doesn’t matter how much you train or how good you are in training. When you step on that pitch on gameday, it’s a completely different thing. Only a game can give you that and this is why I tell people I’m a gamer. You might see me show up at training, and I’ll be off a couple of training sessions, it happens, but when it’s game day, I’m ready to go. I feel like I was just born that way.”
On Tani Oluwaseyi…
“He’s been scoring in training and he’s in the squad each and every game, so you’re going to play. Once you’re in the squad, I feel like once the gaffer [Adrian Heath] puts you in this team and you’re there on game days, he’s going to play you. He has no second thoughts. Once you’re with the team on game days, he’s going to play you. I’m happy for each and every one of these guys for getting a looking.”
On Kervin Arriaga’s level of play and its effects on the backline…
“Fun. It’s fun to watch him run around. The other day in training, I saw him trying to do a couple of overlaps. He almost pulled a hamstring. I had to tell him it’s not the same, but it’s fun to have him on your team.
Forward Tani Oluwaseyi
On his MLS debut against FC Dallas…
“The away one was kind of surreal. It’s a lifetime dream I’ve had since I was a kid to make my professional debut. Stepping on, I had to focus up as quickly as possible and do the job I was sent on to do, follow instructions, and help the team get over the line and get the win, and that’s what I did.”
On if there was a predicted timeline for his professional debut when he was drafted…
“There was no definitive timeline on when I could start impacting with the first team. From day one, as soon as I got here, I set out to be the best that I could be and to play for the first team from the first day. Things didn’t work out that way, but that was definitely my goal from the jump.”
On his injury last season…
“Yeah, I came in off of surgery from college, and I picked up achilleas tendonitis to start and then I had the same reoccurring hamstring injury three times over the course of the season which accumulated to three or four months out. It was a lot.”
On his frustration due to missing part of the season…
“Extremely frustrating, especially having missed my senior season as well from surgery. Then to finally fulfill my dream of becoming a professional player and having it just continually stunted over and over again, it wasn’t something that was easy for me. Thanks to the people around me, from the training staff here, players, coaches, I was able to stay strong and do what I had to do to come back.”
On learned patience from his knee injury…
“Yeah, definitely. Hindsight is 20/20 and if I knew what was going to happen when I became pro, I probably would’ve sat out my entire senior year and not have tried to rush it back a little bit. You see the lights, you have your senior year, you’re excited to get going and things didn’t work out the way I wish they did, but I’ve learned from it.”
On if he rehabbed alongside Hassani Dotson…
“He was injured around April. I hadn’t done my hamstring by then and by the time he did his, he had gone back to Portland. We didn’t rehab together but somehow, someway he’s now my best friend on the team. It’s worked out for both of us. I’m glad he’s back. I think him being back makes me happier than me being back because I saw how much he worked and how hard it was for him, especially how much he played last year and how big of an impact he was for the team. So, I’m really happy he’s back and you guys saw the impact that he had when he came on at the weekend.”
On the impact recovering with Hassani Dotson had on him…
“Definitely. Because we had that dialogue asking, ‘how are your knees feeling today, are your knees creaking today, what did you do for rehab today?’ Those little things like that and just checking up on each other over time. And even when we were in offseason, just [phone] calls here and there making sure each other was good, especially because he has his daughter Gia. And, I love her. I’m always FaceTiming them hoping to just get a glimpse of her. It’s one of those things where it’s the best of both worlds: We’re talking about soccer, but we can also talk about life and family as well. It’s a good balance.”
On how his experience with MNUFC2 last year prepared him for this season…
“Props to Cam [Cameron Knowles] Jeremy [Hall] and everyone there, Jono [Jonathan Barber]. They were very honest with me. They told me exactly what I needed to hear and told me what the goals were for me with the second team and what I could do to contribute and what I had to do to make it to the first team. Although I only played 10 games with them, I did everything I could in those 10 games to contribute to them and also help me set the path to make the first team.”
On what he gives to the first team…
“Whatever Adrian [Heath] asks of me, to be honest. I have my abilities that I bring, but there are sometimes where other things are asked of me and those are the same things that I’m going to do wherever. Maybe they tell me to go play in net – I’ll play in net. That’s kind of my mindset.”
On how his debut in Texas prepared him for his Allianz Field debut…
“It was just getting that first hurdle out of the way. Everybody said, ‘Okay, you’ve got tomake your debut.’ Then once that was out of the way, I was like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ Something’s always coming next. As professional athletes and competitors, we always have the next goal and the next goal. For me, as soon as I got the debut out the way, it was, ‘How else am I going to contribute?’ If I’m going to come on with [the score at] 1-1, how can I contribute? And I tried my best to get a goal there, it didn’t work out that way. But, every time I step on that field, it’s to contribute, get a goal, get a clearance, whatever it may be to just help the team over the line.”
On if he knew he’d make his debut appearance…
“It’s kind of how the game goes. You see how things happen and then depending on the flow of the game and the strengths of the guys on the bench, that’s kind of how the coaches make the decisions of who’s getting called upon. I’ve done the work, but I was lucky enough to be called upon this time around. That’s kind of how it goes.”
On if he had played in winter/snow conditions before…
“Definitely. Even in Canada and my junior year [of college] in New York because we had the Covid-19 year cancel our usual fall [season], so we had to play in the spring. So now we’re playing outside in January and it’s 20 to 30-degree weather. There’s no domes in college, so we’re outside in the snow, we had games canceled because of the snow. I don’t love it, but I’m used to it. It definitely helps me when we have the conditions like we did on Saturday.”
