Orlando City Head Coach James O’Connor
Opening statement
“It wasn’t pretty. I think for us we had some passages that you think, first half, not bad, couple of passages, nice goal, some good chances first half. Second half just became a complete game of transition. For us it became pure heart. I think you could see, both teams to be honest, the humidity played a huge factor in the game tonight. I think you could see both teams were really impacted by the humidity and that’s when you need the character and the heart to be able to push through. That’s the one massive credit I can give the players is the heart and the commitment that they showed to dig in and push through because it was very tough conditions tonight.”
On what Tesho Akindele brings to the attack
“A lot to be honest. The big attraction for us when we looked at Tesho was that he’s a team guy and players like that, for me, I place great value on players that put the team first and you get performances like that. When you need to dig in, you’ve got people who dig in. He’s also got tremendous quality, I think his finishing is underrated. I think he’s someone that is very capable of scoring goals whether he plays left of the front three, whether he plays central of the front three, I think he has an ability to score goals. I’m delighted for him because he’s a great young man. Credit to his family the way he handles himself and how hard he works.”
On the importance of grinding out victories
“I think the biggest thing is that because you always want the perfect performance, regardless of whether you win, I think you’re always looking and thinking where could we be better. I think that’s my biggest thing is you’re always looking and I think that the massive encouraging sign for us as a Club is we did not played well tonight, but we won the game, which is great. At this stage of the season we needed three points. There’s a load of positives that we can point to. I think we’ve equaled the clean sheets that the Club have had so we’re one away from setting a record, so hopefully we can go and do that. There’s multiple things throughout the course of the season that you can point to, but we want to get in the playoffs so we needed three points tonight and that’s a massive three points for us.”
Orlando City Forward Tesho Akindele
On the team performance
“I think I’m happy we won. Do I think we played the best we could have? No, but that’s kind of the mark of a good team I think. Sometimes you play good, sometimes you don’t, but good teams find a way to win and that’s what we did today and that’s what’s most important.”
On what’s allowing him to flourish in the attack this season
“There’s a lot of things. I think I’ve kind of been asked a similar question a few times this year, it’s just so many things. The coaching staff believes in me a lot, my teammates have been providing me great crosses. I think just the opportunity to be on the field more often, there’s just a combination of a lot of things and me taking advantage of my chances.”
On his view of his finish
“Yeah I saw Dom [Dwyer] make a good hard run into the box and I saw some space kind of just around the six and I thought if I move there and the ball comes to me then I could score. I don’t even think Carlos [Ascues] looked, he just put the ball into a good area and I was there and able to finish it. But like you said, Dom took two or three defenders away with him which led to the goal.”
Orlando City Defender Shane O’Neill
On coming in early into the match
“I thought the first half was alright. I thought we had the ball going forward, felt really good. I felt like I was growing into the game, kind of expressing myself and then second half was tough. Second half was very tough you know, they pinned us back. Obviously, [Johnny] Russell is a tough guy to go one-against-one with, but I think for the most part we did a good job. There was one or two lapses and we got away with it, but at the end of the day the most important thing was getting a win. We kind of dug it out really, we just dug it out.”
On the team not conceding a lot of goals at home
“Just the dedication to kind of getting into our shape, getting into a compact shape not only top to bottom but also from a width standpoint. I think we have been a lot harder to break down, maybe not as exciting to watch, but definitely more pragmatic and it’s gotten us results and we’re at the cusp and hopefully we can keep pushing it to get over the line.”
On the team’s ability to rotate players in the lineup
“I think the manager always speaks about ‘next man up,’ and at the end of the day obviously I haven’t played a whole ton of outside back. I’ve played some, I’ve played bits and pieces, but I would say Kamal [Miller] is probably the same way, but I think you’ve just got to do a job. You’ve got to stay compact, stay with the line, listen to the really experienced guys in the middle. You’ve got Lamine [Sané], who’s one of the best communicators I’ve ever played with, and you’ve just got to listen. At the end of the day when you’re going forward, I think for me personally you can’t get sucked into the transition game, because it’s enticing to go forward, you want to go forward, but that means you’ve got to go back if you lose the ball, so it’s just finding that balance. But I think it’s just guys with that mentality, just wanting to play, wanting to get out on the pitch.”
