Orlando City Interim Head Coach Martín Perelman
On the result
“Well, it was a very tough team, tough game. As we expected against Cincinnati, it’s always like this. They have a very strong offense. I think it’s one of the best teams in the league attacking, so we knew who we were facing as well. We know that we are very strong at home. I think we created chances. At moments, the game was very open. They had chances as well. We always want to win at home. But again, taking into account the opponent, the game and everything, I think the effort of the players was there. We need to take the point and move forward because this league is long and we are still there. The standings, we look at the end. Tough night, but okay, we move forward for the next one.”
On his halftime message to the team
“Again, we knew that Cincinnati has very strong players up front. We knew which spaces we believe we can hurt, and that was the adjustment: try to hurt them in those spaces and try to neutralize, as much as we can, the talented players that they have up front. We were able to tie. Again, we had chances both in the first and second half. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score. They had chances as well, and they didn’t score as well, so that’s the point we have. We move forward for the next one.”
Orlando City Forward Justin Ellis
Opening Statement
“I mean, it was a tight game, but I still think that we should have won. I think it was very tight, but I also have to say that I have to do better with my chance. It’s a very easy chance, but if I put that away, it’s probably 2-1, we win. I mean, I have to live with that. I’m still young. I’m still learning. I just have to do better next time, but I mean, it was a close game. It was a good game.”
On his assist to Tyrese Spicer
“I forgot how he [Iván Angulo] won the ball, but it was a counterattack from our own half. Iván [Angulo] was looking up for like five to 10 seconds looking for me, and I eventually showed up. I know I’m going to get technical here, but the spin he put on the pass was perfect for how I wanted to play the ball, so I could redirect it into the path of Tyrese [Spicer]. I was just telling Tyrese [Spicer], ‘Why did you stop? Like, if you went, you would have been gone, and it would have been an easy play.’ But he kind of stopped, but he’s so fast. I mean, it was an assist, it counts as an assist, but the goal was all him. I think he deserves all the credit.”
On the team’s learnings from the previous matchup against FC Cincinnati
“I think it was a different-looking game because we’re a different-looking team in terms of how we’re playing. I think we’re a much steadier team. Even though I feel today we didn’t have the control that we wanted, it was very transitional. I think we also just limited Evander. He’s like, I don’t want to say their whole attack because they have amazing players, but a lot of the attack runs through him. I want to give a special mention to Luís Otávio. I thought he was the best player on the field today, no question. I feel we handled their attack obviously better. We only conceded one. We conceded six last time, and it was a good game.”
Orlando City Forward Tyrese Spicer
On the result
“Firstly, I want to thank God for the opportunity. Today was a tough day, a tough day in the office. I think we started off the game pretty well. We got a few chances. I think we should have put it away when we were up before they even got a goal. I think the goal set us back a bit, but we came back in the second half with some energy, fought back, got our goal, and unfortunately, we couldn’t get the second one today.”
On the assist from Justin Ellis
“I know Justin [Ellis] is a player, he’s a creative player. He wants to flick, he loves to flick. I just read that. I thought it was going to go more in the air rather than on the ground, but I just had to turn the jets on to get there. You know, once I was one-on-one with the keeper, I had a good feeling. He’s a good keeper. I think he would have guessed where I was going to shoot. So, I was like, let me try to go around him, and it worked out well.”
On FC Cincinnati’s goal
“I think that was a tough one, outside the box. I think it would be called immediately because it’s a head injury. I don’t know why the referee didn’t call it, but it was out of our hands. I just think we had to bounce back from that, and we did. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get the second one that we needed.”
