Orlando City Head Coach James O’Connor
Opening statement
“Obviously very disappointed. I think when you look at the game overall, I think we’ve had enough chances to win, in two or three games. I think unfortunately for us tonight, we’ve played very well, we’ve had exceptional chance creation, we just weren’t able to take our chances which is pretty hard to swallow. Very painful evening for us.”
On the chances not falling
“I think when you look at, and this is what we just said in there, when you look at the quality of the chances. Sometimes you have a game where you have a lot of shots and they may be outside the box or there are shots that maybe are difficult chances. I think when you look at the areas we got into,we should’ve either shot sooner or polished them. I think that the chance creation from inside the box, we can come out and we can say we were unlucky, but for me we we’ve been the architects of our own downfall because when you have that many chances you have to capitalize. You have to take those chances. Especially against a team like that because they get a couple of chances and bang, it’s in the back of the net. Unfortunately for us tonight we had some lovely passages of play, I thought we had some excellent passages. I thought we had some great chance creation, but we just unfortunately couldn’t get that goal and we’ve been punished for it.”
On the defense and the Josef Martinez finish
“I thought we did a great job to be honest. When you look at their threats, I thought we managed, especially first half I thought we were very, very good. I think the biggest disappointment going in at halftime was that we weren’t leading. I think again that was something that we were desperate to try to do was to start the game well, to get that first goal. We really, really tried, I think that’s the biggest thing when you look at the commitment from the guys, I mean they’ve given everything tonight and I think on another evening you win four or five-nil or four or five-one. I think the hard thing for us is that when you have that many chances first half you don’t take, you need a really strong mentality first half because you need to keep believing that you can create the same amount of chances. I think on their goal, quick transition, and then Josef [Martinez] gets half a yard inside the box and it’s a goal. His record speaks for itself and I think when you have a player like that, you’re capable to have one quick transition because you know because you know a player like that is going to get a chance and you hope he misses. For us it was unfortunate where we’ve had the lion share of the game, but unfortunately we’ve been outdone by a really strong finish and then not taking the volume of chances that we’ve had, we haven’t been able to capitalize on any of them.”
Orlando City Defender Kamal Miller
On what he saw on the Josef Martinez goal
“As the game got late, we were throwing bodies forward, trying to push for that goal we know we deserved. I felt like we were pushing a lot of numbers forward and maybe got too comfortable leaving ourselves 1v1 there and I got back late it ended up a 2v2 and they took their chance. That’s how it goes sometimes.”
On what worked to shut down Josef Martinez in the first half
“He’s obviously their striker, you know, so he has to have guys to get him the ball so we did a great job of shutting down [Eric] Remedi, [Darlington] Nagbe and [Julian] Gressel and [Justin] Meram by pressing and really making it difficult for [Brad] Guzan to play out of the back. We won those second balls and really made them defend so it kind of nullified their attack.”
On fighting for the equalizer
“Even when we went down a goal the odds were good because we knew that we were on top of the game. We knew that we had a great chance to go and win the game even [1-0] down, with 10 minutes left, in the 80th minute we knew that we had a good chance and some more chances to tie it up. We knew that all it took was one goal to tie it up and then we would be right back in the game so we were just pushing very hard. Left ourselves a bit exposed at the back but of course but that’s what happens when we are one goal down, we have to push.”
Orlando City Midfielder Mauricio Pereyra
On the hunger he showed on the field
“Of course, it was an important game for us. We need to, we should give 100 percent and try to give everything, of course. I’m not, maybe, in 100 percent condition but with everything I can do I try to find that motivation to do [it].”
On how close he is to 90 minutes fit
“I hope the next game I should be ready, I don’t know yet. I worked really hard the last three weeks, I played 45 [minutes] against Minnesota and now 60 [minutes] so hopefully for the next game I should be ready.”
On difficulties in finishing tonight
“Of course we created a lot of chances today. We should work a lot on this [finishing] because against Atlanta you need to score on these chances, if not they will have one then they will score and you lose this important game.”
