Orlando City Head Coach James O’Connor
Opening statement
“[I’m] very proud of the players. I thought the effort they gave tonight was excellent. I thought the commitment was fantastic. I think when the officials maybe go back and have a look at it I think they’ll perhaps be a little bit disappointed with their performance. Our performance I thought was excellent, I thought the guys gave everything. When you look at how good LAFC is, you look at how we managed the game and you look at the problems we caused them and on another night we would’ve won the game.”
On the response of the team after going down 1-0
“I thought it was fantastic, the reaction. Great piece of skill, great finish I think, really good. From our standpoint, I thought the reaction was excellent. I thought the finish was very composed and a great piece of skill and then also after that I thought we had a little period where we played some really good football. I think the second goal was obviously a great piece of play that we were very pleased with, so as I said there’s a load of positives for us to be able to point to and look at and take away from tonight’s performance.”
On Cristian Higuita’s performance
“For us it was an interesting sort of decision as we looked at it. We wanted to try to get him up a little bit higher and I thought he did a good job of doing that. I thought he was given some good momentum by the support from Ruan, also from Uri [Rosell] and Dillon [Powers]. I thought the middle at times was very, very good and I thought his execution was good. We had some lovely passages tonight, it’s just bitterly disappointing that we haven’t got three points, that’s the kicker for us.”
Orlando City Midfielder Cristian Higuita
On the team’s mentality moving forward
“Right now we have four games left, four games that are four finals. We had five [games] and now we got a point out of the first one and we have to keep adding points because we need them.”
On his performance tonight
“I felt very good actually. Tonight I played in a position that I am not very used to but that I understand it and now we just need to recover [for the next game].”
On the team’s response after the first goal down
“Our mentality was just to win. After you get scored on you just put the ball at the half and you just keep playing.”
Orlando City Defender Ruan
On how he’s feeling after returning to the pitch
“I feel good, I feel very good actually. I was very happy that I got the opportunity to get an assist tonight on a very good play, but it’s not over yet. We still have four games left, we have to keep our mentality high and just take advantage of the four games that we have, but I’m very happy to be back.”
On the mindset of the team heading into the match
“Our mentality was that first we knew they were a very good team, very good rival. They’re one of the best teams in the league. Unfortunately they got the first goal, we got the second goal and just came up a little short, but now it’s just to keep practicing, keep playing because it’s not over yet.”
On if he feels 100% coming off injury
“To be honest, I’m not at my 100 percent. Everything that I showed on the field tonight was how much of a warrior and a fighter that I am and now it’s just to keep improving as well.”
