HEAD COACH ADRIAN HEATH
On how he sums up what happened in the second half …
“Difficult at the moment. I thought we were outstanding in the first half. And then all the things we were good at in the first half, we weren’t in the second. Our full retention was really poor. Our decision making was poor. And our general defending of the penalty area was poor as well. Every time we put the ball in the box, I don’t think we’ve done really well enough. And, once again, we made a few errors that cost us.
On the substitute of Brent Kallman for Emanuel Reynoso …
“Well, at that stage, I thought we were gonna lose the game. As it proved we did. I just wanted to get another defender on because they were putting a lot of balls in our box, and I thought another body in there might help us. But, it wasn’t be.”
On if the weather and Denver climate factored into the second half of the game …
“No. No. There was nothing wrong with the altitude. No. No. That’s an excuse. And, that would be an excuse if I used it.”
On if he would have ever imagined being 0-4 to start the season …
“No. No. But, that’s harshly how it is when you defend like we’ve done on the road. Seven goals. The irony is, is the two from us in the first half have been probably the best we’ve played. I thought the first half tonight we were exceptional at times. All the things that we did well in the first half, we didn’t do in the second half. As I say, we made poor choices with the ball. Poor choices without the ball. And, obviously, if we continually turn the ball over to the other team in your own half, and allow them time and space to put the ball in your box with quality, invariably people get on the end of it. And, I just don’t think we’ve done that well tonight.”
On what he needs to do in the short span to the quick turnaround Wednesday versus Vancouver …
“Well, we have to play better. We have to play for 90 minutes and not 45. For sure. And, obviously, it’s a huge game for us on Wednesday. If we’re not aware of it, we should be. We’re at this stage now where we gotta start winning some games and getting some points on the board.”
On having so many veteran players in the squad yet being second to balls and chasing the play …
“If I knew, I’d probably sort it out. We are what we are. At the moment, this is a back four… Obviously, we miss [Bakaye] Dibassy. With Romain [Metanire] going off, we had to restructure again. This group of players did really well last year. Especially when it was important down the stress. And, especially when, in games, they were tight, we’d seek things out. This year, we have made poor choices and every time we get punished. And, we have to eradicate that and we have to stop it. It has to be pretty soon. For sure.”
On if the change in formation and new front line gave him what he wanted …
“Yeah. I thought that when we had possession of the ball, we moved it quickly. I thought that first half was as well as we played for a long, long time. And, well, you know, I’m at a loss at the moment. Beside for why we played like we did in the first half, and then everything we spoke about at halftime. Move the ball quickly. Make good decisions. Play forward. And be positive. No, we didn’t. We played it back when we should have played forward. And, you know, we gave it a bit when it was tight and we were in dangerous areas. We just made too many poor choices and at the moment, poor choices are really effecting us in early points.”
On having multiple number 9’s on the bench, starting Robin Lod in that position and if Lod is the starter right now …
“Well, the others have been injured and training, Robin [Lod] has had a full week’s training. I thought he was terrific first half. And we’ll have to get some more work into the other guys and see where that leaves us. But, ideally, if we had a full strength forward line, Robin would probably come in on the left, like he did.”
On what the locker room was like postgame …
“Well, obviously everybody is disappointed. You know, it’s not a pleasurable place to be, in a locker room, after throwing a game away like we have tonight. And, obviously, there’s some strong words said. That’s all by the by. We had a chance to do our talking on the field. The second half was poor. Really poor.”
MIDFIELDER JAN GREGUS
On why he thinks things fell apart in the second half…
I don’t know, I don’t know…we really didn’t keep the ball well, bad decision making…and I don’t know, zero energy. Completely different halves – first half, very good…two goals, good movement on and off the ball – second half, completely different, I don’t know why.
On the quick turnaround between games and being disappointed by this result…
Yeah, we are disappointed. First of all, I think something like that shouldn’t ever repeat, because we should be a good enough team to keep the 2-0 way. And at halftime we talked about it and then did a completely different thing in the second half, so I don’t know if it’s mental…we are a little bit down with all the results and everything, so, we just have to be confident again and break this bad game streak.
On when he felt the momentum shifted in the game…
I don’t know, I feel that the second half we didn’t even have momentum on the ball and they came strong, but we knew that – we talked about it, that they were going to come strong the second half…But we looked a little bit jaded, not good on the ball, not keeping the ball, they were all over the place, scored first, and then we maybe got a little bit stressed out (or something) and then they kept coming and coming…but like I said, should never happen again. We should be good enough to keep the result 2-0 and go with a win.
On the locker room after the game…
Very disappointed. Everybody here wants to win…and the expectations we had before the season, now it’s completely opposite. We are last and we didn’t win one game and the amount of goals conceded it’s like…I don’t know if it’s big or not [in MLS], but it’s very bad so…we didn’t expect this, but like I said, we need to break it with the following game because this is unacceptable.
On playoff expectations (only two teams have made it starting the season 0-4)…
To be honest, we are not in the place to look at that right now, we have to win the next game and then win, and win, and win. We have to look in front of ourselves and right now we are not even in position to look for the playoffs with these kinds of performances, like for example the second half.
On being 0-4 to start the season…
Not at all. Like I told you, we had big expectations, we want to be on top from the start of the season…and I don’t know what happened. First game, very good first half, then concede four in the second…now again, concede three in the second half. I don’t know what’s happening with that second half. Obviously it’s not good enough.
On the three-man midfield with Osvaldo Alonso and Wil Trapp…
We had a lot of the ball and good movement in the first half. Obviously the additional player in the midfield. The second half they played a little bit different – they put the midfielders a little bit higher up in the pitch, so they played kind of behind us, and they kept the ball very fast. And with the one goal, it was like all about momentum today. Like I said before, we didn’t even have a second half, so they took advantage of it and scored other goals, but shouldn’t have.
