New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps
Opening statement:
“It was a good three points for us, and I thought it was a good performance, I thought our energy to start the game was really good. We were able to score that first goal and then once, when a player gets a red card there’s different reactions in a game, sometimes you can pull back a little bit, but I thought we continued to be the aggressor and that’s what we needed to do.”
On heading into halftime with a two-goal lead:
“Well the message was, you don’t have to look far for them, they came back on Columbus last week, they were down 3-0 and tied that game 3-3, so it was a pretty poignant message that we needed to get the next goal and I think that was the goal, the next 15 minutes get the next goal and I thought we did a good job of trying to get that and trying to earn that goal.”
On his team’s success on set pieces:
“It’s something we really work on, we have to because we have great guys that can serve, we got really good runs in the box. I just like the way we were aggressive on all our free kicks.”
On his team’s strong start at home:
“Well we’re at home and we’re trying to get the crowd into it, the whole thing going in a positive direction, trying to do the first thing you do on the field a positive one. Our energy was good and I think it does, if the team knows you’re there right away, if you give away a couple of balls or we weren’t sharp with our passing you open the door a little bit and a team can gain confidence and we really wanted to limit that. It was partly why we went with Kelyn (Rowe) a little bit more, to keep possession in their half. Kelyn did a great job tonight of keeping the ball in tight pockets for us and obviously he was excellent on all the goals.”
On midfielder Kelyn Rowe’s performance.
“He’s aggressive, he’s hungry, I think that’s the best word for it, he’s hungry, he can read the game. We have some designed things for him within the game, within those set pieces but at the same time we also have to be able to read the game. I like that we have options and I think when you work on set pieces you have a guy like Chris Tierney over the ball, you got a guy like Lee Nguyen over the ball, you’re going to get chances to hurt teams and sometimes we have and sometimes we haven’t but we want to make sure we’re aggressive there so teams have to worry about defending our free kicks.”
On forward Charlie Davies getting back on the scoresheet with a goal:
“Charlie was itching for one, he really wanted that one last week and we all thought he got it against Chicago so he almost tasted it and I think tonight he was from opening minute he was going to be aggressive and it showed. He pressured well, he was in good spots defensively and whenever he does that I can tell he’s going to get his chances. He was in behind a couple of times, wasn’t clinical but when he gets inside the box, whether it’s a free kick, a set piece or a corner kick he’s always lurking and I think that he did a great job reading the game tonight and finding those little pockets.”
On the offense beginning to produce more scoring opportunities:
“I think I said, I talked to Brian a little while last week about it. It’s our shape, I think our shape defensively is helping us be in better positions to attack. The possession stat is always one that people talk about, I don’t love the possession stat straight up, I love the possession stat of final third possession, attacking half possessions, accuracy in certain areas of the field, and how many passes are you completing and what does that movement look like. So when we are in a good shape defensively we can inch into those areas and get turnovers and be in those positions and it’s not always going to be a goal but that’s where we’re usually at our best when we’re extending those positions in other teams’ halves.”
On defender Chris Tierney missing the MLS All-Star game with an injury:
For Chris (Tierney) I think we were all, we were excited for him that he got named, it was well deserved and he was going to go help that team but unfortunately during the game against Chicago he picked up a knock to his ankle which is something he’s dealt with and then he also got whiplash so he looked like he’d been in a car accident for two days. The decision was to get our doctors to look at him and I don’t know if you guys were there, but he didn’t train until Thursday was his first day of training, he was a morning decision, I talked to him late last night and this morning to see how his neck was calming down, his ankle was great but his neck was really stiff, but I think you sensed how important this game was and he did a great job.”
On his team’s strategy for dealing with Toronto forward Sebastian Giovinco:
“That was our game plan defensively, was to deal with Giovinco and when you deal with him you have to deal with Altidore as well. We felt good about how we handled him, we limited him to I think 13 touches in the first half, for me 13 too many but at the same time he’s so good and you have to deal with him. He’s that good, I’ve watched a lot of film on that guy over the last 48 hours, I should say 72 hours and he’s a good player, as good as they get.”
New England Revolution defender Jose Goncalves
On how the defense handled forwards, Jose Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco:
“I think very well. We knew exactly what we had to do in our part of the field and we knew also what we had to do when we had the ball. I think everyone did their job very well and that’s how we made things easier, and it’s why we scored those two goals in the first half.”
On the red card challenge from Jozy Altidore:
“Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not sure what was going on in his mind. He wanted to kick me, I was on the ground. I went for the challenge and I dropped on the ground and he tried to kick me, so it was the correct call from the referee to give him a red card. It was just simple, nothing serious happened.”
On how important it was for the back four to be strong while up a man:
“It was very important. We had to keep playing fast and move the ball around and make sure that they cannot put pressure on us because they are one man down. We had to just relax and wait and see what happened. We wanted to score more goals and that’s why we scored the third goal. I think that we controlled [possession] in most parts of the game. Sometimes we had to chip balls in the middle and make sure we didn’t lose concentration.”
On if the team was disappointed when they allowed the late goal:
“Of course we were disappointed. It’s very important that we communicate and don’t leave any guy near the goal and I think that it was one mistake that we made in the game which cost us one goal and going forward we’ll make sure that it never happens again but of course when we are 3-0 up, it’s another game and the other team has nothing to lose. They are one man down but we need to make sure we keep our concentration for all 90 minutes.”
New England Revolution midfielder Diego Fagundez
On the team capitalizing on set pieces:
“I think everyone just did their best to try to get their body in front. We’ve been working on set pieces for a while so we knew that we could get one and the service was there and the finish was there so that was great to see.”
On his defensive work rate leading to more minutes:
“Yeah, I think these couple games, I think I’ve been trying to do the same thing. I feel after the games, I’m dead, where I knew that I put everything I had either going forward or going defense. I guess that’s what the team wants to see and if I keep performing that way, I can stay in the lineup.”
On the development of his two-way play:
“Yeah, I definitely think that my game is improving little by little. My confidence is definitely boosting up, but I just have to keep working. It’s just a little start right now. Just keep doing everything I can and make sure I help out the team. Either defensively or attacking, the team is going to need my help and I’m going to try and do everything I can to make sure that I help them.”
On playing across from Kelyn Rowe on the wing:
“I feel comfortable with all our [wingers], not just Kelyn (Rowe). There’s Teal (Bunbury). It’s just a matter of how you’re going to play with them. There is two different players. Kelyn is more maybe going towards the middle, where Teal likes to do the one on one down the line. You just have to get used to it and see what you can do. They have to try to make all the runs possible and I think we all adapt to the players that we have. We just have such good talent that no matter who’s out there, we’re going to have a great team.”
Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney
On how he felt the game went:
“I think we, by and large, obviously we didn’t defend set pieces very well. That was one of our issues. We came into the game knowing that they have a lot of different looks on set pieces and it was a clear message for our guys to be very alert. They’ll run this direction. They’ll run various different things where we have to be very alert and all three goals ultimately came off of set pieces and we need to be better in those scenarios cause they’re crafty that way and you have to alert because you can never prepare for all the different looks that a team can throw at you. You have to be – the guys have to be aware, they have to take responsibility and they have to be disciplined in their roles so in the course of things we gave away three goals there. But obviously going down a man relatively early doesn’t help the cause cause then you obviously – you’re then playing down a man but I thought the group in the second half did a valiant job of competing. They got a goal. If we were just looking at the half, it was 1-1. We did okay there. We used it in a way as an exercise to try to work on a few things. If they opened the door for us, we were looking to try to get a goal and try to get ourselves back in. I’m proud of the work the guys put in in the second half but all in all we just can’t make the mistakes that we’re making. Too many goals that we’re giving up and a lot of it is just individual concentration and dealing with situations.”
On if his decision to substitute Sebastian Giovinco at halftime was precautionary:
“Yeah it was. We knew the game was going to be a lot of defensive work and a lot of chasing. At that point, with two games at home this week, it just, it doesn’t make sense. I thought Robbie (Findley) did a good job in the second half of giving us what we needed and that was it. We want to go into the next two homes games as healthy and as fit as we can to try to get results.”
On players such as Jonathan Osorio and Marky Delgado stepping up:
“I thought there were some bright spots to take out of it. We got Ahmed (Kantari) 90 minutes. Now he gets a look at the league. I thought Jackson did a good job over at right back. That’s been a spot for us that we’ve had a bunch of different guys play and I thought he looked very, very good and very competent there. (Jonathon) Oso getting a goal. We’ve talked all year about (Jonathon) Oso getting himself in good spots and not quite being able to get it in the back of the net and he got that, which is a good confidence builder for him. As you said, Marky (Delgado) does another day of a lot of work and you know I think there were some takeaways from the day, but all in all, just too many mistakes and obviously too many goals again, and we just need to tighten that up.”
On what else he thinks needs to be done to improve the team’s performance:
“We have to make plays, guys have to make plays. They have to be alert, they have to be connected. We have to read plays and step into things when we need to step into things. Sometimes I think we get into early parts of the games and we almost play on the back foot like where we are not the aggressive team. We’re not going out and really letting things go and playing with this confidence where over 90 minutes we’re the best team. We should put ourselves out there and we end up playing where a little bit where we’re reactive on the back foot and the result of that is that you take a goal, right? And when you take a goal, then there’s always going to be a little bit of momentum for the opposition, and for us we’re finding ourselves in that situation too much. We need to come out of the locker room and go attack the game and look to go forward and look to push forward and look to be the guys who are dictating the game with and without the ball, and today I thought we weren’t trying to press them high early on, but I thought we were sinking too much in the middle of the field, and we weren’t getting any real pressure to the ball and then in the end you end up defending in your box a lot. And the other side – the flip side –I thought we did a very poor job of taking care of the ball when we were able to win it. There was space out there to play but the choices that we were making were just – we were hitting long balls into the box. We were hitting balls that were just low percentage. And if you’re going to give the ball to the other team that much then you’re going to defend for long stretches, and we have good soccer players on the team and we just need to take care of the ball a little bit more and not put ourselves under so much defensive pressure.”
On the mindset of the team heading into back-to-back games at BMO Field:
“We’ll drop this game. We’ve already talked as a group and this game is going to be behind us mentally, and physically we now get ourselves ready for Wednesday. You know we’ve been saying all along the home stretch is what’s key here. We, obviously, would like to come up with something different than this game but for now it’s for us to get healthy, and you know the guys who are back home – help those guys continue to get healthy. We should start seeing more faces over the course of this week and we want to be aggressive when we get home. This road loss was just a little bit too passive for me.”
Toronto FC midfielder Jonathan Osorio
On his first goal of the season:
“It’s been a long time and it’s been frustrating for me because I’ve really been wanting to help the team by scoring and I’m glad I got to do it today and get that out of the way, but trust me I would trade that in for three points tonight, any day.”
On if Altidore’s red card was the turning point in the game:
“I mean that was a big point in the game obviously, but I think on set pieces we kind of shut down and that kind of killed us. It was a big turning point, but you know at that point we still believed that we could come back from 1-0 and I think just letting the second goal before the half, that was really big for their team.”
On his side’s defensive deficiencies:
“There’s not much to it, we’ve got to be better. We have to, I guess we got to go to the training ground on tomorrow or Monday, whenever that is, and we’ve got to work on it, we’ve got to talk things out. We know we can fix it, we just sometimes, we kind of shut off and that’s unacceptable.”
On facing Orlando City SC and Cyle Larin in their upcoming match:
“He’s having a great year and I’m happy for him especially because we grew up in the same neighborhood and went to the same school so it’s nice to see him doing well like that, but I don’t wish him that success on Wednesday that’s for sure.”
