Overall impression on the performance:
“I think the game opened up in the second half and we took advantage of playing a little better, playing a little smarter, controlling the game more in that second half. Things are going to happen when a game like that starts to spread out. We knew the space was going to be there to attack and the guys did a great job in the second half.”
On his message to the team at the half:
“I wasn’t that happy with the [first half] performance as a whole. I thought our press was not as collective as I wanted it to be and I thought we were poor in transition in some moments with giving them some opportunities. We scored two great goals [in the first half]. Cam scores a wonderful free kick and that takes a lot of pressure off and the second goal was beautiful as well. But the message was that we needed to play better and that, if we did, the game was going to really open up and we could find some opportunities.”
On Jose Carranza’s debut and overall outing:
“I’m really happy for Jose. I thought he came in and contributed. He had a little bit of a tough first half in some moments but what we asked him to do tonight was to make sure he was working on both sides of the ball, trying to find it in good spots, trying to keep it moving, and he contributed and that’s good.”
On Richard Ballard’s return to the field:
“I love that Rich got back out there. You’ve got Rich out there, you’ve got Illy [Ilic] out there… It was so nice to have some attacking subs tonight and get these guys some minutes that are really important so that, moving forward, they are ready when we really need them.”
On the impact subs of Luke Spencer and Ilija Ilic:
“It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful. These guys are great in that, if we can interchange and have guys put in a good shift here against a certain opponent, we’re going to be fine.”
On the team’s ninth clean sheet and the performance of Greg Ranjitsingh and the defense:
“It’s wonderful for Greg but the whole defense played really well. They limited Richmond and Greg made a couple of key stops there, so that was good. I’m going to help Greg buy bagels this week because every time we get a shutout the poor guy has to buy bagels for everybody. I’m going to help him this time.”
On the turnaround to Tuesday against Toronto FC II:
“We can’t let our guard down. We have to continue to improve with every game. I’ve said it before; the mentality of this group is fantastic and our objective tonight was to come out and improve on the previous performance we put in against Charlotte and I think we accomplished that.”
