Heart Health Park; Sacramento, California
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Sporting Director & Head Coach Frank Yallop
On the match:
“I think it was a tough one because we hung in there for 70 odd minutes. We had a great chance to score right before their first penalty kick, so we miss a great chance, then they go down and get a penalty and we’re chasing the game from there. Our guys stuck with it though, Chase [Boone] scored late and Chris [Cortez] had a good free kick that nearly went in. It wasn’t easy for them, we gave them a good game. We just have to play better, be better in certain moments. Morey [Doner] made a mistake for the first goal and he owned up to it and that’s good, but we’ve just got to cut that sort of stuff out because it’s cost us.”
On his takeaways from the match:
“I thought we played quite well at times. I thought we created some good chances. Sacramento won their last home game, but I thought we deserved at least a draw tonight to be honest. I don’t think they were a lot better than us. I felt that if we had just been better with our passing, we could’ve broken them down a little bit more. The result stands and it’s disappointing, but we move on.”
Midfielder James Murphy
On the result:
“It’s a tough one to take at the end of the day. I thought we played pretty well for most of the game. We worked really hard for 90 minutes. In a game where two penalties go against you, it’s a tough one to take for sure. I think we deserved more out of the game for our performance and for how hard we worked. This isn’t an easy place to come and play. We could’ve taken a couple more chances ourselves, but again it’s tough to take when there’s two penalties called against you in the last 10 minutes or so. But now we pick ourselves up and we go again next weekend.”
On the positives in the match:
“I think some of our overall play was really good, some of our interplay. We created some good chances, we got into some really good areas. It’s a tough place to come and play, so to come here and really test a good team for 90 straight minutes is a positive. But at the end of the day we are here to take results, not just good performances, so this is going to be a tough one to take.”
Goalkeeper Dallas Jaye
On the loss:
“It’s a tough one, it’s going to be a frustrating one when we watch it back because I think we had a lot of good moments. We had some opportunities where we could have scored when it was nil-nil and probably changed the game a little bit. Then we got caught in a few moments of whether it’s a foul or not, and that’s up to the referee, he makes his decisions. But one thing I do enjoy about this group is that even when we go down 2-0 on pens, it’s frustrating, but we don’t give up. We fight, and we’ve proved that in every game. This is a group that may not have gotten points today, but we’re building towards something more.”
On the busy week ahead:
“We’re turning negatives into positives right now as a group. We have unfortunate injuries with Rafi [Díaz] and a couple other guys that went down tonight. We’ll see what the prognosis is on those injuries, but you get guys like Jiro [Barriga Toyama] and Simon [Dawkins] and Robbie [Crawford] making his debut, myself making a debut, so there’s guys starting to get minutes and everyone is going to be needed this week going into the Open Cup and into the game in El Paso on the weekend because we have a smaller roster. It’s a full group effort right now and getting those guys minutes and action is always important early in the season. When we’re looking back at all of this down the road, we’re going to be happy that so many guys got opportunities early on to get their feet wet, be a part of the group and help us build.”
