Volesky

Cardinale Stadium; Seaside, California
Saturday, June 11, 2022

Sporting Director & Head Coach Frank Yallop
On preparation coming into the match:
“We know they are a very good side. I think that today’s performance, we did pretty well against them. We matched them and went toe-to-toe, but obviously didn’t come out with a win. We at least deserved a draw today.”

On being unlucky in the match:
“We’ve been unlucky all season to be honest. A lot of games we’ve played well enough to get a point and well enough to win, but it’s a new team and we’re growing. We’ve played a few games at home now where I think we’ve played well enough to earn more points, but I have to figure out the best system to play or combination of players. I’ll say that our players are giving everything they’ve got and this is a great example of 100% effort right to the end. We didn’t get the result, but the performance was decent with a couple of errors that cost us the game. In general, I was happy with our demeanor and our fight and our system of keeping going for 90 minutes. That’s a good sign.”

On the refereeing:
“Some games you have officiating go for you and some games it goes against you. I’m not saying it went against us today, but we could have maybe had a couple of calls go our way in the opposing box. That being said, I haven’t seen the film yet. Our team gave everything they had and we’re walking away from the stadium saying that it was a great game. We didn’t quite win, but the team looks good. Once we get through this year and I start adding some pieces that I think will propel us to play well, we will really be a dominant team in the league. I think we’ll be fine.”

Christian Volesky
On the match:
“Definitely unlucky. On a different day we would beat that team, and they are one of the best teams in the league. You can take some positivity from that. If we can play with these teams, we beat Louisville, we beat the switchbacks at their home, if we can carry that energy and knock some of these not as strong teams, we’ll be in the playoffs this year, and that’s our goal, at least my goal.”

On momentum swings in the match:
“There were a lot of ups and downs in this game, more so than normal. We’re at home, so to get a goal early, we should be better. Obviously, we had a couple of small mistakes that led to goals, but we should be able to see out the half and carry it into the second half. We came back, got a goal, maybe could have had two or three more and then unfortunately when we were pushing forward we gave up a late goal. That’s how the story goes, it’s a beautiful game sometimes and it’s a tough game sometimes.”

Goalkeeper Carlos Herrera 
On preparing to play San Antonio:
“We prepared like every other game, it’s not like we’re treating opponents differently. We prepared the same way we did for Louisville, Colorado, every single team. I think we were just unlucky to come off with no points after the end of the game. We played well, I thought we deserved more than just a loss. The game of soccer is about moments, there’s times where you have to brace and defend and then the other team does the same. You have the ball, they have the ball, it’s a game of moments. Can you take your moments, can you do well when you’re defending, it’s just a normal part of the game.”

On his reaction to the loss:
“At the end of the day, we can’t really blame anyone but ourselves, we had a couple of moments where we lacked concentration. We can sit here and blame the refs all we want, but at the end of the day we need to do better when we’re in front of the goal and we need to do better taking care of the ball. We can’t always just be blaming and finding scapegoats, we have to take some responsibility and I do for myself as well.”

Midfielder James Murphy
On defensive pressure and getting unlucky:
“I guess we probably feel a little bit unlucky. I think we all thought we started the game pretty well and got the goal that we deserved to go up 1-0, but we weren’t happy with how we finished the half or the last 20 minutes. Obviously, they got their two goals, so we weren’t happy with the way the half ended. We talked about it at half time, and I thought we were really happy with the way we came out in the second half. I think the goal was ours to win in the second half, we got our goal that we deserved to tie it up and then we kept pushing and in the end obviously we didn’t do enough to win because we don’t come out with anything and that’s really our objective. There were goals there to be scored, goal line scrambles and stuff like that, just didn’t get it over the line. In the end we’re disappointed because we wanted the 3 points out of this game or at a very minimum to get one point out of this game, but we came away with nothing.”

On remaining focused throughout momentum shifts:
“It’s tough. When we’re playing a team like San Antonio, who I think at this time are top of the West, they’re going to react to going a goal down. We got the goal we deserved, but obviously they were never just going to let us run away with the game. They came back into it like they do, they fought to end up going ahead, and then we didn’t really deal with that momentum shift too well. We went into the half down 2-1 when really we should have at least been level with them going into the half and that’s something we got to work on. We can’t let teams come from behind and push this momentum and take over games like that from us.”

On the officiating in the match:
“I’m not here to speak on referees. They come out here and do their jobs just like we come out and do our jobs. It’s not always going to go your way, and I have no complaints. The referee comes out here to do his job, we come out here to play the game and that’s the way it goes.”