Orlando City 1, Toronto 0
Q. What are your thoughts on the result tonight and how your team played?
KEMAR LAWRENCE: I'm a guy that likes to be honest after the games, win or lose. I try to wait a little bit before I process everything through my mind, so it's always a little bit harder to speak to media directly after the games to tell you exactly what I want to tell you.
But we created chances. We didn't finish. That's a part of the game. I know that will come with the quality we have and the depth we have. But for me it's like we've got to be tighter in the back line in our field. That's one of the hardest things with any team and that doesn't come overnight. We have to be like really hard to play against, not give away any chances.
And if you think about it, they didn't really create much. It's just that one. You know, they got off and it's 1-0 and this is football. This is how it goes. You only need one at times, and you walk away with three points.
Q. How difficult did Orlando make it for you guys? Obviously you did have chances but I mean they are a pretty well defensively organized team. How difficult was it to break them down?
KEMAR LAWRENCE: To be honest it wasn't that difficult because, well, we did, we got isolation out wide and we keep beating our man and when we got out wide, it was just that final pass or somebody making that killer run inside just to get a little foot on one of those crosses that was coming in. Their keeper made a couple of saves.
You know, so if you get chances, you can't really say, you know, it was difficult to break them down if you understand what I mean. But they are a pretty solid team around there. I'll give them that.
So there was a few difficulties, but as soon as we kind of kept our cool a little bit more around the ball, we figured out what we need to do and then our selection of passes got better as the game progressed.
Q. It's early days, but how are you enjoying playing with Jefferson Soteldo?
KEMAR LAWRENCE: It's easy and clear. You can see both of us love football. We hate losing and we're passionate. So it makes him eager to learn about me and it makes me more eager to learn about him. That way we can just play seamlessly. And so far, I feel like we're doing that. I know where he wants the ball and I try to play him quick as possible but at the same time, I know sometime he's isolated with two or three guys. So then it gives me an option to pick a different pass, and when I pick a different pass, he comes off perfectly most times because he's occupied by three guys or two guys. He leaves other people Freon the field.
Q. How valuable and how important can nights be like this for a team that's still coming together and figuring themselves out in terms of the information you get and the repetitions?
KEMAR LAWRENCE: I said it in the locker room. We're a bunch of intelligent guys, smart, not only players, but smart people in that locker room. I just said to the guys, if we started off winning every game, winning every single game for the year, then when you lose one and close to the playoffs or stuff like that, it's more difficult to deal with. Whereas if you start off early, you learn from your mistakes right now. You build up the right way and you know what losing feels like and you know had a hurts. You don't want to go over it through it again and again. The players and coaches learn from it and we progress as a team, not as individuals.
So nights like are invaluable, especially me, it shows me what I need to do or who I need to backup a little bit more or touches I need to say. Like I said, as a footballer, I'm learning and I'm growing every day. There's a lot to learn and a lot we've got to do this week coming up because we know going into Columbus, you know it's not going to be any joke. They want their three points, especially since we just beat them a couple weeks ago. It's going to be a rough one.
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FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports