Toronto FC Media Conference

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Alejandro Pozuelo

Media Conference


Toronto 1, Orlando City 1

Q. What did it mean to be playing before the fans at home tonight and what was it like having Jozy Altidore back on the field?

ALEJANDRO POZUELO: Yeah, very happy to be here again. We know before the game this week, we trained some days here in the stadium, and before the game, we said we want to come here and to play again with the fans, with the people. We need the people. We need the fans. We need their support. So we are very happy to be here again.

And with Jozy, the same. We know the important player that is Jozy for us. He adds a lot to the team. You see when he comes to the pitch, he gives to the team something extra, some pressure. The difference for the other team, they respect a lot, him. So he helped a lot to this team. So we need him. We know he wants to play here. He loves the team. He loves Toronto. I have a good relationship with him, and that's it. We are here together now. We can play together. So we can enjoy it.

Q. You and Yeferson created a number of exciting scoring chances tonight. How excited are to you think about what the future holds?

ALEJANDRO POZUELO: Yeah, you see today, he has this quality one-on-one the same. He has something special, also. We have a good relationship, he's Latin, he speaks Spanish. We have all day training on the pitch, inside, so we have a good relation and you see in the game we have a good connection. He's the second game together, and with Jozy, also, so we have a good quality and we have good players, and now it's time to hook forward. I think you saw today only one thing on the pitch. We played very good and we had good chances and that's it. We need to look forward and Yeferson for he is, he's very important because he gives us something different in attack, good in one-on-one, good in creating space, for me, for everybody when he's coming. We need to look forward to Wednesday and we need to get the three points.

Q. Just wondering with regards to the penalty decision, how close were you when it occurred and did you think it was a penalty?

ALEJANDRO POZUELO: I don't think -- I don't see really the penalty. He told me he touched the ball with the hands, so maybe the ref, he can see the hand before and he can say -- but we know the referee, they don't help us too much because we are from other country, we are from Canada, and you know, this is difficult to play. But if you see the game, every -- for other team, and sometimes it's difficult.

But we don't care. We need to play. We need to go forward and that's it. We know the situation like this, but we need to go and that's it.

Q. How much are we just sort of scratching the surface of what this team is capable of? Yourself on the pitch, Soteldo, Altidore, how much is this still a new team in a lot of ways?

ALEJANDRO POZUELO: Yeah, like I said before, you saw today, we played good football. We played very good game. I think we dominate like 90 minutes. They don't have too many chances, maybe one chance in the first half, and then the penalty in the second half, I think we have a lot of good chances.

Like I said, Yeferson did some special moments, one-on-one he create space. I can play with him. He can play with me. He can play with Jozy in the first half.

Yeah, we need to go forward on Wednesday. We have good feeling. Now the atmosphere is different. We know we have good team. We know we have good team and we play again New England last week and we win, and again, the first team in the League. Now Orlando is the second team and we play one-on-one, I think we play very good game today. So we have good feeling.

So now it's a moment for recovery to go forward on Wednesday and take the three points.

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