Inter Miami 3, Toronto FC 1
Q. Omar, your coach said tonight that he put a lot of the blame of the performance off the team on himself tonight but he also said that some of the players just weren't ready to play. Do you agree with that assessment or can you give us your thoughts on what went down tonight?
OMAR GONZALEZ: Yeah, times like these, the coach tries to take the blame for everything, and you know, try and protect the players, but if we are honest, if we are looking at ourselves in the mirror, how many of us can state that we were ready to play tonight.
Some of us felt like we were but then as the game went on the first ten minutes, we weren't sharp enough. We gave up a turnover which led to the first ball which we know has been killing us throughout the season. So we knew we couldn't allow that and still we allowed it to happen.
And the second goal, just leave ourselves exposed and leave myself in a tough situation. We're enough guys, honestly ready to go, I don't think so, or else we would have had a different first 15 minutes of the game.
And so it's hard to swallow. I mean, the guys who are in it are hurting. We are trying to get ourselves out of this situation. We are trying to dig ourselves out. But somehow we keep on digging ourselves even deeper by making these mistakes, and so it was a tough one tonight.
Q. I think it's 12 games now where you've conceded the first goal and you haven't won any of those games. Can you speak to where this team has such trouble coming from behind?
OMAR GONZALEZ: Can I speak to why we struggle to rescue points? Well, listen, in the beginning of the season and even still now, we're not doing a good enough job on the defensive end, just being smart of when to just get rid of the ball and play it up the field and put pressure on the other team.
Like tonight, we're away from home and the beginning of the game, is it the right tactic to try and play out of everything or should we go long and put the pressure on them? Are we being too naïve? These are all good questions.
On the other side of it, our attacking side, are we getting enough shots on goal; are we getting enough clear opportunities, or are we just hitting into the attacking third and just passing the ball around, and it never amounting to anything?
And so you know, there's a lot of stuff going on that you could point to. Tonight we tried to still fight and find a way to get ourselves back in the game. We had a couple chances and we're just not clinical enough. And so that's -- those are the reasons.
Q. You mentioned in the response to the first question that the players were not ready to play tonight. Looking at the standings and how dire things are in the standings, how is that possible? Why are the players not ready to play?
OMAR GONZALEZ: That's how it turned out. It turned out that the players weren't ready to play. But before the game started, of course everyone is ready to play. Everyone is warming up and everyone's trying to get themselves going. And Javi picked a squad and everyone was confident going into the game. But once the game started, you know, you could tell quickly who was ready and who wasn't, and so you know, maybe I -- maybe I didn't word it correctly. But the group that Javi picked stepped on the field looking to get a result, and it just didn't happen. Given our -- given where we are in the standings, of course we are giving it our all. No one quit tonight. You know, I personally was dying out there. But I kept going. Other guys kept going and we're not giving up. We still are trying to find our way out of this. It's difficult, yes, but we are not going to quit. We are not going to give up on this club, the players on this team. We're the only ones that can get ourselves out of this.
And so as we look to this game against Montréal, we have to get a good week of training in and we have to focus and we have to be all-in on the same mission, and that's getting a result against Montréal.
Q. Are you surprised that the attacking side of the team's game is not clicking more, given some of the dynamite, dynamic players you have on this team?
OMAR GONZALEZ: Of course. Of course I'm surprised that we don't get more opportunities on goal and more goals in general, given the quality that we have on our side.
And so, yeah, absolutely. We definitely have the quality to do to teams what they are doing to us, and constantly putting pressure on getting goals and winning by -- by multiple goals. Yeah, it's frustrating.
Q. How tough is it for a young player to step into a team that's going through a struggling time like this? How difficult is it to come on the field?
OMAR GONZALEZ: You could look at it one of two ways. A young player comes in and no matter the circumstances, we are already in a bad way, but you can come on and feel free to impose himself and show what he has without -- by being brave and just going out there and playing.
And so you know, we are not in this position because of him. So young players can come on the field and be free and play, and so there shouldn't be much pressure on the young guys coming in and trying to give us a jolt of energy and show what they have.
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