Seattle 2, Toronto FC 0
Q. Can you take us through the game, please?
BOB BRADLEY: I think the team of late, I've said many times, has done a good job in terms of tempo, but tonight it went the other way. Started the game slow they were able to clog the middle of the field. Took us too long to get into any kind of real tempo.
From that, we do a poor job on the first goal and we have to try to push the game. But we started the second half better. But again off of a long ball where we don't win the duel, and then some -- not doing well enough in the middle of the defense, they played through us. Frustrating night. I'm disappointed because I think most nights we still of late feel like things have gotten better but tonight the first half was not the case.
Q. Most of the game we were able to get the ball but we lack the direct shots. At 61 minutes Bradley was able to do the first shot and 83 -- inaudible -- able to do the second shot. Are you going to try to change the mentality of the team to probably try to do more direct shots?
BOB BRADLEY: You still have to understand what's a good shot and what's not. There are times shooting from outside the box is a good idea, and there's other times where the right run, the right pass, we did very well getting into the right side of the box, but were not able to get a really good ball across to produce chances. Chances comes in different ways. One way is long shots -- but the bar tips completely.
Q. This is a new team coming together, and you don't have all the pieces. Do you see, is it one step forward and one step back? Are you seeing progress despite these evenings like this?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, look, there's been a bunch of games lately, we've talked after every game of things that were better for sure, creating more chances. We have had two games in a row where we had a real lot of the ball, and the other team defended very deep. And then our ability to make big chances against the low block is still certainly an area that has to get better.
Q. Did you see any frustration from your players tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Sure, we went down 1-0, and then you know, you have still some guys that if a play doesn't go their way show some frustration. So tonight there was a little bit of that.
Q. The double switch, was that tactical related?
BOB BRADLEY: Seattle played with three in the back tonight which becomes five, and I felt that we needed to try to switch to more like 4-2-3-1 and see if with Jayden and Deandre we could get more deep runs from outside and threaten them more that way. I didn't think we did a good enough job of that in the first half.
Q. I mentioned yesterday against Columbus, you had not seen enough from Ayo; he wasn't engaged enough. Was there an improvement on that front in this game?
BOB BRADLEY: It's still not. Look, in the first half, I don't think anyone plays well. So it would be unfair to make it seem like the subs are guys that are coming out because they are the problem. That's not correct.
I don't think in the first half we were -- we were quick enough, sharp enough, good enough, across the board. And again, the tactics, you know, we've done pretty well lately where, whatever you want to call it, it's a version of 4-4-2 but where Alé has all sorts of freedom, right; where Ayo stays up a little more; where Jesus us sees moments to come underneath. We've had an ability then to play through the middle, connect passes faster.
But I think there are other times where the threats from outside and trying to get Jayden to be more of a direct threat with our runs, in the second half, trying to get Deandre do that, I felt the way Seattle was playing that, was going to be a good way to change the game at halftime.
Q. As you mentioned before, the boys have played a lot of football since the trip to Red Bull. Was fatigue a considerable factor especially for the young guys?
BOB BRADLEY: You could see fatigue was a factor for a number of guys, yeah.
Q. Today was Alejandro's one hundredth game, and he's been in the middle of a lot of the chance creations the last couple of games and a lot of the good stuff. We talked earlier this year about finding the balance for him on the pitch. What have you seen from him?
BOB BRADLEY: We do everything to give him the chance to be the guy who is the chance creator. We change the way we play. We try to be fluid defensively. We allow him complete freedom.
So yeah, of course he's going to create some chances. I mean, he's still a player that when the ball is at his feet and he's got an opportunity to slip a past or clip a pass or sometimes make a little dribble, that still -- that's still what he brings to a team.
Yeah, it would be a long discussion about, about, when a player has that much freedom what it means in other moments and what it means when you lose balls, and that's not for tonight.
But yeah, of course, look, in terms of being someone who is creative when he was the ball at his feet and can make a play and we have, you know, at the beginning of the year, I talked a little bit about trying to see if Alé could -- a game or two as an eight and that wasn't comfortable for him. We tried a lot of different things. This latest version of something like 4-4-2, but where he has freedom and Ayo is up there and use gentlemen suss the way we have, I think that's served us well.
But tonight in the first half, I didn't think that we were finding good enough ways against their back five at times and so that's why we changed.
Q. With Carlos back in the 11, is there an assumption that everything is okay with his personal life?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, look, I'm not going to speak about the details. I mentioned that on the family side, he has had some concerns with family health, okay. That's all I want to say. And that has -- we've given him the chance to make sure that things are right at home, and that's hard. You know, it's hard when there's that going on, and Carlos is a family man. So we support him in those ways.
Q. Any chances to bring Priso earlier to start the game and bring Osorio the second half? We saw the team play better in the second half with Priso, and can you find any partner for Bradley?
BOB BRADLEY: I think Oso and Michael have a good understanding. Oso has worked his way back. It's the first time he played 90 minutes. Ralph has moved himself along. He's had some good games and he's had some bad ones, some tough moments. He's learning. We show him a lot of this inks and we try to help him along. We saw a way over the last part of the game to bring Ralph, get hill closer to Michael, move Oso up and let Alé play from the right. Again, it's a tactical adjustment late, and put Deandre on the left if we can find a way to open up their tight defense.
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