Toronto FC 4, Nashville 3
Q. An entertaining game with lots of big performances against a national team that refused to go away. What did you think of the performance tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, really important win. Strong response. We were all unhappy at halftime that we didn't go into halftime with a lead but had a feeling that we could keep pushing the game. Some really good games, Oso, of course, fantastic and great to get Richie going on this whole thing. Fedi came in on halftime and was quick to say to everybody that he lost a couple balls but we keep going, Lorenzo's first goal. A lot of big positives.
Q. How big of relief do you think that goal was for Lorenzo? He's obviously working hard to try to get you guys a win; do you think that's a huge relief for him?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, he's a competitor. Obviously you know, we see him getting fitter every week doing more and more and now to be able to get his first goal, came at a good time.
Q. Richie only trained with the team yesterday from what I understand, and played 64 minutes, had a goal -- set up a goal, drew a penalty. Wanted to get your overall evaluation of his performance tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, he brings different qualities on the right side, his ability to get forward. He's a good dribbler, and the fact that he's played with these guys and so the things that we have tried to work on all year, all makes sense for him. It's not difficult for him to come right in and show that he's got qualities that really make a difference and help us.
His mentality to get here quickly and get on the field was really important. You can just tell how excited he was. I mentioned that the other day. Travel, a little bit of training and ready to go.
Q. Two balls from Oso tonight, the first one I thought he showed some excellent patience and the second, his desire to get on the end of things. What did you see on the two plays from him?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I think you got it right. The first one, he was smart in terms of just waiting and then using his skill to create an opening and then the second one is sort of a classic Oso goal where his ability to arrive at the right spot at the right time was a really good ball by Richie that makes a difference, and Oso was right there to put it in.
Q. You mentioned to us on Thursday how you wanted to see more from Jesús, that you had sort of had conversations with him about wanting to -- that he could give you guys more. Did you get more from Jesús tonight or is that still a work-in-progress?
BOB BRADLEY: Work-in-progress. You know, I think he still feels that in different moments, we've had to tweak the way we've played along the way and now we've got some new players and he's still trying to find his way in this whole thing, and really just try to keep pushing and encouraging because you know, I wanted to see him use his skill and qualities make himself more of a threat to get into the box to get himself some more chances.
Look, it's still a work-in-progress as you mentioned. Got to keep finding the right balance. There's movements where I think he gets a little frustrated or things don't happen a certain way on the field but the reminder is that we're a team that's still evolving and still growing. It's been a very unique year just in the way we've had to change along the way, try to have a foundation for how we want to play.
But change a little bit and then obviously in this last stretch, try to incorporate new players, and I think some of those things have just challenged Jesús in ways that he has been a little frustrated and we're trying to figure out the right way to help him through.
Q. Giving up three goals after back-to-back shutouts, is that a step in the wrong direction?
BOB BRADLEY: It's a penalty. You can gauge what you think. They are a very good team on set pieces. I think by and large we're a team that has improved in our defending of the set pieces. The first one it's a really tight call.
To be clear, there's a bunch of really tight calls in this game tonight. And so it's a tight one in terms of off side, and in the end, I haven't seen the replay but obviously walker got into a good spot. They are a team that has a number of threats, guys that get into good position and I think their deliveries are really good. I think in other moments we defended well as a team, so I still feel that that part is going in a good direction.
Q. What did you say to your team at halftime after they scored those two goals, both goals as you said were -- what was the feeling in the locker room and did you say anything in particular?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, we said that we have to be better with the ball; that they played a little bit differently than we thought. They played more of a diamond in the midfield and so it meant that Mukhtar could try to take Michael out of the game as much as he could, and then you have Dax with Sean Davis and Muyl. So there were moments where you have to be able to play inside but then they were trying to jump on it and create turnovers to go in transition.
So we are a team that we can do some really good things with the ball. We have an ability to build from the back, control games, find good ways around the box to create chances, but we didn't do a good enough job in a few moments in the first half. If the counter is not on, the ability to slow down and start to make passes and have more possession and more control, so we spoke about some of those things.
Q. Just wanted to get a bit more on the Insigne goal, it somebody had asked you six months ago when we knew he was coming to town what his first goal would look like, is that what you would have imagined?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I think so. We all see Lorenzo with his way of coming inside on the left and getting closer to the box and having an ability to finish in different ways from around the box. So yes, I think that's a classic Lorenzo goal.
Q. I believe in was the theirs road win of the season for you guys. I think you had four draws. Do you see that as a significant breakthrough for the group to get three points way perfect BMO, especially at Nashville, which is known as a very difficult hostile environment to play in.
BOB BRADLEY: Yes, definitely important. We talked out throughout the year about mentality when you go away, being able to play from the start of the game till the very end, concentration. We've had many moments where we thought that that part was going all right. Some of the draws were fair enough.
But in other moments, we had points that slipped away from us, and I think getting the first away win was something that everybody else good about.
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