Toronto FC 3, Portland 1
Q. What's the feeling of the team now, unbeaten in four games, 11 goals. Team seems to be headed in the right direction for sure?
CHRIS MAVINGA: Yeah, amazing, now we know we have nine games left before the playoffs, so now everything is totally different. We are really happy with the win tonight and now we focus on Wednesday. We need to get the points at home, anyway. So it's good to play at this level.
Q. What's been your impression of the Italians in the short period of time they have been here?
CHRIS MAVINGA: You can see that Lorenzo, he's a good guy. In the past, they were captain, too, so you can see the great spirit. It's good to play with them for sure, not only the quality, but the personality of the human being, you can see they are really there. And we need to make sure we play our best.
Q. How much of a lift was the home crowd?
CHRIS MAVINGA: The crowd, I always say, I've been here since 2017 and I really love to play in BMO. I look, even when we score, they are going to help us and push us to score the second and the third. We are really happy and thanks a lot for the fans, very happy and hopefully -- because we need them.
Q. It has not been like that for the last several years obviously with the pandemic and everything.
CHRIS MAVINGA: It's always been like this. You can't compare one year COVID to. It was a strange year. I always feel -- I don't know, I always feel in BMO, the atmosphere is very amazing, and I spoke with some players of the team, they said it's very difficult for them to play with the atmosphere. I know and they know, we have nine games left, I don't how many games at home but we are confident.
Q. While the team is scoring more goals, the defense, also, seems to be doing better. Are you feeling comfortable with the defense with Richie back, and how are you feeling about your game?
CHRIS MAVINGA: Of course, you can see the difference, it's better to play with two grateful back, to be better on the defense. We need to clean some little mistake. We are safe playing like this.
Q. What have you made of Luka?
CHRIS MAVINGA: Luka since he's playing, he's been amazing. He's a good teammate. It's easy to play with him, because he's French, and so we speak French on the field. And you can see he came from CPL -- very happy -- inaudible.
Q. Following up on that, how does it feel to be back playing alongside Richie?
CHRIS MAVINGA: Richie is very strong, you know when you pass the ball, it's not going to look like easy ball -- even Mimmo on the other side, and even when I feel -- this situation -- give him the ball, and good pass forward. He's easy to play with. You know, just make sure that you are very confident with the defense.
Q. Playing alongside Jonathan for quite some time, is he playing the best football you've seen?
CHRIS MAVINGA: I don't know if it's the best football he play but for sure now we need him to play like this, and play better for the team and be -- because I just ask him how many goals he score, eight goals, nine goals. Hopefully he can play like this. When Oso play like this, he's amazing.
Q. How confident are you that the team can go on a run and make the playoffs?
CHRIS MAVINGA: Yeah, I've been here a long time and I know this league a little bit and I know as well we've been good the last ten games, you can make the playoff and you come with confidence. So now you can see -- playing with us, we can't lose many games. We just keep going. We know we are professionals and we know be can be even better.
I'm really confident because I know we have the team to make it. We are a very good group and now you can see it. It's not easy but we have to stay professional and confident.
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