Orlando City 4, Toronto FC 0
Q. Humbling defeat, there's not a good way to be eliminated from the playoffs but three games in a row in which you guys have conceded four goals. Have you seen sort of a theme among the three games? How do you account for the flood of goals lately?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yeah, been disappointing, really disappointing. Obviously it's been a hard year. Obviously a lot of different things to deal with in so many ways. For large parts of the year, even when things weren't perfect and even when things were stacked against us a little bit, we found good ways to keep going and even on some hard days we were able to really stick together and even when things -- even when the football wasn't perfect, still find ways to stay in it, take some points and still feel like we were moving ourselves forward in a good direction, even if, again, we weren't always rewarding ourselves in every way that we should have.
And obviously, you know, in this last stretch now, as we have had to deal with some different things, the pure mentality of the group on the field was to still keep going and to still -- you know, even as you get towards the end you know it's not going to be easy to just -- you know it's not going to be easy to get into the playoffs still and to do the things that we would like to.
Yeah, the frustration of certain things, the disappointment of certain moments, we've let that get the better of us, and obviously, look, football can be strange in moments. As you said, three games in a row that we have given away, we have given away too many goals. Not that -- is the perfect step by any means and certainly not when you're looking at it from the standpoint of one game, but you know, one of the statistics that I saw tonight gave us an xG against .95, so to give away four goals on an xG of .95 -- yeah, frustrating.
But we have to now find the right ways to keep ourselves going over these last two games. You know, still push forward. Still find ways to improve and know that the work being done this year is still going to serve us well as we get into next year.
Q. I know you guys always take a hard, honest look at yourselves over the off-season. What questions are being asked and what answers do you need to find?
MICHAEL BRADLEY:
A. Well, we are not to the off-season yet. We have two more games to play. After that, then yeah, there will be plenty of time to do everything, look at ourselves in every possible way but we are not to that point yet. So as long as there's still two games to play, we are going to train and prepare and look at ourselves like we have after every one of the last 32 games. Get ourselves ready to play two more games. Still, again, feel like the work that's being done right now, yeah, while it's not going to pay off in terms of the success that we would like this season, we still absolutely believe that the work to become a really good team is ongoing every single day and we are going to use every moment we have to try to keep pushing ourselves forward.
When you get to the off-season, then, yeah, you use that time to -- use that time to find different ways to make sure that we move ourselves forward and we're ready in a bigger way for next year.
Q. Do you feel like you got the same thing from all your teammates in the last three games?
MICHAEL BRADLEY: It's been a season where we've had a lot. You know, it's been -- I've been a professional for a long time and you know, when you start a season with one team and then halfway through the season, you -- you make some big changes, a few big players leave, a few big players come, you know, the dynamic obviously changes immediately. You know, in this last stretch now, you know, as we have had to -- as we have kept going to push ourselves and still do everything we can to give ourselves a real chance, yeah, there's been different things on different days that have made it all even more difficult. The strength of the group to still even when things have not been easy this year, keep going and keep trying to give everything we can to push ourselves and keep trying to push each other, yeah, look, that part has been -- that part has been good. You know, if anything, the frustration and the emotion of certain things in this last stretch, yeah, if you were being picky in a few moments, maybe we let that get the best of us. But you know, the last thing I'm going to do is on a night like this sit here and point fingers or say to anybody that they have not given everything they have. No chance. It's been -- it's been a long year. It's been a crazy year and we have tried to keep at it in the best possible way. Everybody stuck together. We have made mistakes. It's not been to the level that we want yet consistently enough. But we'll get it there.
Q. Last weekend after the Atlanta game, Westberg compared the atmosphere in the dressing room to a cemetery. Is it fair to say that tonight was similar if not more abysmal.
MICHAEL BRADLEY: Yeah, nobody's happy with where we are.
I'm not sure whales to give you there. It's a proud group. It's a group full of competitors and so yeah, nobody's happy with where we are, not even close.
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