New England 2, Toronto 0
Q. Seemed like a frustrating evening against a good opponent; made you pay for mistakes. What was your take on it?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I'd agree with that, frustrating. Slow start. A mistake to get behind, and then in some moments, but then in too many cases, a team that was frustrated, trying to find a way to get back into the game. We made a change to bring Dean and leave C.J. on to see if we could spark something and then quickly gave up the second goal. Made a few chances after that.
But yes, frustrating. Yeah, you could see the frustration on the field that -- against a good team, that's hard.
Q. On the goal, was it a pocket pick or was there more involved?
BOB BRADLEY: I haven't looked at it again yet. Sigurd is a good man. He apologized inside the locker room and said, sorry guys. Everybody quickly said, listen, because everyone knows he gives a lot. I need to see it again just to see how he got in that spot. Did we leave him hanging, kind of thing.
But it's typically in that moment still a play where Sigurd then makes a smart decision of what he needs to do without risk, and so yeah, on that end, a mistake and we paid for it.
Q. This is the third time that your team has been held off the score sheet. The first two were draws. Is there a reason you can pinpoint not being able to get on the scoreboard? Because the chances were definitely there.
BOB BRADLEY: I mean, I say almost every week that -- so yes, we generated a lot of shots tonight. How many really good chances in certain moments, our ability to run harder in the box to maybe open up possibilities.
We get in spots where we have chances for crosses but we don't -- whether we choose to cut back or cross, we don't do well enough to make more out of those.
At times we won some balls in the first half in good positions but couldn't play quickly enough and bet -- and well enough, to really take that advantage from the turnover and turn it into something.
So I think my answer is, there's a lot of things that we've seen throughout the year that we're still not as strong -- as consistent and as strong in the attacking team as we need to be. Sometimes in a game like this, you generate some numbers but I still would say that overall, not really creating enough big chances.
Q. What did you make of C.J. and Theo on top?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, look, that is not our main way of playing but at that point in the game we thought, let's get those guys on the field. There were some combinations. I think Theo is showing signs of getting sharper, fitter. You can still see in certain moments how he's dynamic and strong, so I'm excited about that because I think in the long run that's important for us.
But again, I don't think that's going to be the standard way of playing, but down 1-0, we decided that was a way to try to push the game.
Q. What was the story with Matt Hedges, and is there any word on Shane O'Neill?
BOB BRADLEY: Matt felt something in the warmup, lower leg, making a pass. And Shane tightened up, lower leg, and felt like he needed to come off.
Q. New England is on top of the standings, so if this is a measuring stick, how would you feel?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, look, we didn't give ourselves a chance today. As I said, we didn't start well. And again, sometimes games start in different ways. It wasn't like they were creating big chances either.
But then we make the mistake and get behind. I mentioned that we had some advantages that we just don't do well enough with, and when all is said and done, as we try to push the game, we get down two, and overall, I think that -- look, last week, we had a really good team effort where from the beginning, we were on top of things and you felt like everybody was into it. And when it didn't start as well tonight, we didn't handle that well.
Q. As much as Oso made -- the coaching rival, someone that's inside of that, do you just try to get it over with and move on with the rest of the season?
BOB BRADLEY: No, I don't think about it. I think about New England, just like I would any other team. I understand, then -- Coach, and how he tries to get his team to play and then I do everything to help our team be prepared. There's no -- for me, and I'm sure for him, there's nothing more to it than that.
Q. Do you take any positives from tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: At the moment, no, I think because from the first question, frustrating, all of us feel frustrated, so no.
Q. Alonso and Kosi played full -- played two matches in a row. Moving forward, will they regularly compete for the starting spots?
BOB BRADLEY: My way of always talking about players is are they making progress, are they competing in a better way, and I think both are, right.
Obviously when everybody is healthy, then whole find out what -- at any given moment what our best team is. But having more players going in the right direction, benefitting from games, making progress, that's important.
Q. So looking ahead to Tuesday's Cup match, is that more of a time to experiment with the squad?
BOB BRADLEY: I mean, look, it's important. Canadian Championship, the history of the club, trying to get into the Champions League. We'll assess where we are physically tomorrow and probably in a case like this, we don't really even know for sure until maybe Monday what's going to be our best lineup and the way we'll go about it.
Q. We got our first look at Mabika; thought he handled Jozy pretty well.
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, he's doing all right. And so as a defender, he's got good instincts. I think he's calm on the ball. So in a short amount of time, I think he's made a good impression and glad to see him step on the field in that situation and do well.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports