Minnesota 1, Toronto FC 1
Q. A painful end to what looked to be a good road win. You looked like you were going to get rewarded for that performance only to have it turn at the end. What's your feeling right now?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, when you work that hard, you want the group to take three points, especially when you consider the tough stretch we have been through. So on that end, there's real disappointment there tonight, obviously late. It's just a matter of dealing with some plays. They are sending numbers forward, and then our ability to either stop a cross, defend a little bit better when the first ball got cleared, that kind of thing, and it allowed them to sort of keep the pressure on, and yeah, tough one.
Q. Just wanted to get your sort of thinking on the halftime changes you made, both in terms of formation and the substitutions, what was the rationale behind those?
BOB BRADLEY: Kosi and Jahk have put in a lot of minutes lately, and I thought that we needed to also get Brandon in so that he could work a little bit deeper with Mark. Fragapane was moving side-to-side and I felt that that would help us, also, in terms of playing Fragapane was following Mark a little bit and I thought we would have greater success having two there. And I thought that it would be positive to get Fede underneath C.J. a little bit more. He's also played a lot of minutes.
And so now, he's not out on the right where he's so far away from goal, he's a little closer to C.J. and tried to get him into some positions where he could either get a real chance to score or make the right pass and I was hoping Deandre could give us a little bit of speed and threat on the right side.
Q. Seems like after every match the past couple weeks, we've been asking about -- another big block tonight, your thoughts on how he's continuing to improve?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, Aime has shown that he's a real competitor. I tell you all the I'm, he's smart. He picks things up very quickly. He's getting more confident with the ball. We work a lot just to help him with some of his ideas with the ball.
But his presence on the field and commitment and just the way he's been able to make defenses, plays, over and over, whether it's tracking a guy or whether it's covering behind him or whether it's winning some box -- balls in the air, all of these things, he's done really well.
Q. Just wanted to know if there was any sort of update on Matt Hedges and his condition?
BOB BRADLEY: No. No real update. He had a bit of a lower leg issue, and then obviously at a certain point in the game, depending upon how the game is going, then it might start to limit him and so that's why I he felt he needed to come off.
Q. Following up on that, you had to re-jig the defense when Hedges came out, Sigurd had not played in a while, and Minnesota had Reynoso on and started moving balls in and your team was giving up free kicks and things like that. Did that contribute to the whole situation at the end with them getting some dangerous chances from set pieces?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I mean, we made a couple of fouls in bad positions. At times, we needed to -- when we got the ball, find a way to play up the field and move out so they kept us deep, and then the set pieces sort of add up and that leads to a lot of the pressure we dealt with.
Q. When you brought Deandre on in the second half, Federico was pushed into the midfield. What did you see and what did you like of his play today? Obviously his movement forward ended up helping score the leading goal.
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I spoke to it a little bit a few minutes ago. It got him more in the center of the field. It got him into positions underneath C.J. where his passing could get us forward into the box, and you know, he also, having played a lot of minutes, I thought that physically, it was going to be a little bit better for him in that Deandre coming in fresh on the right side could use his speed and be a threat there so that we could attack in a slightly different way and get a little bit more coming underneath C.J.
Q. There's been a bit -- little bit of scuttlebutt that Fede and Lorenzo are not working well together. Were you trying to get them closer to the middle -- we saw Fede get on the side and create a tandem with Lorenzo in the first half as well?
BOB BRADLEY: We always work to get those guys in positions where they can play off of each other. Even when they both play wide, we encourage them to come inside to be narrow. We do different things so that they are not only playing on opposite side of the field. We do that all the time, and yes, on a night like tonight, as I said, I think it just gets Fede into some spots, more central with the possibility that it's going to get him some shots, it's going to give us the possibility that he can play the right ball forward and it's also going to give us a little something different with Deandre coming on fresh.
Q. It's more points dropped, essentially, for this team. I'm wondering for you, how challenging is it to have to go into that dressing room and kind of share the same message over and over after another night like this?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, you look at each game, and you take away details. I still wanted them to know tonight that I thought a lot of guys competed and physically put a lot into it, especially with the quick turnaround, and that there are things there and that if we can continue to build on, are positive moving forward.
Q. On the Fede question, moving him to the center, do you envision that being a permanent change or do you prefer him and Lorenzo being on the opposite wings?
BOB BRADLEY: I think we would like to have some tactical flexibility. We have not had -- sometimes when you do have injuries, your ability to do different things is a little bit more limited but I think these are ideas that we've done in small -- like in different situations in the past, maybe not for a whole game. Maybe we didn't start a half that way but we have worked on some of these different things, and I think it's important that we continue to have some different ideas. We certainly know that our ability to create more chances is important, and you look for all the ways that we can improve in that regard.
Q. If I'm not mistaken, it was Kobe's 8th or 9th start tonight in the last ten games or so. I might be off by one or two there. But for such a young player, too, and it's quite impressive, how has he been able to sort of win -- I don't want to say win you over but how has he been able to gain sort of that regular playing time while at the same time keeping someone like Raoul out of the starting 11?
BOB BRADLEY: He's continued to work hard. He's improved. He's picked up ideas and then when you see him in all these games, he makes smart plays, and it gives him confidence, it gives his teammates confidence so he continues to move himself forward, it's great to see.
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