Toronto - 1, Nashville - 1
Q. On a night where it seemed like there were plenty of positives against a good opposition but you walk away with one point again. Your thoughts about what happened?
BOB BRADLEY: A very good first half. Talked at halftime about trying to find ways to keep playing, keep pushing the game in small ways. Lost a little bit of that in the second half. Still didn't give up much. But Mark tilt's a little bit, just in terms of how many we're up in their end and doing what.
Yeah, we're in a rut, you know? We're in a rut where when you need a play, when you need maybe luck, something that just helps a group feel like -- field three points. So, yeah, I thought that was going to be the case tonight.
Q. Getting Oso back, his leadership, what did Jon give you tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, he's a smart player. So in the first half, especially at a certain point playing through those two, starting to find ways to control the game, we were able to move Raoul and Kobe up into the attack on the flanks. We had talked about we were effective in the first half when we played through the middle, also getting the ball to Lorenzo in good spots and obviously that led to some dangerous moments and a great goal.
But also intelligence, good understanding of the game, the right passes at the right time, all those things.
Q. Did you get a second -- get a chance to watch Nashville's goal? Did you see it or look at it in realtime?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah. I mean, look, it's a shot from distance where the ball moves a little bit and Sean says to the whole group inside that he feels like that's one -- he says that's -- his words are, That's on me. He's a player who is strong in those ways. So I didn't have a good look, but, yeah, just one of those plays.
Q. Did this break come at a good time? Maybe you'll get a healthy defense back at least by the time you come out?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, it probably helps for a little bit of a break. And then it's followed quickly by the Gold Cup and when the league has a busy schedule through international periods, it's a challenge.
Q. Were you able to make a deal with the U.S. team to keep Sean? Because I see Zimmerman on the other side is with the U.S. team.
BOB BRADLEY: No. I think almost all -- I think Walker's case somehow got looked at a little bit different. He was coming off of an injury and I think based upon everything in Nashville and his injury -- I can't speak to the exact parts because obviously I wasn't in on that conversation.
But that was the exception. I think if you look around the league it was always set up that national team players for the Nations League were going in after the games today. So, again, that seemed to be a special case and I don't know exactly why that was handled that way, but the rest were across the board going in after the game.
Q. You opted for four substitutions tonight. What was your thought process behind some of the changes you made in the second half?
BOB BRADLEY: Let's think. The first one was Jack for Deandre. Deandre was getting tired, felt a little bit of tightness in his hamstring. Jack came on. Initially played in the same position as Deandre on the right. We were aware that Nashville might change the way they were playing, so we had talked about the possibility, if necessary, to go to three in the back.
Give me the order. What was next?
Q. I think you brought in Brandon next.
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah. I think Mark was tired, so we needed the fresh legs in the midfield. So that was two slots. And then at the very end, obviously, Oso's running out of gas and that's Kosi. And I'm missing one. What's the other one?
Q. It was just three subs tonight.
BOB BRADLEY: Three subs. We used our three slots. We went to three in the back when Brandon came on. So Raoul came inside a little bit. Jack switched over and went to left wingback. That allowed, then, we had Raoul and Aimé and Richie, and that especially on the right side of the field allowed us when they brought on Washington. He's very much just a runner and they were going to leave him out wide and just try to have him run. That gave us the opportunity for Kosi to get up on him -- I mean Kobe, to get up faster and close him down on the flank.
Jack did a solid enough job on the left, so you hope that when teams do that, that you're compact in the center with the 3. Your wingbacks can get up higher in that period of time. We were trying to get Lorenzo and Fede inside a little bit more so that now we had the possibilities of wide attacks from Jack and Raoul and Kobe and Lorenzo and Fede a little bit more inside to be closer to CJ.
Q. You brought Raoul and Kobe in a second ago. What did you like from them tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, look, we -- it's the same back four that we played against Red Bull. We knew going into the game that with Bunbury and then we didn't know if it would be Jacob or Fafà, but they have speed. And Richie's handled it really well. Another really good job by Richie. So Richie and Aimé took care of the central things.
And then Nashville has played more of a diamond lately, and so when a team plays a diamond, your outside backs become very important. We felt that we could get Kobe forward, get Raoul forward, get them the ball in good spots. Raoul's got a good understanding with Lorenzo. So when Lorenzo is wide, Raoul moves forward but not on the touch line, in the half space, so that the ball can get to him faster and then he can play with Lorenzo. So I thought that that part was good.
And then, look, Kobe continues to be a guy that in terms of just duels from beginning to end, closing things down, coming away with plays, he's doing really well.
Okay. Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports