New England 2, Toronto FC 1
Q. We saw you having words with the referee after the game. Was that about the disallowed Insigne goal?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, by the way the game is supposed to be handled it it's too tight for the AR to put his flag up. So he's got to leave his flag down, and they will look at it and go from there. I don't think there's a good enough angle but it's so close, I don't know how he can put his flag up. I think that that's been mishandled and then from, there the angles are not good enough to overturn.
Q. Did that get an explanation?
BOB BRADLEY: Not really. They say, okay. They basically say, yeah. So it's -- there's no explanation as to whether or not in the moment that the AR even feels that he was a little bit too quick to put his flag up. They are not going to tell you that. So you're just trying to make the point that it's too close for him to put his flag up.
Q. That aside, wanted to get your general views of the game, what did you make of your team's performance overall on the night?
BOB BRADLEY: It's never easy to play here. It's especially difficult when we have an away midweek game and they don't play. From a scheduling standpoint, that's just not right. I thought that there's moments in the game where, look, I can always find little plays in terms of being sharper, touches. Still, throughout the game, we are not clean and sharp and pre nice enough in enough moments.
But I also thought that it was a game where we put a lot into it and when we were down, I thought we pushed the game quite hard over the second half of the second half, and really pushed to get an equalizer.
Petrovic makes a couple of good saves. He's obviously a top goalkeeper, but I thought that on that end, the push in the game was positive.
Q. A follow if I may, the triple change at the start of the second half, wonder what was the rationale behind that, especially taking Federico off after 45 minutes?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, Fede was struggling with his back today. So he gave us everything he could in the first half. Matt's hamstring tightened up, so he had to come off and Guti's calf was tight.
When you consider, especially, in Fede's case the short turnaround in the game, it was just a night where if you had pushed him, he probably could have tried to give another five or ten minutes, but he was struggling at halftime, and we all agreed that it was a night where we just needed to move on in that way.
Q. What happened on the second New England goal? Looked like the three-man back line got a little mixed up.
BOB BRADLEY: I haven't seen it yet but the whole idea of seeing the run and dropping together and when the ball came loose in the box, our ability to deal with that part of it when it's a loose ball, can we get to it, can we clear it, we made a mess of it.
So I actually thought that as much as we played pretty well, I didn't think either goal that we gave up were good goals. In the first one, Guti has to close down Bobby Wood faster. He backed off, had his arm up in the air at one moment, and so our ability to defend some of those moments, there weren't that many, but when we needed to defend tighter in the box and make some plays on both goals, I didn't think we did a good job.
Q. Your team had, I believe it was ten shots on target tonight and you create a lot of chances. What did you make of your team's overall chance production tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I think it fits with the fact that we put a lot into it, and we pushed. We played forward a little bit faster at times. We had more runners in the box. We talked a lot about we've got to -- in certain moments, we've got to play faster. We've got to be more aggressive, and I think we saw some of that tonight.
Q. I know you mentioned that Gutiérrez had to come out at halftime because of ailments, but aside from that, first start from him after he made his debut in Cincinnati, can you evaluate his 45 minutes tonight?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, played great ball for the first goal. Guti's capable of adding something in those moments. At times, he sees good passes and can deliver a good pass.
I think the thing we talk about with him over and over is just some little details in terms of his habits, his reactions, his closing down, his footwork. That part has to be -- he's got to focus more on that every day. He still has bad habits.
But I think it's getting better. I think he's worked hard. He had such a difficult start when he arrived with not feeling well and tests and everything else. Now he's gotten physically stronger and he's worked hard, so I still see things trending positively.
Q. Deandre took his goal pretty well. You touched on the Gutiérrez cross, but what did you make of creating that goal in particular, and maybe was it another night where you guys really needed to get that second one before New England pulled one back?
BOB BRADLEY: Yes, it was a good goal. Again, Deandre shows that he can do good things. The challenge that he has is to physically get stronger so he can push himself for a whole game.
I thought he put a lot into it tonight but at that point, whatever it was, 55 minutes or something, physically, his tank is empty and that's where he's got to continue to develop and grow as a player. His mentality and his ability to be like that from the beginning of the game to the end of the game.
We did have chances to get a second goal and it would have been important on a night like that. As I mentioned, I didn't think we did well in the goal that we allowed.
Now we get into the second half and again, I think we let ourselves down with the goal and then pushed very hard but couldn't find a way to get the equalizer.
Q. You used all five of your substitutions tonight, in a stretch of the season where games are starting to pile up, do you find that rotation has become more of a priority for you and your squad?
BOB BRADLEY: Sure. It also depends on how guys train during the week and whether guys are sharp and whether guys earn the chance to get on the field.
So that part is something that gets emphasized every single day. And so we need more guys pushing and competing, and then you have more options. Obviously we went through a stretch, we've gone through a stretch, where we've also been missing a lot of guys.
So those are all factors. But with a short turnaround and some guys feeling some things at halftime, tonight was a night whereas John mentioned, triple-sub at halftime and then we used our other two because we had to try to push the game in the best way that we could.
Q. I know he didn't score tonight but Lorenzo did have a hand in the opening goal. Overall, I thought on both ends of the field he had a strong night. I wanted to get your opinion. What did you see from him tonight against New England?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, I would agree with all that. I thought Lorenzo put a lot into it. We found him in good spots. Defensively I thought he did a lot to help us, and I thought he gave a really strong effort tonight.
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