St. Louis 1, Toronto FC 0
Q. How would you sum up the game?
TERRY DUNFIELD: Lots of final quarter entries, just a little bit of patience and decision-making in and around goal might have helped. That was the feedback at halftime. And I say defensively, against St. Louis, you're never safe. You're never safe. It's like playing against the Red Bulls or Philadelphia, and I mean that with total respect. They can really hurt you.
I thought defensively, we were ready for it. Our center backs were class and there was cover at times. So it was good. And then we just come off-script a little bit around 55 and they score. I think after going 1-0 down, it's tough for our group right now. And it just kind of opens up a couple of scars and that little bit of belief goes away. I think, too, it's tough on the back of Orlando, and a heavy week with a pretty thin squad to go and chase a game.
But was proud that we created a couple half-chances after going 1-0 down, so yeah.
Q. It's four times in five games the team has not scored. I think I asked you earlier this week, is there a team that's going on? In terms of tonight, what was the difference in terms of not just getting those chances?
Yeah, I think you've got to get into those spots and get up the field and tonight we did that consistently. And there was -- it wasn't random what we were doing. So I thought that was good work. And then the kind of 3v2 situation that presented itself, we worked on that in training. Again, at halftime, we spoke about just getting our heads up and quickly, quickly deciding, what's the game giving you rather than maybe what you want to do and just picking the best pass or maybe taking someone on.
But it felt like a goal was coming tonight, and the other message I shared with the group after is what a privilege it is to play at BMO Field. To have almost 30,000 there tonight cheering us on, it was pretty incredible. We're lucky.
Q. There's millions and millions of dollars on the sidelines with suspension, injury. Is there anything more you can do, no disrespect to the players available on the team but is there anything that you can do to get this team --
I believe in the guys that we have on the field. I think it would be easy to go there for sure. But no, I'm proud of our work and all three games have played out like we thought they might, and I think in just some of those key moments, we've got to go and execute. Got to go and execute. That goal will be a tough one to watch back for sure.
Q. Seemed like he was --
I have curiosity. That's how I've always been. Brandon shared that he was in turmoil two years ago, and I said, what advice would you pass on? And he said you need good people. You need good people around you. You need good people in the squad. I thought that was invaluable.
Q. Is it useful for you guys --
I think each game is different. I thought Salt Lake could have gone either way. I thought we needed tactically to -- especially defensively, to don't be pulled all over the place against Orlando. That was going to be important.
Then today, as we just discussed, I think you're never safe. But we had three imperatives that we had to follow. And I felt like we executed both and controlled the chaos nicely.
Q. You started C.J., what did you see?
So part of how we work is we analyze all positions that have had success against our opponents, and I thought Nashville's 4-4-2 created problems; Colorado at times. And then I think we need to look at who is available and what are the best fits for what we have right now.
I thought we set up nicely to be a little bit more direct, a little bit more up back and through and a little bit more in depth, because you're now man on man, two center backs versus two center forwards. We challenged the guys to get it in behind and into the feet of our center forwards. We had our fullbacks a little bit lower. That was our platform. And to do it actually -- our average this season, getting it into our frontline is just five. So interested to see how the math played out. But I thought the guys did a good job of executing.
Q. Inaudible.
He was brilliant, wasn't he. He was almost like in a flow state. For someone making his debut for us, it was incredible. Made a big save just before halftime. I felt like his passing range and distribution helped us. It's something the group needed. So I think he can be really happy with his performance. Yeah, excited to see more from him.
Q. What did you think about Jakheele tonight?
Yeah, I think, again, having not reviewed the video, especially the first 60 minutes, it was Jakheele's best performance in a red shirt. He had our supporters off their seats. He had our team working hard to get him the ball in iso situations, and that's the Jahkeele I know. It was just fun to watch him operate and go to work on their right back.
Q. You said yesterday that you want this job. I don't suspect that this result has sort of changed that, but I wonder why you want it so bad just in light of, it seems to be a bit of a challenge, for anyone. Seems like a pretty daunting challenge?
I think we've been close over two of the three games. I think the first thing I'm going to say is the opportunity was unexpected. And I was pulling for Bob and executing his philosophy in the academy. Under difficult circumstances, the opportunity presented itself.
I think since being in the role, I know myself. I can do the job. I haven't felt like I'm drinking through a firehose and being water boarded. It's been comfortable. I shared a couple days ago with our academy director, Anthony Capotosto, just thank you for the last seven years. I feel prepared and ready and I keep saying that it's not just been Terry. It's been the technical staff around me. Dell and Jason have been amazing.
So the only thing that's difficult is we haven't been able to get a result but I'm very proud of our long division and what's going on behind the scenes.
Q. Is there any small part of you that says to yourself, even in the briefest of moments: What have I gotten myself into?
Not once. Not once. And no, never gone -- never gone towards, Wish he was fit, or, Oh, he shouldn't be here. Just fallen in love with coaching and helping the players that we have. And I'm really grateful for the four games I'm going to get.
Q. What was the reason for the substitution with Aime, if you can just walk us through?
Yeah, for sure. I felt like on the back of Orlando and the travel and the humidity there, we needed a little bit of freshness. We discussed changing shape a little bit but at times we felt like we were getting over run a little bit in midfield. But we trusted in our strategy and having two up top, so we felt like that was important, and then I was excited to see Adam Pearlman make his debut, and felt like him getting on the ball, he's shown in our academy with TFC II that he's definitely ready. That was part of it. Raoul has played a ton of football coming in, he was good off the bench against Orlando. Jesus gave us a spark. There was a bit of space between the lines but we thought Deandre could come in. Ayo (ph), he had everything but the goal. Part of us wanted to keep him on but we listened to our sports science team behind us.
Q. The team in the second half --
Brandon was a little bit tactical in that we felt Alonso would sit a little bit deeper and take care of their ten and we felt as the game kind of progressed, we'd have more of the ball, and having Alonso on the ball is a good thing.
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