Q. John was complimentary-about your play tonight, a good start and poor middle. What do you see the problem is with the team and?
AIME MABIKA: John spoke about that in our team huddle and we spoke about that in some of the famous that have not gone our way. Maybe some games we have not started as well as we wanted to so today that was obviously a big focus and yeah, when you score within five minutes it's a good start.
In the course of 90 minutes, I know everyone talks about putting together a nine minute performance but to be dominant from minute 1 to 90, there's a stretch of ten, 15 minutes where we are getting it not quite right and what we have to do better in those moments where the team is starting to dominate the ball is get tighter and stick together and follow the game plan to where yes they might be dominating a little bit but in that 15, 20 minutes where they were all over us, they didn't have any big chances and we have to get better at that, to understand, that okay, maybe, we are suffering a little bit but let's suffer together and stay tight he team and get out of it. We don't have to concede when a team is dominant. You see in the second half we have so much of the ball but we have to start having that mentality where yes we might not dominate for 90 minutes but that 10, 15-minute stretch can we get out of it in a good way.
Q. Rare start for you. How do you think you did?
AIME MABIKA: Very grateful to the coaching staff for giving me that opportunity. I spoke with you guys last week and that was one of the questions in terms of maybe not as many minutes as seasons prior so for me it's been about just staying ready, continuing to stay in tune, tactically, all the stuff that John is implementing and keeping myself in good enough physical shape to where if I need to play 90 minutes like tonight, I'm ready. I think it was a positive performance. I think my last start was a month and a half at Nashville. Yeah, positive performance for myself; as a defender, it always hurt giving up two goals especially at home but really happy with myself, obviously continue to look at things that I can get better. Happy with my performance.
Q. Do you shake your head at some of the things that happen with the team? Seems like every week something new and bizarre.
AIME MABIKA: Yeah, a little unlucky but there comes a point in time where you can only be unlucky so many times and you have to create your own luck. Right now we are not getting any of those bounces or those freak goals or whatever it is so we have to look at ourselves and create our own luck or put ourselves in position where things like that don't happen. Yeah, this is obviously a critical part of the season, this little stretch into Leagues Cup. I spoke I think last week about trying to get out of this stretch in a good way so when we come out of Leagues Cup we set ourselves up in a good position for that last home stretch. So yeah, we can call it unlucky all we want but you know, this is professional football. You have to create your own luck. That's not really an excuse of unlucky whatever that may be.
Q. How concern are you about this losing stretch?
AIME MABIKA: You have to be concerned, right. You have to be concerned.
Q. At the same time we have to understand this is a process and the season is not done by all means, and yeah, it has to turn for us. It has to turn for us. What I'm proud of the team is, you know, we've been able to stay -- we've been able to stay together through it to where it's not turning into four different teams in one. You saw in that second half where we are pushing. Yeah, we couldn't create that little bit of quality in the final third to get a second and third goal but it has to turn for us, like I said. In this little stretch, ideally we want to put some wins together before Leagues Cup.
We spoke about it after the game, tough game, of course. I think every MLS game is tough, especially every MLS away game. To be specific, we have to do a lot of the things that we did today in terms of, yeah, that first ten minutes, and then that second half, we have to, like we spoke about before, we have to be prepared to -- yeah, there's going to be moments in that game where we suffer but can we do it together and come out in a good way, in a clean sheet way, and then just have that quality and understand that it's a critical part of the season and yeah, I mean, players I think at this point understand how important every game is.
So tough game, of course, but I think we're going to be ready.
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